Domain & Subdomains

[MSat7]

Hey y’all,

tl;dr at the end

I couldn’t find a similar question in the forums so I’m creating a new topic. If this question’s already been answered, apologies!

I am planning to start a forum using discourse but I am a newb when it comes to server-side stuff and have never set-up a website on a server before.

I’d like to know where I should put the files for my main site (www.example.com) once I have discourse (forum.example.com) up and running.

1. What will the file structure look like after discourse is installed?
2. What should it look like when it’s set-up in the above way?
3. Do I need to make any changes in the domain settings tab (A record, etc.) for this to work? (I don’t think so, but I’m not sure)
   3.a. If so, what do I need to do?

I am planning to follow the 30 min install guide to get discourse installed on a $5 Digital Ocean droplet first and then upload my files for the main site.

TL;DR :

• I own a domain and want my main site on it - www.example.com
• Discourse will be on forum.example.com
• I will be using DO and setting up discourse first.
• What will the file structure look like when I setup discourse on the server and where do I put the files for my main site, for it to work correctly?

[IAmGav (Gavin Perch)]

Your website and discourse will not be on the same server.

Forum.website will point to DO and www.website will point to your web hosting.

You would need to create an A Record for forum to the DO IP address

[MSat7]

@IAmGav

Your website and discourse will not be on the same server.

Can I not host my website on the server as well?

[IAmGav (Gavin Perch)]

It’s a more advanced setup. You will have to follow this:

Running other websites on the same machine as Discourse

If you want to run other websites on the same machine as Discourse, you need to set up an extra NGINX or HAProxy proxy in front of the Docker container. NOTE: This is for advanced admins This guide assumes you already have Discourse working - if you don’t, it may be hard to tell whether or not the configuration is working. You cannot use ./discourse-setup to set up Discourse if another server is using port 80 or 443. You will need to copy and edit samples/standalone.yml with your favorite tex…

[MSat7]

Yep, that’s definitely more advanced lol.

Ok, I’ll get back to this when I have a bit more experience.

Thanks for your help Gavin!

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

Like he said, you want to follow the standard install instructions on another server. Digital ocean is recommended because it’s easy.

[IAmGav (Gavin Perch)]

@pfaffman

Social ocean

Digital Ocean

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

Thanks! Usually Jeff edits my typos. Too bad you can’t!

[MSat7]

Yep, that’s what I plan to do!

I’m going to keep coming back to ask questions tho. Thanks y’all!