# Guidance for Setting Up Discourse: Hetzner VDS + Namecheap Private Email SMTP **URL:** \ **Category:** Self-hosting\ **Tags:** hosting\ **Created:** [September 13, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/guidance-for-setting-up-discourse-hetzner-vds-namecheap-private-email-smtp/382532 "2025-09-13T16:23:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![Canapin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/canapin/32/119591_2.png) [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/guidance-for-setting-up-discourse-hetzner-vds-namecheap-private-email-smtp/382532/6 "2025-09-13T18:21:14Z")
> [@Can](#): > > Do I need to create any additional empty space/partition on the VDS? A small forum will work with a 40 GB disk, no additional space needed. > [@Can](#): > > It may look easy to you, but it feels a bit complicated to me. It was the same for me when I started my Discourse journey. I never used Linux or SSH. Providing a how-to about how to connect to your server hosted by a certain provider might be a bit out of the scope of this support forum, but anyone is free to help, of course. When you create a server on Hetzner, you’ll have the choice between using an SSH key file or a regular login/password (it will be generated and sent by email if I remember well). Plenty of guides on the internet will describe how to connect to a server via SSH. The goal you want to achieve is to access the server’s command line. As for how to connect the domain to the server’s IP, it’s done through the DNS management from your domain name’s provider admin interface. > [@Can](#): > > And are there any services or professionals who can provide this setup as a service? If you’re willing to pay for help, you can post in #Marketplace 🙂 --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/guidance-for-setting-up-discourse-hetzner-vds-namecheap-private-email-smtp/382532)._