# High-CPU / High memory on fresh discourse install
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** server-resources
**Created:** [17.Октябрь.2018 01:48:47 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699 "2018-10-17T01:48:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bkraul](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bkraul)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 01:48:47 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/1 "2018-10-17T01:48:47Z")
I have been attempting to install the official version of discourse on my docker host. I have followed the instructions for setting up a standalone server, with the modification to run behind a proxy in order to share the ports with other sites I have (non-discourse). However, after installing and building, the resulting site is taking over the resources of the box, and nearly freezes all other processes, rendering the box inoperable, until I manage to forcefully kill the container.
This is the app.yml I am currently using:
```yml
## this is the all-in-one, standalone Discourse Docker container template
##
## After making changes to this file, you MUST rebuild
## /var/discourse/launcher rebuild app
##
## BE *VERY* CAREFUL WHEN EDITING!
## YAML FILES ARE SUPER SUPER SENSITIVE TO MISTAKES IN WHITESPACE OR ALIGNMENT!
## visit http://www.yamllint.com/ to validate this file as needed
templates:
- "templates/postgres.template.yml"
- "templates/redis.template.yml"
- "templates/web.template.yml"
- "templates/web.ratelimited.template.yml"
## Uncomment these two lines if you wish to add Lets Encrypt (https)
#- "templates/web.ssl.template.yml"
#- "templates/web.letsencrypt.ssl.template.yml"
## which TCP/IP ports should this container expose?
## If you want Discourse to share a port with another webserver like Apache or nginx,
## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/17247 for details
expose:
- "80"
params:
db_default_text_search_config: "pg_catalog.english"
## Set db_shared_buffers to a max of 25% of the total memory.
## will be set automatically by bootstrap based on detected RAM, or you can override
db_shared_buffers: "1024MB"
## can improve sorting performance, but adds memory usage per-connection
#db_work_mem: "40MB"
## Which Git revision should this container use? (default: tests-passed)
#version: tests-passed
env:
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
# DISCOURSE_DEFAULT_LOCALE: en
## How many concurrent web requests are supported? Depends on memory and CPU cores.
## will be set automatically by bootstrap based on detected CPUs, or you can override
UNICORN_WORKERS: 8
## TODO: The domain name this Discourse instance will respond to
## Required. Discourse will not work with a bare IP number.
DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: discourse.belmankraul.com
VIRTUAL_HOST: 'discourse.belmankraul.com'
## Uncomment if you want the container to be started with the same
## hostname (-h option) as specified above (default "$hostname-$config")
#DOCKER_USE_HOSTNAME: true
## TODO: List of comma delimited emails that will be made admin and developer
## on initial signup example 'user1@example.com,user2@example.com'
DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: '[my developer email]'
## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
# SMTP ADDRESS, username, and password are required
# WARNING the char '#' in SMTP password can cause problems!
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: [my smtp server]
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: [my smtp username]
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: " ******"
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true # (optional, default true)
## If you added the Lets Encrypt template, uncomment below to get a free SSL certificate
#LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL: me@example.com
## The CDN address for this Discourse instance (configured to pull)
## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/14857 for details
#DISCOURSE_CDN_URL: //discourse-cdn.example.com
## The Docker container is stateless; all data is stored in /shared
volumes:
- volume:
host: /root/docker-persist/discourse/shared/standalone
guest: /shared
- volume:
host: /root/docker-persist/discourse/shared/standalone/log/var-log
guest: /var/log
## Plugins go here
## see https://meta.discourse.org/t/19157 for details
hooks:
after_code:
- exec:
cd: $home/plugins
cmd:
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/docker_manager.git
## Any custom commands to run after building
run:
- exec: echo "Beginning of custom commands"
## If you want to set the 'From' email address for your first registration, uncomment and change:
## After getting the first signup email, re-comment the line. It only needs to run once.
#- exec: rails r "SiteSetting.notification_email='info@unconfigured.discourse.org'"
- exec: echo "End of custom commands"
docker_args: "--network reverse-proxy"
```
It was copied straight off of standalone.yml in samples, with the modifications for it to work under a reverse proxy (using jwilder/nginx-proxy). In order to achieve this, I have a separate network, called reverse-proxy. All of that works perfectly after the site manages to build (the 6-8mins). The setup wizard comes up, I am able to enter all of my data. But when I finish it, the site just locks up, processor and memory usage spike, and the whole host box slows to a crawl. I have to then kill the container, in order to bring back stability to the box. My initial setup was a 4VCPU, 4GB of RAM, 60GB. I have now increased RAM to 8GB, to no avail. Any idea what is going on?
I must confess I am one of the ones who would very much rather prefer a standard docker / docker-compose implementation. I have seen the arguments for and against. I am currently having to resort to the bitnami implementation of discourse, which supports docker-compose nicely, but is behind in updates from master, until I can overcome the official implementation problem.
Thanks in advance for the help.
---
### Author:  [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 07:18:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/2 "2018-10-17T07:18:18Z")
I have a few questions!
1. Why do you need a reverse proxy network when there are more efficient ways of doing it?
2. I’ve never heard of the variable `VIRTUAL_HOST` in regards to discourse
With that, I’d say that there is something wrong with your configuration, Please try installing discourse on a separate machine if possible . (of course, on the same provider) to check if it is discourse or something else on your existing server that is causing the resource spike.
---
### Author:  [@boredomdenied](https://meta.discourse.org/u/boredomdenied)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 07:31:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/3 "2018-10-17T07:31:53Z")
You said this server hosts other sites. Figure out your baseline load on CPU and memory. Subtract used from available to gauge sane settings on your unicorns, db\_worker & shared\_buffers.
You might want to first try dropping your unicorns down to 3 and the shared buffers to something like 384MB. If that does it you might just have a fairly well loaded server (or noisy neighbors).
---
### Author:  [@bkraul](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bkraul)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 10:14:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/5 "2018-10-17T10:14:51Z")
Bhanu:
1. I am using a reverse proxy network because it is recommended as optimal for using the proxy container that I run all of my solutions with.
2. As mentioned in my original post, I am using jwilder/reverse proxy, which uses the VIRTUAL\_HOST env variable to proxy the web traffic based on host name. This has been extensively talked about here at meta, and it works quite well. I have no issues with that part. More about that here:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-letsencrypt-ssl-in-multi-site-setup/50235/10](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-letsencrypt-ssl-in-multi-site-setup/50235/10)
One of the biggest questions I have about having to run Discourse on a separate machine is, why docker, then? The other thing… The minimal resource requirement is 1GB. I can’t for the life of me understand why 4GB or even 8GB would not be enough, for operation in a shared container environment. This is an on-premises ESXi vm setup, sure, I could create a separate virtual machine for this… But the question remains…why docker, then? I am assuming that by “my configuration” you mean my docker version, host OS etc (since I posted my app.yml config already). It is as follows:
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS x64
Docker-ce 18.06.1-ce
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 10:50:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/6 "2018-10-17T10:50:34Z")
You just set the `unicorn workers` and `shared_buffers` to high for a shared machine.
Try setting to the values @boredomdenied suggested and rebuilding.
---
### Author:  [@bkraul](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bkraul)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 12:07:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/7 "2018-10-17T12:07:59Z")
Rafael, you and @boredomdenied were correct. After setting my worker and shared\_buffers values to what was recommended, everything is working perfectly. Thank you all for your help. I am marking @boredom’s reply as the solution.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [17.Октябрь.2018 12:08:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/high-cpu-high-memory-on-fresh-discourse-install/99699/8 "2018-10-17T12:08:35Z")