# How do I create Discourse forum with docker and VPS?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [June 11, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764 "2025-06-11T17:41:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@d\_bl1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/d_bl1n)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/1 "2025-06-11T17:41:24Z")
Hello 😰
As far as I understand, Russian cards are not accepted so that you can buy forum support, this is sad 😰
I am new to programming.
I tried to install a VPS server. Ubuntu 24.04
Installed docker.
But I can’t access my website.
It seems to me that the problem is in the yml settings.
I don’t know what to write there, I’m trying to figure out what it is, but I don’t understand. Where can I read about SMTP\_ADRESS, SMTP\_PASSWORD, SMTP\_PORT.
I read an article on the forum about the doctor.
Maybe someone has a simple guide explaining where to get these values?
I also bought hosting and a domain, but I can’t figure out how to work with mail.
I’m already confused by these meanings.
Maybe someone has a link to explanations for this file and where to get these values in the domain?
Sorry for my English
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### Author:  [@Lilly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/2 "2025-06-11T19:21:49Z")
please follow the [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) instructions carefully.
> [@Install Discourse in production with the official supported instructions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true):
>
> Our install guide lives in GitHub alongside Discourse code at [discourse/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md). Last edited by @Falco 2026-02-04T21:00:34Z (UTC) play_button Check document
also more email setup and troubleshooting info here:
> [@Troubleshoot email on a new Discourse install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/troubleshoot-email-on-a-new-discourse-install/16326):
>
> You just installed Discourse via [the install guide](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL.md), but email doesn’t seem to work. Unfortunately this means you can’t log in as an admin to finalize the install. cry Let’s troubleshootize! Try the doctor woman_health_workerIf you run ./discourse-doctor it will check several ways that your mail configuration might be broken, and offer advice. Try that first. Did you enter email settings correctly? The simplest way is to run ./discourse-setup again. Did you enter everything correctly? B…
> [@Troubleshooting Outgoing Email](https://meta.discourse.org/t/troubleshooting-outgoing-email/271484):
>
> bookmark This is an #explanation guide discussing how admins can troubleshoot outgoing email from a Discourse site. person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator Discourse relies heavily on email for user notifications and account management tasks. If users are unable to receive emails from your Discourse site, this can lead to a variety of problems, including missed notifications and account management issues. Summary In this documentation, you will learn: How to check sent …
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### Author:  [@Heliosurge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Heliosurge)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/3 "2025-06-11T21:09:57Z")
> [@d\_bl1n](#):
>
> I’m already confused by these meanings
>
> 
>
> Maybe someone has a link to explanations for this file and where to get these values in the domain
Being self-hosted you will need an smtp provider.
> **[Brevo: Email & SMS Marketing, CRM & Automation Platform](https://www.brevo.com)**
>
> Brevo is the most intuitive all-in-one customer engagement platform: email and SMS marketing, automation, CRM, live chat, and transactional email. Try it free.
Has a free tier of 300 messages/day. SMTP account on this one is the email you signed up with and the password is your account password.
As lilly has mentioned and provided links to the [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) instructions
But to give you an easier answer to connecting to your domain.
You will need to setup a DNA record on your domain server.
This is an ‘A’ record the first is the subdomain name ie “community” the data is your VPs server ip address.
This is in the [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) instructions however at times ppl miss this
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### Author:  [@d\_bl1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/d_bl1n)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 6:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/4 "2025-06-12T06:12:22Z")
I have a hosting service for mail. The hosting on which I hosted the domain.
I went to the hosting management, where I placed the domain in DNS management.
I added my domain and the IP of my server there (in red).
In blue, these are the added hosting domains.
When I complete the setup using `./discourse-setup`, I get this:
> It’s almost done!
> The domain has been successfully linked to the hosting
> The site was created in the control panel, it remains to place the site files
> [server292.hosting.reg.ru](http://server292.hosting.reg.ru)
I can’t figure out what to do in this case.
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### Author:  [@d\_bl1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/d_bl1n)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 8:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/5 "2025-06-12T08:43:06Z")
Now I see this:
# Welcome to nginx!
If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required.
For online documentation and support please refer to [nginx.org](http://nginx.org/).
Commercial support is available at [nginx.com](http://nginx.com/).
_Thank you for using nginx._
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### Author:  [@d\_bl1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/d_bl1n)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 8:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/6 "2025-06-12T08:49:42Z")
It’s cool.
I wrote this command: ./launcher rebuild app
Different messages are shown through different browsers:
Is this how it should be?
Google shows:
If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required.
For online documentation and support please refer to [nginx.org](http://nginx.org/).
Commercial support is available at [nginx.com](http://nginx.com/).
---
### Author:  [@d\_bl1n](https://meta.discourse.org/u/d_bl1n)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/8 "2025-06-12T08:54:15Z")
I always pressed the command: `./discourse-setup.`
On my server, the memory grew to 11 GB.
Is this normal, or did I need to press other commands, it feels like I installed the same thing over and over again.
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### Author:  [@Heliosurge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Heliosurge)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2025, 12:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/9 "2025-06-12T12:12:18Z")
> [@d\_bl1n](#):
>
> 
>
> It’s cool.
> I wrote this command: ./launcher rebuild app
>
> Different messages are shown through different browsers:
> Is this how it should be?
As it says congrats you are good to go. The account you register will be the admin account iirc.
Typically don’t need to worry about nginx unless your running other web apps on the server. That is currently out of my XP.
From here you can start working on setting up your discourse.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2025, 12:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-create-discourse-forum-with-docker-and-vps/369764/10 "2025-07-12T12:12:30Z")
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