Hello,
I want to install Discourse on DigitalOcean. I’ve checked this guide. Now my question is that, how hard is it to handle Discourse after the installation? I’m not a coder and don’t know how to handle servers.
So, is the basic installation enough? Or do I need to take care of server security hardening or anything else?
I’ve had a bunch of clients for whom I’ve done and installation and they have done absolutely nothing for years, not that I recommend it. If you set up automatic security updates and a few times a year do s command line upgrade you’ll likely be fine. I offer a service to do command line rebuilds automatically when they are required.
If you want to be a bit safer you can configure pushing backups to S3, so if something does happen to the server you’ll have a backup.
Discourse is a pretty solid software and if you can install the forum by your own you can keep it running smooth. Just going to example.com/admin/upgrade every time you get an email or the notification in the Admin Dashboard and something like twice a year entering into the server and doing ./launcher app rebuild.
DigitalOcean keeps the servers pretty secure by default, if you want it to be even more secure you can get a firewall to block all the ports.
You can talk with any of the guys that offer an installation of Discourse here so they can get it set up for you (if you prefer) with a more technical initial setup.
The other thing that my “Lite” install (which doesn’t include Straightforward direct-delivery incoming mail does is Handling bouncing e-mails as well as enable automatic upgrades (and automatic reboots when those upgrades require them).
A few times a year, a command line rebuild is required to update the base container. And every couple years a more complicated upgrade like PostgreSQL 12 update happens, which though well documented, can be a bit hairy for someone unfamiliar with the command line. But as I said, I don’t recommend it, but I’ve seen people go years doing nothing whatsoever!