Ionos XL VPS Ubuntu Plesk. With apps eg Wordpress. Also using Redis. So need to use same Redis install on same server for Discourse. Seems to be an issue.
Docker Install.
Can not build. Error Redis can not connect. Yes did every conceivable variation in app.yml & redis.config & nginx & apache. 1 week with Deepseek, Chatgpt, Gemini, Grok, nobody on earth can solve this.
Domain & Hosting & DNS is setup in Plesk, Ionos account area for Firewall. Everything else done in Bash.
Install procedure notes to myself : Discourse install on Plesk Ubuntu with Docker
app.yml: app.yml
redis.config: redis.config
Discourse location: root@determined-ptolemy:/var/www/vhosts/make.ooo/forum.make.ooo/discourse_docker#
Build error:
< 112:M 15 Dec 2025 15:23:12.908 * DB saved on disk
112:M 15 Dec 2025 15:23:12.908 # Redis is now ready to exit, bye byeâŚ
FAILED
Pups::ExecError: cd /var/www/discourse && su discourse -c âbundle exec rake db:migrateâ failed with return #<Process::Status: pid 4484 exit 1>
Location of failure: /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/3.3.0/gems/pups-1.3.0/lib/pups/exec_command.rb:131:in `spawnâ
exec failed with the params {âcdâ=>â$homeâ, âtagâ=>âmigrateâ, âhookâ=>âdb_migrateâ, âcmdâ=>[âsu discourse -c âbundle exec rake db:migrateââ]}
bootstrap failed with exit code 1
** FAILED TO BOOTSTRAP ** please scroll up and look for earlier error messages, there may be more than one.
./discourse-doctor may help diagnose the problem.
d1f6f36479328f22c8e65012eaf015046ecf28a07f0675911fdf6661704d2581
root@determined-ptolemy:/var/www/vhosts/make.ooo/forum.make.ooo/discourse_docker# />
Yes, it is very difficult to configure Discourse to work with Plesk. You need to understand a lot about Discourse, Docker, and Plesk. Iâve done it before, but Plesk regularly broke the configuration since youâre essentially working against what itâs designed to do.
Iâd start with Discourse on its own server to see how that works and then try to get it to work with Plesk if thatâs something that you think will be lots of fun.
AI wonât be much help since youâre trying to do stuff thatâs pretty much not documented at all.
Then why are you asking?
I can probably do it, but it would take me 1-5 hours at $300/hour. Weâd likely both be unhappy with the process.
Well no need to be a dick about it dude. I just thought maybe someone has figured it out since this is a common setup for web hosting. It would be great if they would say Discourse will not work with Plesk environment.
Sorry. Not trying to be a dick, just saying that itâs really hard, even for someone whoâs spent almost ten years installing Discourse for people.
Basically saying, yeah, it might not be completely impossible, but it might as well be.
The install docs say pretty clearly that the only supported way to do it is on a VM with nothing else running. There are some docs about running with a pretty vanilla reverse proxy, but you still need to know a fair about about reverse proxies and Discourse to make those work.
The only officially supported installs of Discourse are Docker based. You must have SSH access to a 64-bit Linux server with Docker support. We regret that we cannot support any other methods of installation including cpanel, plesk, webmin, etc.
Youâre coming in very hot here, so youâre getting the same energy youâre giving. Also note that just because your post was flagged doesnât mean the staff will act on the flag, there are hundreds of people that can flag posts here and theyâre not always acted on.
Unfortunately the answer to your question is still the same either way â there are so many hours in the day, so we only focus on supporting installs using Docker.