# Installation without subdomain not working
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Created:** [October 9, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399 "2022-10-09T13:54:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/1 "2022-10-09T13:54:39Z")
Hi there, I’m trying to install Discourse on a testbed fresh Ubuntu 20.04 VM (also tried CentOS Stream 9 and Ubuntu 22.04 and openSUSE MicroOS). I have some experience with Discourse since the early days of the project, and I’m now evaluating it for a migration. In that case it would be to `mydomain.tld` (the production domain is only a forum and has “forum” in its name and it’s well known as such, so I definitely don’t want `discourse.mydomain.tld` ). All of my recent attempts at installing Discourse without a subdomain have failed. I know it used to be possible because I ran a Discourse forum like that about 6(?) years ago without a subdomain. Now the installation appears to complete successfully, but the site won’t load. In Ubuntu it automatically switches to `https://` even when I explicitly put `http://`, and it won’t load at all. And in CentOS and MicroOS it loads the `http://` Nginx welcome page, and nothing loads with `https://` .
All of my attempts on the above operating systems in the same VM work fine when Discourse is installed to a subdomain at `discourse.mydomain.tld` , including the Let’s Encrypt autoconfig. As far as I can tell my DNS records are correct on the domain registrar and I have proper rDNS resolution. The server’s host name in `/etc/hosts` shows `127.0.1.1 mydomain.tld mydomain` and the `discourse-install` script succeeds with the domain name resolution check.
Here’s the `discourse-doctor` output, I also have the full `discourse-install` log if anybody wants it:
```plaintext
DISCOURSE DOCTOR Sun Oct 9 13:32:47 UTC 2022
OS: Linux mydomain 5.4.0-125-generic #141-Ubuntu SMP Wed Aug 10 13:42:03 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Found containers/app.yml
==================== YML SETTINGS ====================
DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME=mydomain.tld
SMTP_ADDRESS=mail.mydomain.tld
DEVELOPER_EMAILS=REDACTED
SMTP_PASSWORD=REDACTED
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER_NAME=admin@mydomain.tld
LETSENCRYPT_ACCOUNT_EMAIL=REDACTED
==================== DOCKER INFO ====================
DOCKER VERSION: Docker version 20.10.12, build 20.10.12-0ubuntu2~20.04.1
DOCKER PROCESSES (docker ps -a)
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
d6f7f53a81db local_discourse/app "/sbin/boot" 10 minutes ago Up 4 minutes 0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, :::80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, :::443->443/tcp app
Discourse container app is running
==================== PLUGINS ====================
- git clone https://github.com/discourse/docker_manager.git
No non-official plugins detected.
See https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/lib/plugin/metadata.rb for the official list.
========================================
Discourse version at mydomain.tld: NOT FOUND
Discourse version at localhost: NOT FOUND
==================== MEMORY INFORMATION ====================
OS: Linux
RAM (MB): 2029
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 1935 823 547 30 564 934
Swap: 2047 0 2047
==================== DISK SPACE CHECK ====================
---------- OS Disk Space ----------
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 38G 8.0G 28G 23% /
==================== DISK INFORMATION ====================
Disk /dev/sda: 38.15 GiB, 40961572864 bytes, 80003072 sectors
Disk model: QEMU HARDDISK
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 6643DB1B-E542-4DE1-A04C-C8EB4DAAD77E
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 528384 80003038 79474655 37.9G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda14 2048 4095 2048 1M BIOS boot
/dev/sda15 4096 528383 524288 256M EFI System
Partition table entries are not in disk order.
==================== END DISK INFORMATION ====================
==================== MAIL TEST ====================
For a robust test, get an address from http://www.mail-tester.com/
Mail test skipped.
==================== DONE! ====================
```
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/2 "2022-10-09T15:00:31Z")
Hard to help without knowing the domain. What happens when you try a verbose curl from another machine in the internet to your domain.tld ?
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/3 "2022-10-09T17:23:08Z")
Hi thanks for the reply. OK that’s a good idea, looks it’s not accepting the connection:
```plaintext
$ curl -v mydomain.tld
* Trying 1.2.3.4:80...
* connect to 1.2.3.4 port 80 failed: Connection refused
* Failed to connect to mydomain.tld port 80: Connection refused
* Closing connection 0
curl: (7) Failed to connect to mydomain.tld port 80: Connection refused
$ curl -v https://mydomain.tld
* Trying 1.2.3.4:443...
* connect to 1.2.3.4 port 443 failed: Connection refused
* Failed to connect to mydomain.tld port 443: Connection refused
* Closing connection 0
curl: (7) Failed to connect to mydomain.tld port 443: Connection refused
```
Is it possibly due to some limitation in the Discourse setup logic where it expects `.tld` to be something common like `.com` or `.org`? Mine is just a $5 `.tech` domain I created for testing.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 5:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/4 "2022-10-09T17:48:43Z")
It’s unlikely.
Where’s the server hosted? What sits between it and the client?
Giving us the FQDN helps us do some troubleshooting. As-is you’re asking us to help diagnose this whilst blindfolded, so it may take a while to pinpoint.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 5:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/6 "2022-10-09T17:58:15Z")
Was this instance installed using discourse-setup, or did you manually create the YML file?
Have you verified that 80/443 are open at Hetzner?
Let’s encrypt is enrolled as standard these days, hence the redirect to a secure port.
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/7 "2022-10-09T17:59:51Z")
I used `discourse-setup`. Yes, the ports are open. Installing to a subdomain works fine, and I also setup a Docker installation of a mailserver with a web frontend on this same VM (but I later reformatted it).
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/8 "2022-10-09T18:00:56Z")
Have you read:
> [@Configure your hosted Discourse site to run at the root or apex domain (e.g. example.com)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure-your-hosted-discourse-site-to-run-at-the-root-or-apex-domain-e-g-example-com/60951):
>
> Most hosted discourse instances are on a subdomain: forum.example.com talk.example.com www.example.com This is our general recommendation in almost all cases, and it works great. However, if you wish to use a root domain or apex domain for your hosted discourse, like so example.com this turns out to be surprisingly difficult in a hosting scenario, due to the vagaries of how DNS works. thinking It is possible, however, you must use a DNS provider that specifically supports it! DNS pro…
Yet?
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/9 "2022-10-09T18:04:19Z")
Hmm no. The registrar is Hover, they’re normally pretty good. That’s bizarre, in 20 years of setting up servers I’ve never had problems with websites at the root of a domain…
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/10 "2022-10-09T18:07:02Z")
I don’t recall it working for the one domain I had at Hover, but that was a while back.
You could try swapping your NS to CloudFlare and testing whether DNS is the issue from there at no cost.
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/11 "2022-10-09T18:10:05Z")
Thanks a lot for pointing me to this.
> You could try swapping your NS to CloudFlare and testing whether DNS is the issue from there at no cost.
Sorry for the dumb question, do you mean setting my local DNS server to Cloudflare? (I’m currently using `8.8.8.8`) Or using a different DNS service for my domain?
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/12 "2022-10-09T18:18:53Z")
I asked Hover about it, and they pointed me to this:
> What you could do is try using an Glue record. This will make your server as the DNS manager and route the domain name to a nameserver you can set up using Glue records. Basically your server becomes the nameserver
> [Connecting your domain using private nameservers (Glue records) : Hover Customer Support](https://help.hover.com/hc/en-us/articles/217282437-How-to-Add-or-modify-your-own-name-servers-glue-records-)
This still feels like a red herring to me. l don’t understand why Discourse wouldn’t work at the root of the domain in the same situation where Wordpress or Drupal would work?
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/13 "2022-10-09T18:26:51Z")
No, I mean you don’t need to move your domain between registrars, but you will need to update the NS records at Hover for your domain to point it at a different providers DNS to test this theory. At present they’re set to `ns1.hover.com` and `ns2.hover.com`
It’s a very quick and pretty painless process. If you sign up for CloudFlare then try to add the domain there they will give you two new name servers which need to be input at Hover. There’s a guide to the hover side here:
> **[Changing your domain nameservers](https://support.hover.com/support/solutions/articles/201000064742)**
>
> Nameservers (DNS Servers) point to the provider your site is using to manage your domain's DNS setup. DNS Management can be done through Hover, your hosting provider, or a third-party DNS service provider. If the domain is registered through us...
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/14 "2022-10-09T18:29:36Z")
> [@rahim123](#):
>
> This still feels like a red herring to me. l don’t understand why Discourse wouldn’t work at the root of the domain in the same situation where Wordpress or Drupal would work?
It’s been a while since I used the apex with anything other than CloudFlare. I’m going to test this in a bit myself to see if I can spot any other gotchas. Most of the issues with the apex apply to cnames, but I can now see that you’re using an a record.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/16 "2022-10-10T01:23:14Z")
My best guess is that you did a bunch of rebuilds with something misconfigured and now let’s encrypt won’t issue a certificate because of rate limiting.
If that’s the case you can wait a week or try using www as the subdomain, which is really a good idea these days anyway.
You can look at the logs in /var/discourse/shared/log/var-log/nginx/access.log or perhaps
```
docker logs app
```
I expect you’ll see issues with the certificate not existent or invalid.
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/18 "2022-10-10T02:20:42Z")
For now I disabled SSL in the `app.yml` and did a rebuild, and Discourse is now loading on port 80 without a subdomain.
I’m also now using the Hetzner DNS as authoritative. I’m not sure if this made the difference or if it was the failed Let’s Encrypt cert issue. I’ll report back again after another rebuild once I can create Let’s Encrypt certs again and re-enable SSL.
---
### Author:  [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/19 "2022-10-10T05:02:03Z")
If you’ve tried rebuilding more than a couple times, You probably might be getting rate-limited by letsencrypt. You can workaround this by adding another hostname to your cert.
> [@Set up Let’s Encrypt with multiple domains / redirects](https://meta.discourse.org/t/set-up-let-s-encrypt-with-multiple-domains/56685):
>
> NOTE: @pfaffman says: This page needs to be cleaned up. There is now a new ENV setting that will let you add more hostnames. In your app.yml under your DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME line (it can go many places but that one makes sense), add DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME\_ALIASES: domain.com,other.domain.com and early reports suggest that you’ll get valid certs for those domains and that accessing https://domain.com will properly redirect you to your DISCOURSE\_HOSTNAME without a certificate error. If you do that an…
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2022, 12:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/20 "2022-10-10T12:38:49Z")
Yes, but I believe that those directions no longer work.
The reason they you’re not connecting to Port 443 is that the certificate of broken and it causes an error in nginx n
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/21 "2022-10-10T19:30:26Z")
Thanks to everyone for their quick responses. It looks like it was indeed just a matter of the Let’s Encrypt rate limit. I created a new domain on Hover and this time the Discourse installation worked fine without a subdomain.
---
### Author:  [@rahim123](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rahim123)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/22 "2022-10-12T12:17:15Z")
Hi again @pfaffman or anyone else, dumb question: Does the Let’s Encrypt cert get updated every time I run `./launcher rebuild app` ? In other words will I run into any more rate limiting if I do a bit of trial and error and rebuild (but not completely start from scratch) my Discourse instance a bunch of times in a row? Thanks a lot.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2022, 12:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399/23 "2022-10-12T12:23:14Z")
I’m fairly certain that if you have valid certs it won’t request them on every rebuild.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installation-without-subdomain-not-working/241399.md?page=2)