# Installing Discourse using Portainer
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** unsupported-install, hosting
**Created:** [November 23, 2020, 8:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987 "2020-11-23T08:19:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sarveshmrao](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sarveshmrao)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 8:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/1 "2020-11-23T08:19:44Z")
I use Portainer to manage my Containers. I wanted to install Discourse in a new container but I’m unable to do so. If anyone can help me with this would be appreciated.
**WHAT I TRIED?**
I read the [GitHub File](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md) and tried to follow it but I was unable to run console commands as I have not created a container. So I created/cloned an image of Discourse in DockerHub and installed it through Portainer but when I run it says exited with error code 0.
---
### Author:  [@sarveshmrao](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sarveshmrao)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 11:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/2 "2020-11-23T11:00:43Z")
Why is this unsupported install @rishabh? Portainer is just a Docker Control Panel.
---
### Author:  [@marianord](https://meta.discourse.org/u/marianord)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/3 "2020-11-23T14:57:50Z")
Because they only support one installation type, which is in a clean VPS where all the modifications and scripts run without any issue. Anything else is a custom installation and they won’t support it as the ways to use containers is infinite.
To be able to install Discourse, you need to run the bootstrapping done via the `launcher` utility. If you can add scripts to Portainer it should be relatively easy to do. Or you can just install Discourse in a VPS and push the resulting container to see if that works.
Other way, which could be easier is to decouple everything and deploy them individually, this means (in no way a complete list):
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Unicorns
- Discourse
---
### Author:  [@justin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/justin)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 5:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/4 "2020-11-23T17:01:55Z")
> [@marianord](#):
>
> Because they only support one installation type, which is in a clean VPS where all the modifications and scripts run without any issue. Anything else is a custom installation and they won’t support it as the ways to use containers is infinite.
Yes we have only one [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) largely to allow our community to support it well. If we had more, it would be difficult for everyone to provide quality troubleshooting and setup advice.
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/5 "2020-11-23T17:41:57Z")
What you’ll need to do is use `./launcher` to build your container and then launch it with portainer, passing all of the environment variables needed.
See [Can Discourse ship frequent Docker images that do not need to be bootstrapped?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-discourse-ship-frequent-docker-images-that-do-not-need-to-be-bootstrapped/33205) for more discussion.
The easy solution that you can get free help with is to follow the [official install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true) instructions. If you need help with portainer and have a budget you can ask in #Marketplace or contact me. I’m not familiar with portainer, but have built containers to launch with other tools.
---
### Author:  [@alex.diker](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alex.diker)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2025, 8:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/6 "2025-05-16T20:55:10Z")
Dont want to look ignorant, where is this launcher utility? I was looking at the/discourse path with the docker image i pulled and could not find any scripts…again maybe i am looking at it wrong? Will prob just run a standard Ubuntu Docker container and configure it all my self for the test as if a [standard install](https://meta.discourse.org/t/142537?silent=true)?
Found instructions such as these:
The recommended way to get the Bitnami Discourse Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the [Docker Hub Registry](https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/discourse).
```plaintext
docker pull bitnami/discourse:latest
```
To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the [list of available versions](https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/discourse/tags/) in the Docker Hub Registry.
```plaintext
docker pull bitnami/discourse:[TAG]
```
If you wish, you can also build the image yourself by cloning the repository, changing to the directory containing the Dockerfile and executing the `docker build` command. Remember to replace the `APP`, `VERSION` and `OPERATING-SYSTEM` path placeholders in the example command below with the correct values.
```plaintext
git clone https://github.com/bitnami/containers.git
cd bitnami/APP/VERSION/OPERATING-SYSTEM
docker build -t bitnami/APP:latest .
```
#### How to use this image
Discourse requires access to a PostgreSQL database to store information. We’ll use the [Bitnami Docker Image for PostgreSQL](https://github.com/bitnami/containers/tree/main/bitnami/postgresql) for the database requirements.
##### Using the Docker Command Line
**Step 1: Create a network**
```plaintext
docker network create discourse-network
```
**Step 2: Create a volume for PostgreSQL persistence and create a PostgreSQL container**
```plaintext
$ docker volume create --name postgresql_data
docker run -d --name postgresql \
--env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
--env POSTGRESQL_USERNAME=bn_discourse \
--env POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=bitnami123 \
--env POSTGRESQL_DATABASE=bitnami_discourse \
--network discourse-network \
--volume postgresql_data:/bitnami/postgresql \
bitnami/postgresql:latest
```
**Step 3: Create a volume for Redis persistence and create a Redis container**
```plaintext
$ docker volume create --name redis_data
docker run -d --name redis \
--env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
--network discourse-network \
--volume redis_data:/bitnami/redis \
bitnami/redis:latest
```
**Step 4: Create volumes for Discourse persistence and launch the container**
```plaintext
$ docker volume create --name discourse_data
docker run -d --name discourse \
-p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
--env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
--env DISCOURSE_DATABASE_USER=bn_discourse \
--env DISCOURSE_DATABASE_PASSWORD=bitnami123 \
--env DISCOURSE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_discourse \
--env DISCOURSE_HOST=www.example.com \
--network discourse-network \
--volume discourse_data:/bitnami/discourse \
bitnami/discourse:latest
```
**Step 5: Launch the Sidekiq container**
```plaintext
docker run -d --name sidekiq \
--network discourse-network \
--volume discourse_data:/bitnami/discourse \
bitnami/discourse:latest /opt/bitnami/scripts/discourse-sidekiq/run.sh
```
Access your application at `http://your-ip/`
##### Run the application using Docker Compose
```plaintext
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitnami/containers/main/bitnami/discourse/docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up -d
```
Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated [Bitnami Helm chart](https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/main/bitnami/discourse).
If you detect any issue in the `docker-compose.yaml` file, feel free to report it or contribute with a fix by following our [Contributing Guidelines](https://github.com/bitnami/containers/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
##### Troubleshooting discourse
If you need to run discourse administrative commands like [Create admin account from console](https://meta.discourse.org/t/create-admin-account-from-console/17274), you can do so by executing a shell inside the container and running with the proper environment variables.
```plaintext
cd /opt/bitnami/discourse
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake admin:create
```
---
### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/installing-discourse-using-portainer/170987/7 "2025-05-16T21:31:47Z")
> [@alex.diker](#):
>
> where is this launcher utility?
>