The discussion revolves around creating a second instance of Discourse on the same machine, served on a different domain via a reverse proxy. kuba-orlik proposes copying the app.yml file and renaming it app2.yml, making necessary changes, and running ./launcher build app2. pfaffman confirms this approach is viable but recommends moving to separate web and data containers to reduce RAM usage and downtime during rebuilds. However, Ed_S and riking suggest that for small, low-traffic forums, a simpler approach may be sufficient, with riking advising to update host-exposed resources to another name when using a second copy of samples/standalone.yml.
I’m attempting to create a second instance of Discourse on my machine that would be served on a different domain via a reverse proxy.
Would it be OK if I just copied the current app.yml file to app2.yml file, changed what needs to be changed and then ran ./launcher build app2?
Yes. You can do that. But I would recommend spending a bit more time to move to separate web and data containers so that you have only a single instance of redis and Postgres running. But if you don’t care about wasting some ram and don’t need the benefit of reduced down time when your rebuild, your idea is fine.
This will use a bit more ram than a multisite setup but allows you to have different sets of plugins.
This sounds like something which would help me. I could reduce my costs by consolidating two hosts into one (slightly) bigger one.
If you are successful I’d much appreciate a description of your setup. I’m an experienced linux admin but not experienced in this area.
I hear you, but having read that several times in the past I’d be interested in something simpler. Both my forums are small and low traffic.
In that case, yes, a second copy of samples/standalone.yml will do fine - but: make sure to update the /var/discourse/shared/[standalone]/ and other host-exposed resources to another name.