# Moving simple machines forum to discourse
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [January 5, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320 "2018-01-05T16:32:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jmex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmex)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/1 "2018-01-05T16:32:26Z")
Hello everyone,
I am looking to move my forum from smf to discouse. I am not a coder but i managed to install and run smf. Now it has few members and posts. Dont want to loose any. So can anyone help me outwith it?
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### Author:  [@notriddle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/notriddle)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 4:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/2 "2018-01-05T16:51:58Z")
It’s a bit of a complicated process, but [it is documented](https://meta.discourse.org/t/importer-for-simple-machines-2-forums/17656). If you have the budget, paying someone else to do it would probably be easier, but from the sound of it you don’t. Also, you’re going to need to set up a dev environment to run the import scripts (it’s going to require something like Docker, Vagrant, or a native Ubuntu box).
How many is “a few”?
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### Author:  [@jmex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmex)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 4:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/3 "2018-01-05T16:53:13Z")
around 100 posts and 20 users now.
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### Author:  [@notriddle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/notriddle)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 4:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/4 "2018-01-05T16:56:03Z")
Then you can just run it on your PC. [This guide](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/VAGRANT.md) should work for setting up the environment.
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### Author:  [@Pravi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pravi)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 5:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/5 "2018-01-05T17:13:01Z")
I know its very hard to get users. Since their is only 100 post and 20 users, I think its better to start a new site and ask your user to reregister in your new site. When all users are reregistered in your new site, you can change the domain name of the new site with the domain name of old one. But it comes with a price , you have to give away your 100 post. Not recommended, just a suggestion.
Regards
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### Author:  [@jmex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmex)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/6 "2018-01-05T17:14:25Z")
nope. can’t do that. discussions were made by few of my seniors so hard to lose it.
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### Author:  [@Pravi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pravi)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2018, 5:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/7 "2018-01-05T17:28:31Z")
Well in that case, you may choose the option mentioned by @notriddle.
Regards,
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### Author:  [@jmex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmex)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2018, 11:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/8 "2018-01-07T11:05:14Z")
ok. how would i know if my purchased host can host discourse? i have seen that it requires some special software like ruby.
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### Author:  [@dnsmichi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dnsmichi)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2018, 1:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/9 "2018-01-07T13:32:55Z")
Discourse runs inside Docker, the only outside thing you need is a mail server (or hosted mailing platform), an uptodate Docker package and optional a webserver if you want to run other web apps on this host. If not, let the app container just expose 80/443 (the default).
That way you don’t need to take care about the inner parts, like Ruby, PostgreSQL, Redis, Nginx and so on.
Rebuilding the app container and upgrades are pretty straight forward too.
Which distribution is your host using, and how much resources are assigned to it?
Kind regards,
Michael
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### Author:  [@jmex](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmex)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/10 "2018-01-07T15:41:35Z")
can i PM you the host and its details? i would like to know if it can work.
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### Author:  [@dnsmichi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dnsmichi)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/11 "2018-01-07T16:14:58Z")
Try it with Linux basic commands such as `uname -a` or `cat /etc/os-release` or `lsb_release`. `top` shows available and used resources.
No PMs - I‘m eager to help in public where others can benefit and learn too.
Cheers,
Michael
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2020, 2:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/12 "2020-03-20T14:28:34Z")
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/moving-simple-machines-forum-to-discourse/77320/13 "2020-03-20T19:50:48Z")