These instructions should be considered beta and for those familiar with a standard setup
But right now (2023.02.11) these instructions do not work!! (See Set up Let’s Encrypt with multiple domains / redirects for how to update the letsencrypt setting to add the fullpath part. I’ll update this to reflect those changes Real Soon Now.)
I developed this howto a couple weeks ago but need someone to test and see if this works for someone else. Please reply if you try and let me know whether it works and if anything is unclear.
And on with the show. . .
This howto documents broadly how to set up a multisite setup with 2 additional hosts (3 total).
Database password (same as DISCOURSE_DB_PASSWORD) or discourse in app.yml
For the sake of simplicity, this is for a main site called =domain=, with two additional sites =two=.=domain= and =three=.=domain=. You can use whatever names you want, but for the sake of this template, not having a different short name (for the database name and title for the sub-forum) and full hostname is a bit easier.
add in hooks after the plugins in app.yml or web_only.yml
before_bundle_exec:
- file:
path: $home/config/multisite.yml
contents: |
=two=:
adapter: postgresql
database: =two=
pool: 25
timeout: 5000
host: data
password: NThmZTNjZjZhOTczNmVj
host_names:
- =two=.=domain=
=three=:
adapter: postgresql
database: =three=
pool: 25
timeout: 5000
host: data
password: NThmZTNjZjZhOTczNmVj
host_names:
- =three=.=domain=
after_db_migrate:
- exec: cd /var/www/discourse && sudo -E -u discourse bundle exec rake multisite:migrate
after_ssl:
# tell letsencrypt what additional certs to get
- replace:
filename: "/etc/runit/1.d/letsencrypt"
from: /-d =domain= /
to: "-d =domain= -d =two=.=domain= -d =three=.=domain="
global: true
# do not redirect all hosts back to the main domain name
- replace:
filename: "/etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf"
from: /if \(\$http_host[^\}]*\}/m
to: ""
Add to the after_postgres section in app.yml or data.yml
- exec: sudo -u postgres createdb =two= || exit 0
- exec:
stdin: |
grant all privileges on database =two= to discourse;
cmd: sudo -u postgres psql =two=
raise_on_fail: false
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =two= <<< "alter schema public owner to discourse;"'
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =two= <<< "create extension if not exists hstore;"'
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =two= <<< "create extension if not exists pg_trgm;"'
- exec: sudo -u postgres createdb =three= || exit 0
- exec:
stdin: |
grant all privileges on database =three= to discourse;
cmd: sudo -u postgres psql =three=
raise_on_fail: false
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =three= <<< "alter schema public owner to discourse;"'
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =three= <<< "create extension if not exists hstore;"'
- exec: /bin/bash -c 'sudo -u postgres psql =three= <<< "create extension if not exists pg_trgm;"'
After that,
./launcher rebuild app
or
./launcher rebuild data
./launcher rebuild web_only
I just tried it out, in fact I tried it twice because I couldn’t believe it just worked without any problems the first time already All I did was copying, adjusting the domains and password and then pasting into the respective files of a fresh installation with 2 containers.
Regards feedback whether anything is unclear, I only had to mull a bit over this paragraph:
It seems to suggest a 2-container setup is necessary to follow along, but then it isn’t. And I didn’t understand why it links to post 48 of the topic, rather than the initial post.
Thanks! I’ll take a look. Those both seem like the kind of careless things I was hoping you’d let me know about!
EDIT: Thanks! I’d carelessly copied my current location in the 2-container topic, so I fixed that, and changed the language to say that it’ll work with any working installation.
Hi
I started with a standard Discourse install (at DigitalOcean), then setup nginx (using these instructions) because I wanted a couple of Drupal sites on the same droplet
If I want to have another instance of Discourse should I follow the above?
These instructions are for not using a reverse proxy. I’d recommend that you follow Multisite configuration with Docker. The instructions that you linked might work, but I’d recommend that you first follow what’s here.
Thanks; I notice that with that both sites would use the same SMTP config
is there a way to bypass that?
or would the other guide be better (looks like it might require some work to put the existing site on the docker network)
alternately, is it possible to install another codebase, say /var/discourse2 ?
(it will cost me ~500MB but worth it if it saves me the brain damage)
Yes, but you just need to create a 2-container installation and then have a web_only2.yml. (I think that you can have 2 app.yml-style files, but then you’re needlessly running two postgres instances). I think, though, that you do need two redis instances.
Thanks; because I am not too familiar with splitting the data and web container I just created another standalone container following these guidelines (and certificates created by certbot seem to be working). However currently there seems to be an issue with mailgun config - it sends activation emails to gmail but anything mail hosted at my registrar (dreamhost) is failing
How much of a extra load would the extra Postgres instance causing?
I looked at your post about splitting and will try it if the savings were significant.
Recently I’ve been giving this a try, but I’m having trouble with a couple of things in the guide:
I can’t seem to find the Database password (or what it is even used for in the file)
My app.yml file did not originally contain an after_postgres section, so I added one under hooks to match the others (after_ssl, after_db_migrate, etc.). If this is placed in the wrong section, please let me know, I’m completely new to working with this type of stuff.
When I check the syntax of the YAML file on http://www.yamllint.com/ I get (<unknown>): did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping on the line where I put the after_postgres section under the hooks section.
If you could clarify the steps for editing the app.yml file, that would be greatly appreciated.
All I did was copying, adjusting the domains and password and then pasting into the respective files of a fresh installation with 2 containers. 
