Hi, I’m running a virtual private server with Discourse installed through Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Right now there’s no traffic (there’s probably two or three people on the site right now for beta testing) and the RAM usage for the server is already at 1.85GB. I’m running a server with only 2GB of RAM in it and I fear that when the site actually gets traffic the RAM will completely max out and the server will crash or severely slow down. Is this something to be worried about? I only have Discourse and Docker installed.
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around concerns about Discourse’s high RAM usage. Cosmopath initially expresses worry about their server’s 1.85GB RAM usage with only 2GB of RAM available, fearing it will max out with increased traffic. Falco reassures that this is normal, citing http://www.linuxatemyram.com, and suggests ensuring 2GB of swap space to prevent issues until an upgrade is needed. Alankrit_Choudh also experiences high RAM usage with a small community and shares a screenshot. Falco responds by putting the RAM usage into perspective, comparing it to that of various devices, and explains that Discourse’s features require more resources, emphasizing that the goal is a modern forum on modern hardware, not minimal RAM usage.
That’s normal.
Make sure you have 2GB of swap, and the forum will be fine until you get more members. When you notice it slowing, you go and upgrade the ram.
Got it, thank you very much!
Thanks @Falco I was checking my free ram using the command free -m
I am quite surprised that discourse is consuming a high amount of ram even though my community is quite small.
Less ram than my phone (Nexus 6p), than my TV player (Nvidia Android Shield), than any device I use? Is that a high amount?
Of course, you can serve static html with way less ram, but the shitload of features of Discourse has to be somewhere. And that is webservices(normal and long polling) , redis, postgresql, nginx, and some gnu/Linux binaries (image Magick, tar, and cia). Not counting an architecture where you can write a enterprise grade plugin in hours.
If the goal of the project was to run with the smallest ram possible, OK. But this isn’t the goal. The goal is a modern forum that runs on modern hardware.