Small thing to add: I just did a rebuild of a fresh install (with no plugins) on a CX22 machine (because that’s what I started with before looking at the ARM server), and it took 8m 52s. So somewhere in between @Canapin’s numbers, but I assume with a bit of content it might increase more towards the 10 minute mark.
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I’ve updated the list of recommended providers with Scaleway. I’m afraid I don’t have a benchmark, but filled in the rest! (I use bigger instances)
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There are numerous affordable VPS providers available. I recommend Oracle Cloud, which offers a complimentary Linux server with 4 cores and 24 GB of memory. Alternatively, consider Netcup, which provides a high-performance server with 4 cores, 8 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage for only 5 euros per month.
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Wow, I finally got a working Discourse install.
Because I already have a web-hosting account with Veerotech I went with them for my full root KVM VPS self-managed server.
| RAM | Storage | vCPU | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB | 30GB | 1 | $4.95/mo |
| 2GB | 40GB | 1 | $9.95/mo |
| 4GB | 50GB | 1 | $15.25/mo |
I went with the lowest priced option.
I went with the Linux Ubuntu 20.04 X86 64 Minimal Latest V1 option for my OS.
When I logged into root with SSH, I quickly learned that the partitions were not big enough for my needs. I’m a novice with Linux, so I had to do quite a lot of searching and reading before I was able to finally expand my root partition to 25GB, and add a 5GB swap partition.
After that the Discourse install went pretty smoothly.
My next problem was the fact that my site is proxied via Cloudflare, so I had to do some more searching and reading to finally get it to actually work.
Since Veerotech had not been mentioned here, and I have been using them for almost 4 years for my web-hosting without any issues or complaints, I thought I would leave a reply to let y’all know about my experience with them.
Thanks,
Major
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Its end of life is in a few weeks. You really want 24.04.
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Yes, but sadly that one was not on the list.
Would one of the other options been have been a better choice?
I guess with Ubuntu Pro it will still be supported until 2030 though.
I would avoid a hosting provider that offers these choices at all cost.
It looks like that list hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
Fedora 20 is EOL since Juny 2015, CentOS 8 since December 2021.
AlmaLinux 9 is the only OS that was actually released less than 3 years ago.
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Would running the do-release-upgrade affect my Discourse install?
Yes. It’s often possible to upgrade the OS that way. But that doesn’t change this:
That’s sound advice. The likelihood that something there would break and you’d lose everything is not insignificant.
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Ok, true. I guess if this server was for anything more important I would be shopping around more and comparing other hosting providers.
I only ordered it for 1 month just to play around with and try to learn some stuff about linux.
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Are you still using Hertzner? If so, what are your thoughts?
According to their pricing page, the CX32 is basically the same price as the one I’m paying on Digital Ocean ($6), but with 8GB of RAM versus 1GB RAM on DO.
Also, as a beginner myself, did you have any issues with the email receiver? I had one with DO and Brevo, but it was just the port number that had to be something different from the one suggested in the Discourse’s official installation page. Other than that, everything went smooth, so yes, as a newbie, just having to use a different port number was not a big deal, but I wonder if it can get more complex than that?
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I’ve been using Hetzner’s servers for years. Very satisfied with it. Their back end interface is also very well made. They are fairly cheap with good specs.
I find that their ARM servers are performing much better than x86 for running Discourse. Though I didn’t run extensive tests, from what I saw, with comparison between servers with the same specs and different architectures, I got faster page loadings and way faster rebuilds (up to twice as fast).
I don’t know why.
I’m only bothered by the fact that I must rely on a mail-receiver fork to get it working on ARM (which has caused no trouble so far).
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Thank you so much for the info.
I’m very inclined to changing companies, because Digital Ocean is definitely very expensive for what they offer. Maybe for other things other than Discourse they are great, but right now being able to pay the same while having more resources is definitely a must, especially managing 2 communities.
I need to check that other link, because I have no clue about the issue with the mail-receiver.
Appreciate your feedback!
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I was just asking ChatGPT about mail-receiver image, because I don’t know what that is and using Digital Ocean, I had no issues so far.
It told me that this is only relevant if things like Reply via Email or Post via Email are enabled, which in my case, they are not.
Do you confirm that this is the case?
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Yes, and in my opinion, reply-by-email is a must-have feature. Most users use it on my instances. It removes a layer of friction when you want to post a reply after getting an email notification.
I’m sure there are some, but I can’t think of a reason why an admin wouldn’t want to enable this on their forum. Especially with the official mail receiver, since installing and configuring it doesn’t require any more skill than installing Discourse.
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At first I also thought it would be good, because I’m all about removing the number of clicks/steps between actions, but then I was thinking about something that can go wrong.
For example, let’s say you reply to my message and I only decide to reply to you 2 days from now, via email. By that time, my reply could be outdated and I’m just adding “noise” to the conversation. Maybe the topic is even solved and my reply is no longer helpful or relevant.
Another benefit I see from forcing users to go to the website itself is that they can eventually stick around longer if they end up seeing another topic. Since they are there already, the chances of them seeing something else and engaging, increases.
So, even though less friction/clicks can in theory sound like a benefit, it’s not always the case. I rather have this friction and assuming that users see value in the conversation, I rather have them go to the website.
As a user of other forums, I never reply via email. I like to read the whole thing.
But thanks for sharing those links and confirming that the issue is just related to outgoing email from users. That makes everything easier for sure. Gotta check the company then.
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