I followed a combination of these two[1] guides[2] for importing with access to another Docker container running a copy of the source forum database in MySQL. But it dawned on me that instead of creating a separate import container I can just use a single app container and add the mysql-dep.tempate to it:
templates:
- "templates/postgres.template.yml"
- "templates/redis.template.yml"
- "templates/web.template.yml"
- "templates/web.ratelimited.template.yml"
- "templates/web.ssl.template.yml"
- "templates/web.letsencrypt.ssl.template.yml"
- "templates/import/mysql-dep.template.yml"
This lets me have a functioning Discourse instance while the importer script is running. Is there any disadvantage to opening up the forum to the public as soon as all the users and categories are imported, and just let the users know with a banner that it will be a few days until it’s fully populated? I’m thinking that at the very least I could open it up after all the topics and posts are imported but before the private messages are imported, as the private messages alone will take a good 24h to import.