# Run other websites on the same machine as Discourse

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/run-other-websites-on-the-same-machine-as-discourse/17247
**Category:** Self-Hosting
**Tags:** how-to, advanced-setup
**Created:** [July 5, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/run-other-websites-on-the-same-machine-as-discourse/17247 "2014-07-05T20:36:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Discourse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/discourse/32/148734_2.png) [@Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Discourse)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/run-other-websites-on-the-same-machine-as-discourse/17247/1 "2014-07-05T20:36:15Z")

</div>

If you want to run other websites on the same machine as Discourse, you need to set up an extra NGINX or HAProxy proxy in front of the Docker container.

### NOTE: This is for advanced admins

This guide **assumes you already have Discourse working** - if you don’t, it may be hard to tell whether or not the configuration is working.

You cannot use `./discourse-setup` to set up Discourse if another server is using port 80 or 443. You will need to copy and edit `samples/standalone.yml` with your favorite text editor.

## Install nginx outside the container

First, make sure the container is not running:

```
cd /var/discourse
./launcher stop app

```

Then install nginx and certbot:

```
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

```

## Change the container definition

This is where we change how Discourse actually gets set up. We don’t want the container listening on ports - instead, we’ll tell it to listen on a special file.

You need to edit `/var/discourse/containers/app.yml` to disable ssl and add template to create nginx sock. It should look like this:

```yml
# base templates used; can cut down to include less functionality per container templates:
  - "templates/postgres.template.yml"
  - "templates/redis.template.yml"
  - "templates/web.template.yml"
  - "templates/web.ratelimited.template.yml"
  # - "templates/web.ssl.template.yml" # remove - https will be handled by outer nginx
  # - "templates/web.letsencrypt.ssl.template.yml" # remove -- https will be handled by outer nginx
  - "templates/web.socketed.template.yml" # <-- Added

```

Be sure to remove or comment out the exposed ports by putting a `#` in front.

```plaintext
# which ports to expose?
# expose: comment out entire section by putting a # in front of each line
# - "80:80" # http
# - "443:443" # https

```

Now you can

```plaintext
/var/discourse/launcher rebuild app

```

to rebuild Discourse to make its data available to the socket.

If you are using some other reverse proxy that cannot use a web socket, you can instead expose a different port in the section above like `- 8080:80`.

## Create an NGINX ‘site’ for the outer nginx

Create a site file for Discourse:

```plaintext
cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
cp default discourse.example.com
cd ../sites-enabled
ln -s ../sites-available/discourse.example.com

```

Next edit that file by commenting out these lines:

```plaintext
        #listen 80 default_server;
        #listen [::]:80 default_server;

```

and editing the `server_name` and `location` stanza like this:

```nginx
    server_name discourse.example.com; # <-- change this

location / {
                proxy_pass http://unix:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/nginx.http.sock:;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

}

```

If you’re using a two-container installation the socket line will be:

```
                proxy_pass http://unix:/var/discourse/shared/web-only/nginx.http.sock:;

```

Then, in a shell:

```bash
certbot --nginx

```

And follow the instructions. If you don’t understand the prompts, you probably shouldn’t be doing this, but can check the `certbot` docs for help.

@pfaffman thinks that `certbot` will do this for you, but if you make changes to the nginx config you will need to

```plaintext
sudo service nginx reload

```

## Create your other sites

You’re done with the Discourse section!

Make other NGINX “sites”, then link and enable them, as in the last step above.

## Tips

- `sudo netstat -tulpn` : This will tell you what ports are being used
- `/var/log/nginx/error.log` : Is the location of the nginx log on ubuntu. This will tell you what the error is when you get a 502 Bad Gateway error.

> Last edited by @supermathie 2026-06-29T18:01:43Z
> 
> > **Check document**
> >
> > Perform check on document:

---

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