Setting up Discourse on a VPS with other sites

[JoyalV]

Hello,

I have a Ubuntu 16.04 VPS with Apache running two websites. I want to setup discourse but it seems like it will be a docker container (concept I am new to),.

How do I go about giving discourse a subdomain like forum.example.com then ensuring I can install SSL certs with Lets’ Encrypt?

Following instructions here: discourse/INSTALL-cloud.md at master · discourse/discourse · GitHub

[Falco (Rafael dos Santos Silva)]

Running other websites on the same machine as Discourse

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. If you have not already, please read the Advanced Troubleshooting with Docker guide, as it covers the basics on the separation between host and container. 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. Install nginx outside the container First, make sur…

[JoyalV]

I am using Apache, so I would create another VHost in /var/www ?

Or would I create a vhost and set it’s default folder as /var/discourse ?

[mpalmer (Matt Palmer)]

You’ll need to translate the instructions in the topic @Falco linked to from nginx to Apache.

[JoyalV]

Hmmm, I don’t know anything about nginx but I can try I guess

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

Gets pretty much it, but you configure the host add a reverse proxy.

[JoyalV]

so I would setup a VHost /var/www/discourse.domain.com and install in discourse in there rather than /var/discourse

And then add a reverse proxy?

[mpalmer (Matt Palmer)]

No, you don’t setup a vhost anywhere on the host system. You proxy everything for the Discourse subdomain into the container.

[fefrei (Felix Freiberger)]

There’s a (in my opinion) slightly easier alternative:

1. Configure your Apache to listen on a different port.
2. Set up nginx as a reverse proxy as described above.
3. Set up nginx to proxy the non-Discourse traffic to Apache’s port.

Note that if you want HTTPS (and you do want that), in that case, you’ll have to set this up in nginx.

[JoyalV]

I have no idea how to do that. All I have done is setup two sites with apache vhost and now want to add discourse

[fefrei (Felix Freiberger)]

Instructions for steps and have already been posted by @Falco above:

Running other websites on the same machine as Discourse

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. If you have not already, please read the Advanced Troubleshooting with Docker guide, as it covers the basics on the separation between host and container. 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. Install nginx outside the container First, make sur…

[JoyalV]

Idk how to “Configure your Apache to listen on a different port.”

And the instruction says "This guide assumes you already have Discourse working " which I don’t. I am trying to install it onto a VPS with 2 normal sites already configured

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

You’ll need 2gb to run Apache and Discourse, so if your current host doesn’t have 2 GB then there’s no advantage to using the same host.

If you don’t know how to change Apache port, you can Google that, but it likely means that the other instructions will be difficult to make sense of.