Setting up Discourse with SSL on Docker with AWS ELB breaks and returns 503 Service Unavailable (Back-end server is at capacity)

If you’re using HTTPS via ELB, you do not need to use it within the Docker or Discourse. Have your ELB back-end to HTTP/80 and let it handle all the HTTPS proxying itself.

Put another way: as far as Discourse and Docker are concerned, they’re still just HTTP. ELB will act as a secure proxy, using the key you set up under AWS.