Where are you hosted at currently?
Doing the switch is actually a bit easier (safer, requires less downtime) if you’re willing to move to a new VPS at the same time (either with the same hosting company or a new one, we typically recommend Digital Ocean). In that case, here’s what will happen if you follow the easiest path:
| thing | what will happen |
|---|---|
| ssl certificate | you’ll get a new one from Let’s Encrypt automatically |
| admin settings | will be transferred |
| smtp settings | you’ll have to copy those manually (but it’s only a few values) |
| IP address | you’ll get a new one (but can keep the domain) |
| content | will be transferred |
If that’s okay, here’s what to do:
- Follow these instructions to set up a new installation. Don’t enter your email address for Let’s Encrypt yet.
- Put your old instance in read-only mode.
- Take a backup and transfer it to your new server. These instructions will help you, but skip updating the Bitnami installation – this tends to be problematic, and restoring the backup to a newer Discourse should work fine.
- Change DNS to point to the new server.
- Re-run
discourse-setupand this time, add your email address for Let’s Encrypt. During the rebuild, a SSL certificate will be set up for you. (This won’t work before you’ve done step
.)