discourse Installation Guide Installation Guide

discourse is a free and open-source modern discussion platform. Discourse reimagines online discussion forums with modern features, serving as an alternative to vBulletin, phpBB, or commercial forum software

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores minimum

RAM: 2GB minimum (4GB+ recommended)

Storage: 10GB for data

Network: HTTPS for web access

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 80/443 (default discourse port)

Port 3000 for development

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install discourse
sudo dnf install -y discourse

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now discourse

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install discourse
sudo apt install -y discourse

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now discourse

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 80/443

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Install discourse
sudo pacman -S discourse

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now discourse

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Install discourse
apk add --no-cache discourse

# Enable and start service
rc-update add discourse default
rc-service discourse start

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Install discourse
sudo zypper install -y discourse

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now discourse

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install discourse

# Start service
brew services start discourse

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install discourse

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'discourse_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service discourse start

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install discourse

# Or using Scoop
scoop install discourse

# Verify installation
discourse --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/discourse

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
discourse --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable discourse

# Start service
sudo systemctl start discourse

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop discourse

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart discourse

# Check status
sudo systemctl status discourse

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u discourse -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add discourse default

# Start service
rc-service discourse start

# Stop service
rc-service discourse stop

# Restart service
rc-service discourse restart

# Check status
rc-service discourse status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'discourse_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service discourse start

# Stop service
service discourse stop

# Restart service
service discourse restart

# Check status
service discourse status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start discourse
brew services stop discourse
brew services restart discourse

# Check status
brew services list | grep discourse

powershell

# Start service
net start discourse

# Stop service
net stop discourse

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service discourse
Stop-Service discourse
Restart-Service discourse

# Check status
Get-Service discourse

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream discourse_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:80/443;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name discourse.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name discourse.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/discourse.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/discourse.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://discourse_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName discourse.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://discourse.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName discourse.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/discourse.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/discourse.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:80/443/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:80/443/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend discourse_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/discourse.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend discourse_backend

backend discourse_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server discourse1 127.0.0.1:80/443 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R discourse:discourse /etc/discourse
sudo chmod 750 /etc/discourse

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/443/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status discourse

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u discourse -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep discourse)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/discourse"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/discourse-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/discourse /var/lib/discourse

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/discourse-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop discourse

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/discourse/discourse-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start discourse

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u discourse -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/discourse/discourse.log

# Check configuration
discourse --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/discourse

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 80/443

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 80/443

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep discourse)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep discourse)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 80/443

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  discourse:
    image: discourse:latest
    ports:
      - "80/443:80/443"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/discourse
      - ./data:/var/lib/discourse
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update discourse

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade discourse

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu discourse

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade discourse

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update discourse

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade discourse

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/discourse-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/discourse

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart discourse

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/discourse

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/discourse -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/discourse

Official Documentation: https://docs.discourse.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/discourse/discourse

Community Forum: https://forum.discourse.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.discourse.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Miscellaneous Guides

ackee Installation Guide

Appwrite Installation Guide

arangodb Installation Guide