flarum Installation Guide Installation Guide

flarum is a free and open-source modern forum software. Flarum provides next-generation forum software that makes online discussion fun

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 500MB for data

Network: HTTP/HTTPS 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 (default flarum port)

None

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 flarum
sudo dnf install -y flarum

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

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

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install flarum
sudo apt install -y flarum

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

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 80

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Install flarum
sudo pacman -S flarum

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

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Install flarum
apk add --no-cache flarum

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

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Install flarum
sudo zypper install -y flarum

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

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

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install flarum

# Start service
brew services start flarum

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install flarum

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

# Start service
service flarum start

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install flarum

# Or using Scoop
scoop install flarum

# Verify installation
flarum --version

bash

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

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

# Test configuration
flarum --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable flarum

# Start service
sudo systemctl start flarum

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop flarum

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart flarum

# Check status
sudo systemctl status flarum

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u flarum -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add flarum default

# Start service
rc-service flarum start

# Stop service
rc-service flarum stop

# Restart service
rc-service flarum restart

# Check status
rc-service flarum status

bash

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

# Start service
service flarum start

# Stop service
service flarum stop

# Restart service
service flarum restart

# Check status
service flarum status

bash

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

# Check status
brew services list | grep flarum

powershell

# Start service
net start flarum

# Stop service
net stop flarum

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

# Check status
Get-Service flarum

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream flarum_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:80;
}

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

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

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://flarum_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 flarum.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://flarum.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

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

haproxy

frontend flarum_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/flarum.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend flarum_backend

backend flarum_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server flarum1 127.0.0.1:80 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/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 flarum

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u flarum -f

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

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop flarum

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start flarum

1. Service won't start:

bash

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

# Check configuration
flarum --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/flarum

2. Connection issues:

bash

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

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 80

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

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

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 80

yaml

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

Maintenance

bash

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

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

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu flarum

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade flarum

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update flarum

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade flarum

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart flarum

Regular Maintenance

bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.flarum.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

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