Installing Discourse Forum on Virtualmin

paulfromsurrey · March 17, 2024, 11:53pm

SYSTEM INFORMATION
OS type and version	REQUIRED
Webmin version	REQUIRED
Virtualmin version	REQUIRED
Related packages	SUGGESTED

how we can install the discourse on the current install

Steini · March 18, 2024, 2:27am

github.com

discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL.md

# How Do I Install Discourse?

> :bell: The only officially supported installs of Discourse are [Docker](https://www.docker.io/) based. You must have SSH access to a 64-bit Linux server **with Docker support**. We regret that we cannot support any other methods of installation including cpanel, plesk, webmin, etc.

Simple 30 minute basic install:
[**Beginner Docker install guide**][basic]

Powerful, flexible, large / multiple server install:
[**Advanced Docker install guide**][advanced]

### Why do you only officially support Docker?

Hosting Rails applications is complicated. Even if you already have Postgres, Redis and Ruby installed on your server, you still need to worry about running and monitoring your Sidekiq and Rails processes, as well as configuring Nginx. With Docker, our fully optimized Discourse configuration is available to you in a simple container, along with a web-based GUI that makes upgrading to new versions of Discourse as easy as clicking a button.

### Hardware Requirements

- modern single core CPU, dual core recommended
- 1 GB RAM minimum (with [swap][swap])
- 64 bit Linux compatible with Docker
- 10 GB disk space minimum

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paulfromsurrey · March 18, 2024, 3:54am

I am hoping to get some more information how to install on virtual where other websites are running

Joe · March 18, 2024, 4:54am

It’s no different in Virtualmin (vs virtual hosting Discourse behind Apache on a system without Virtualmin). You’d proxy to the Docker-contained server running it.

This is a reasonable discussion on the topic (be careful if doing additional searches, the top result when searching for this is an insane guide that proxies through both Apache and HAProxy, which is a ridiculous thing to do):

nginx is pretty similar, if you’re using it. I’m sure there’s docs for that, too. But, as with Apache, if you see a crazy bunch of stuff in the mix, it’s probably wrong. This is not complicated and doesn’t need a bunch of extra software! Apache (or nginx) can proxy to a Docker container very easily with no additional stuff! Anything that suggests nginx+Apache is also crazy and senselessly complicated. Just Apache and mod_proxy will do the thing, assuming Docker is configured to expose the app on a local file socket (a local port would also work, but on a shared virtual hosting system, file sockets are safer, because a file, or rather the directory the file is in, can be owned by the user that owns the app).

Joe · March 18, 2024, 4:57am

I’ve discussed this in the past, as well. But, the most important thing is:

ProxyPass / unix:/var/discourse/shared/socket-only/nginx.http.sock|http://localhost/
ProxyPassReverse  / unix:/var/discourse/shared/socket-only/nginx.http.sock|http://localhost/

Note the socket can be wherever you put the Discourse directory, including in a domain owner home directory. This is just the path you’d use if installing Discourse exactly according to the docs, and then changed Docker to listen on a socket rather than directly on an IP and port 80/443 (which can’t happen on your Virtualmin system because Apache or nginx is already there).

Joe · March 18, 2024, 4:58am

And, as always, if you want to use Let’s Encrypt in Virtualmin or via certbot using web validation, you’d also need to exclude the .well-known path, and let it be served from the file system. Again, this is always true, nothing special about Discourse or Virtualmin being involved.