How to install Discourse on a Cloud VPS

Discourse is the leading open-source forum and community platform, with modern discussions, moderation tools and a rich plugin ecosystem.

Self-hosted communication keeps your team conversations on your own server, with full data control and no history limits.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: Discourse installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick Discourse from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
apt-get install -y git
FQDN="$(hostname -s).cloudlinux.ro"
git clone https://github.com/discourse/discourse_docker.git /var/discourse
cd /var/discourse
cp samples/standalone.yml containers/app.yml
sed -i "s|DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME:.*|DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME: ${FQDN}|" containers/app.yml
sed -i "s|DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS:.*|DISCOURSE_DEVELOPER_EMAILS: 'admin@${FQDN}'|" containers/app.yml
./launcher bootstrap app
./launcher start app
printf 'Discourse: http://%s\nIMPORTANT: emailul este obligatoriu pentru conturi. Configureaza SMTP in /var/discourse/containers/app.yml (DISCOURSE_SMTP_*), apoi ruleaza: cd /var/discourse && ./launcher rebuild app\nCreeaza administratorul cu: cd /var/discourse && ./launcher enter app && rake admin:create\n' "$FQDN" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.