Discourse is a simple and clean, open-source forum platform built with Ruby on Rails. This tutorial describes how to install Discourse on a CentOS 7 Cloud VPS.
Before we start installing Discourse, ensure that you have the following minimum versions installed on your VPS:
- Ruby version 2.3+
- PostgreSQL version 9.3+
- Redis 2.6+
In this tutorial, we will cover the installation of all these requirements.
Login to your CentOS 7 VPS via SSH as user root
ssh root@IP_Address
and update all services installed on your VPS
yum -y update
Install the following dependencies
yum install -y patch libyaml-devel patch readline-devel libffi-devel openssl-devel bzip2 libtool bison sqlite-devel sudo
Create a new system user for Discourse
adduser --shell /bin/bash discourse mkdir /var/www/discourse install -d -m 755 -o discourse -g discourse /var/www/discourse
Install Nginx web server, start it and enable it to automatically start on boot
yum install nginx systemctl start nginx systemctl enable nginx
Discourse uses Redis as key-value data store cache. Run the following command to install Redis on your VPS
yum install redis
Once it is installed, start Redis and enable it to start at system boot
systemctl start redis systemctl enable redis
Install a mail server on your VPS
yum install -y postfix
Configure postfix based on your requirements and setup.
Discourse stores its data in a PostgreSQL database, so now, we will install PostgreSQL server
yum install postgresql-server postgresql-devel postgresql-contrib
Create a new PostgreSQL database cluster:
postgresql-setup initdb
And run the following commands to start the SQL server and enable it to start on boot
systemctl start postgresql systemctl enable postgresql
Create a Discourse database user
su postgres createuser -s discourse psql -c "alter user discourse password 'PASSWORD';" exit
Install RVM
su discourse curl -s -S -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable rvm install ruby
And now install Ruby using RVM
rvm install ruby bash --login rvm use ruby
You can check if Ruby is properly installed using the following command
ruby -v ruby 2.3.3p222 (2016-11-21 revision 56859) [x86_64-linux]
Install Bundler
gem install bundler Fetching: bundler-1.13.7.gem (100%) Successfully installed bundler-1.13.7 Parsing documentation for bundler-1.13.7 Installing ri documentation for bundler-1.13.7 Done installing documentation for bundler after 5 seconds 1 gem installed
Install and setup Bluepill
gem install bluepill echo 'alias bluepill="NOEXEC_DISABLE=1 bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill"' >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc rvm wrapper $(rvm current) bootup bluepill rvm wrapper $(rvm current) bootup bundle
and create a cronjob for Bluepill
crontab -e @reboot RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ROOT=/var/www/discourse RAILS_ENV=production NUM_WEBS=2 /home/discourse/.rvm/bin/bootup_bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill load /var/www/discourse/config/discourse.pill
Pull down Discourse from their official GitHub account
cd /var/www/discourse git clone git://github.com/discourse/discourse.git .
Create configuration files and setup Discourse
cp config/discourse.pill.sample config/discourse.pill cp config/discourse_defaults.conf config/discourse.conf
Edit the discourse.conf file and enter your hostname, all necessary information about the PostgreSQL database and user and your mail server information.
Create and initialize Discourse PostgreSQL database
createdb discourse RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile
Now, execute the following command to start Discourse
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ROOT=/var/www/discourse RAILS_ENV=production NUM_WEBS=2 bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill load /var/www/discourse/config/discourse.pill exit
Create Nginx configuration files and configure it for Discourse
cp /var/www/discourse/config/nginx.global.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/local-server.conf cp var/www/discourse/config/nginx.sample.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf mkdir -p /var/nginx/cache
edit the /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf file, change the server_name with your domain name.
Restart nginx for the changes to take effect.
systemctl restart nginx
If you closely followed this tutorial, you will able to access Discourse in your favorite web browser at http://yourdomain.tld . For more information about Discourse please visit their official website.
Of course, you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of our Linux Cloud VPS Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to install this on your server for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.
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Hi, great guide!
I’m following it, but there are a few errors I’m getting… I’m using latest CentOS 7.
ruby version currently is: ruby 2.4.0p0 (2016-12-24 revision 57164) [x86_64-linux]
The errors appear when I execute:
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate
And this is the output:
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/rake-11.2.2/lib/rake/ext/fixnum.rb:4: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/sprockets-3.6.3/lib/sprockets/digest_utils.rb:47: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/sprockets-3.6.3/lib/sprockets/digest_utils.rb:51: warning: constant ::Bignum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/sprockets-3.6.3/lib/sprockets/processor_utils.rb:110: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/sprockets-3.6.3/lib/sprockets/processor_utils.rb:111: warning: constant ::Bignum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/concurrent-ruby-1.0.2/lib/concurrent/map.rb:206: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/thread_safe-0.3.5/lib/thread_safe/cache.rb:155: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/redis-3.3.1/lib/redis/client.rb:459: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/thread_safe-0.3.5/lib/thread_safe/cache.rb:155: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:121: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:121: warning: constant ::Bignum is deprecated
rake aborted!
SystemStackError: stack level too deep
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:124:in `block (2 levels) in ‘
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:131:in `block (2 levels) in ‘
…..
[like a thousand lines ommited with the same output]
…..
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:131:in `block (2 levels) in ‘
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/conversions.rb:131:in `block (2 levels) in ‘
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/bundler-1.14.6/lib/bundler/rubygems_integration.rb:352:in `!~’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/bundler-1.14.6/lib/bundler/rubygems_integration.rb:352:in `block (2 levels) in replace_gem’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.7.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/postgresql_adapter.rb:16:in `’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `block in require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:240:in `load_dependency’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.7.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/connection_specification.rb:175:in `spec’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.7.1/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:50:in `establish_connection’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.7.1/lib/active_record/railtie.rb:120:in `block (2 levels) in ‘
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:38:in `instance_eval’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:38:in `execute_hook’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:28:in `block in on_load’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:27:in `each’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:27:in `on_load’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activerecord-4.2.7.1/lib/active_record/railtie.rb:116:in `block in ‘
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `instance_exec’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `run’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:55:in `block in run_initializers’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `run_initializers’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/application.rb:352:in `initialize!’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/railtie.rb:194:in `public_send’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/railtie.rb:194:in `method_missing’
/opt/discourse/config/environment.rb:5:in `’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `block in require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:240:in `load_dependency’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/activesupport-4.2.7.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:274:in `require’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/application.rb:328:in `require_environment!’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/railties-4.2.7.1/lib/rails/application.rb:457:in `block in run_tasks_blocks’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/rake-11.2.2/exe/rake:27:in `’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `eval’
/home/discourse/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `’
Tasks: TOP => db:migrate => environment
(See full trace by running task with –trace)
And the same happens with the next command:
RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile
Do you know what’s wrong with this? Unfortunately I don’t have experience with ruby deploys…
Thanks in advance!!
Try to update Ruby to the latest version.
Hi admin,
Thanks for your fast reply!
I’ve checked that, according to https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/, ruby 2.4.0 seems to be the latest version…
Do you consider the docker version of discourse to be production-ready?
Thanks again!!
Thank you, can you make a tutorial about installing discourse on ubuntu without docker too?
We will create a new tutorial on how to install Discourse on an Ubuntu VPS as soon as possible.
Thanks.