About this discourse instance

#1

I host this on a 2GB DigitalOcean droplet ($10/month) as the recommended configuration is at least 2GB RAM. Discourse setup was fairly straightforward except for two gotchas. Changes to the configuration include:

Email configuration

I used zoho email and since it has 2FA enabled I needed to use app-specific password instead of the account password for the activation step to work.

Activation email

  1. To the send the activation email
    a) stop container: sudo ./launcher stop app
    b) uncomment and update SiteSetting.notification_email in /var/discourse/containers/app.yml
    c) rebuild the container: sudo ./launcher rebuild app

  2. once activation and setup process are complete
    a) stop container: sudo ./launcher stop app
    b) comment the SiteSetting.notification_email attribute
    c) rebuild the container: sudo ./launcher rebuild app

#2

A few days after I set it up, I updated the domain/sub-domain.

I ran sudo ./discourse-setup in /var/discourse/ and updated the Hostname attribute and left the rest as earlier.

Login didn’t work as expected, I reset the password by sending an email.

#3

Downgraded the instance to a 1GB one ($5/mo). Discourse restore from backup worked smoothly.