Discourse

Deploy Discourse, a self-hosted, open source discussion platform that provides a forum, mailing list, chat room, and more.

Set up SMTP before deployment

Discourse requires that you have access to a personal SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server before installation.

This requires either having access to a pre-existing SMTP server or setting up an SMTP relay service through a third party, like Bird, Twilio, Mailjet, Mailgun, or another provider. Linode doesn't offer an SMTP relay service at this time.

You need an SMTP username and password for a server under your control to complete the installation.

Additionally, the SMTP user must be able to send email from noreply@your-domain.com for administrator account verification.

For example, if you enter a subdomain of discourse and your domain name is example.com, then the SMTP user must be able to send email from noreply@discourse.example.com.
You aren't required to use a subdomain. Therefore, if you only set up example.com without a subdomain, the email used for verification would be noreply@example.com.

See also our guides for details on configuring an email server on a Linode.

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Email restrictions on Akamai Cloud
Outbound connections on ports 25, 465, and 587 are blocked by default on Linode instances for some new accounts to help reduce spam originating from our platform. These restrictions prevent applications from sending email. If you intend to send email from a Linode instance, review the Send email on Akamai Cloud guide to learn more about our email policies and to request the removal of these restrictions.

1. Deploy Discourse

Estimated deployment time: 15–20 minutes

Follow the deployment instructions from the Get started section to configure the app, deploy it, and verify software installation.

For information on the app-specific configurations, see the Configuration options section.

Software included

Software installed on your Linode when deploying the app.

Package	Description
Discourse	An open source discussion platform.
Docker	A container management runtime.

Base distribution and plan

Supported distribution: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Recommended plans: 4GB Shared Compute Instance

Configuration options

Configure the required options to deploy your instance. For additional customization, add advanced options.

The table maps the Cloud Manager UI fields to their corresponding API/CLI keys (stackscript_data) required for automated deployments.

StackScript ID: 688891

UI field	API/CLI key	Description
Required options
Limited sudo user	`user_name`	Your preferred username for the limited sudo user, entered without any capital letters, spaces, or special characters. When adding a limited sudo user, the account is assigned to the `sudo` group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the `sudo` prefix. Note: For easier and more secure access with the sudo user, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user during deployment and select that user as an `authorized_user`. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both the root and limited sudo users.
Admin email address	`discourse_admin_email`	The Dicourse admin email address.
Admin username	`discourse_admin_username`	The admin username used to log in to Discourse.
SMTP server address	`smtp_address`	The address for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Discourse uses this for sending emails.
SMTP username	`smtp_user_name`	The username for the SMTP account. The SMTP user must be able to send emails from noreply@your-fully-qualified-domain.com for account verification.
SMTP password	`smtp_password`	The password for the SMTP account.
Dicourse notification email	`smtp_notification_email`	The Dicourse notification email.
Advanced options
Disable root access over SSH	`disable_root`	Applies to a limited sudo user. To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. Defaults to No. Note: When you disable the root user from logging in over SSH and don't provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the `authorized_user`, you can still switch to the root user. To do that, log in as root via the Lish console and run `cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials` to view the generated password for the limited sudo user.
Linode API token	`token_password`	Applies to a custom domain. The Linode API token if you want to use Linode's DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain. Follow Manage personal access tokens to get your token on your account with `Read/Write` access to `Domains`. If you provide the token along with the subdomain and domain, the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. If you don't provide the token, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
Subdomain	`subdomain`	Applies to a custom domain. The subdomain you want to use, like `blog` for `blog.example.com`. Requires a Linode API token.
Domain	`domain`	Applies to a custom domain. The domain name you want to use, like `example.com`. Requires a Linode API token.
SMTP port	`smtp_port`	The SMTP port used to send mail. Defaults to 587.
Optional data exporter Add-ons	`add_ons`	An option to include add-ons for your deployment. Possible values are: none (default) node_exporter mysqld_exporter newrelic

Notes:

After the app deployment completes, the password for your limited sudo user is generated and stored in the .credentials file in the home directory, along with application-specific passwords. Log in to your instance as root through the Lish console or SSH, then run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view its contents.

You can automatically configure a custom domain (optional) during deployment. To do that:

First, configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers via your registrar. See Configure your domain's authoritative name servers for details.

Once you complete that, specify the Linode API token, subdomain, and domain for the app in Cloud Manager or via API/CLI/Terraform.

Use API, CLI, or Terraform

In addition to deploying the app to a new Linode instance via Cloud Manager, you can also use the Linode API, CLI, or Terraform. When running the operation, you need to provide the StackScript ID, supported Linux distribution, and app-specific fields along with the standard Linode deployment configurations.

Note: Generate a personal access token to authenticate your API, CLI, or Terraform requests.

curl --location 'https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/instances' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Accept: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer abc123def456hij789klm' \
    --data-raw '{
        "region": "us-east",
        "type": "g6-standard-2",
        "image": "linode/ubuntu24.04",
        "label": "my-discourse-one-click-app",
        "root_pass": "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd",
        "stackscript_id": 688891,
        "stackscript_data": {
            "user_name": "jsmith",
            "discourse_admin_email": "admin@example.com",
            "discourse_admin_username": "admin",
            "smtp_address": "smtp.example.com",
            "smtp_user_name": "smtp-jsmith",
            "smtp_password": "P@ssw0rd1234",
            "smtp_notification_email": "noreply@example.com"
        }
    }'

linode-cli linodes create \
    --region us-east \
    --type g6-standard-2 \
    --label my-discourse-one-click-app \
    --image linode/ubuntu24.04 \
    --root_pass @C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd \
    --stackscript_id 688891 \
    --stackscript_data '{"user_name":"jsmith", "discourse_admin_email":"admin@example.com", "discourse_admin_username":"admin", "smtp_address":"smtp.example.com", "smtp_user_name":"smtp-jsmith", "smtp_password":"P@ssw0rd1234", "smtp_notification_email":"noreply@example.com"}'

resource "linode_instance" "my-linode" {
    region         = "us-east"
    type           = "g6-standard-2"
    label          = "my-discourse-one-click-app"
    image          = "linode/ubuntu24.04"
    root_pass      = "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd"
    stackscript_id = 688891
    stackscript_data = {
        "user_name"                = "jsmith"
        "discourse_admin_email"    = "admin@example.com"
        "discourse_admin_username" = "admin"
        "smtp_address"             = "smtp.example.com"
        "smtp_user_name"           = "smtp-jsmith"
        "smtp_password"            = "P@ssw0rd1234"
        "smtp_notification_email"  = "noreply@example.com"
    }
}

2. Access Discourse

Once the app is deployed, you can start using Discourse. To do that:

Navigate to the Discourse app in your browser with the fully qualified domain name you entered during configuration. For example, https://subdomain.your-domain.com or https://your-domain.com.
Discourse then launches the main discussion listing page where you can start adding discussion topics.

Additional resources

For more information about the installed packages, see their official documentation.

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