# Discourse Install Guide on Ubuntu ## Install Ubuntu 12.04 with the package groups: * Basic ubuntu server * OpenSSH server * Mail server * PostgreSQL database (9.1+) ### Configure the mail server: In our example setup, we're going to configure as a 'Satellite system', forwarding all mail to our egress servers for delivery. You'll probably want to do that unless you're handling mail on the same machine as the Discourse software. Install necessary packages: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") sudo apt-get -y install build-essential libssl-dev libyaml-dev git libtool libxslt-dev libxml2-dev redis-server libpq-dev gawk curl pngcrush ## Web Server Option: nginx At Discourse, we recommend the latest version of nginx (we like the new and shiny). To install on Ubuntu: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") # Remove any existing versions of nginx sudo apt-get remove '^nginx.*$' # Add nginx repo to sources.list cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ precise nginx deb-src http://nginx.org/packages/ubuntu/ precise nginx EOF # Add nginx key curl http://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key | sudo apt-key add - # install nginx sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install nginx ## Web Server Option: apache2 If you instead want to use apache2 to serve the static pages: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") # If you don't have apache2 yet sudo apt-get install apache2 # Edit your site details in a new apache2 config file sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-domain.com # Put these info inside and change accordingly ServerName your-domain.com ServerAlias www.your-domain.com DocumentRoot /srv/www/apps/discourse/public AllowOverride all Options -MultiViews # Custom log file locations ErrorLog /srv/www/apps/discourse/log/error.log CustomLog /srv/www/apps/discourse/access.log combined # Install the Passenger Phusion gem and run the install gem install passenger passenger-install-apache2-module # Next, we "create" a new apache2 module, passenger sudo vim /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.load # Inside paste (change the user accodingly) LoadModule passenger_module /home/YOUR-USER/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0/gems/passenger-4.0.2/libout/apache2/mod_passenger.so # Now the passenger module configuration sudo vim /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.conf # Inside, paste (change the user accodingly) PassengerRoot /home/YOUR-USER/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p0/gems/passenger-4.0.2 PassengerDefaultRuby /home/YOUR-USER/.rvm/wrappers/ruby-2.0.0-p0/ruby # Now activate them all sudo a2nsite your-domain.com sudo a2enmod passenger sudo service apache2 reload sudo service apache2 restart If you get any errors starting or reloading apache, please check the paths above - Ruby 2.0 should be there if you are using RVM, but it could get tricky. ## Install rvm and ruby environment ### RVM Option: Systemwide installation Taken from http://rvm.io/, the commands below installs RVM and users in the 'rvm' group have access to modify state: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") \curl -s -S -L https://get.rvm.io | sudo bash -s stable sudo adduser $USER rvm newgrp rvm . /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh rvm requirements # Build and install ruby rvm install 2.0.0 gem install bundler ### RVM Option: Single-user installation Another sensible option (especially if only one Ruby app is on the machine) is to install RVM isolated to a user's environment. Further instructions are below. ## Discourse setup Create discourse user: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") sudo adduser --shell /bin/bash discourse # If this fails, it's because you're doing the RVM single-user install. # In that case, you could just not run it if errors make you squirrely sudo adduser discourse rvm Give postgres DB rights to the `discourse` user: # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") sudo -u postgres createuser -s discourse sudo -u postgres psql -c "alter user discourse password 'todayisagooddaytovi';" Change to the 'discourse' user: # Run this command as your normal login (e.g. "michael"), further commands should be run as 'discourse' sudo su - discourse Install RVM if doing a single-user RVM installation: # Install RVM \curl -s -S -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable . ~/.profile # Install necessary packages for building ruby rvm requirements # If discourse does not have sudo permissions (likely the case), run: rvm --autolibs=read-fail requirements # and rvm will tell you which packages you (or your sysadmin) need # to install before it can proceed. Do that and then resume next: Continue with discourse installation # Build and install ruby rvm install 2.0.0 gem install bundler # Pull down the latest release git clone git://github.com/discourse/discourse.git cd discourse git checkout latest-release # Install necessary gems bundle install --deployment _If you have errors building the native extensions, ensure you have sufficient free system memory. 1GB with no swap won't cut it._ Configure discourse: # Run these commands as the discourse user cd ~/discourse/config cp database.yml.production-sample database.yml cp redis.yml.sample redis.yml cp discourse.pill.sample discourse.pill cp environments/production.rb.sample environments/production.rb Edit discourse/config/database.yml - change production db name if appropriate - change username/password if appropriate - set db_id if using multisite - change `host_names` to the name you'll use to access the discourse site Edit discourse/config/redis.yml - no changes if this is the only application using redis, but have a look Edit discourse/config/discourse.pill - change application name from 'discourse' if necessary - Ensure appropriate Bluepill.application line is uncommented - search for "host to run on" and change to current hostname - note: clockwork should run on only one host Edit discourse/config/initializers/secret_token.rb - uncomment secret_token line - replace SET_SECRET_HERE with secret output from 'rake secret' command in discourse directory - delete the lines below as per instructions in the file Edit discourse/config/environments/production.rb - check settings, modify smtp settings if necessary - See http://meta.discourse.org/t/all-of-my-internal-users-show-as-coming-from-127-0-0-1/6607 if this will serve "internal" users Initialize the database: # Run these commands as the discourse user # The database name here should match the production one in database.yml createdb discourse_prod RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile ## nginx setup # Run these commands as your normal login (e.g. "michael") sudo cp ~discourse/discourse/config/nginx.sample.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf Edit /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf - edit `server_name`. Example: `server_name cain.discourse.org test.cain.discourse.org;` - change socket paths if discourse is installed to a different location - modify root location if discourse is installed to a different location Reload nginx by running # Run as your normal login (e.g. "michael") sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload ## Bluepill setup Configure bluepill: # Run these commands as the discourse user gem install bluepill echo 'alias bluepill="bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill"' >> ~/.bash_aliases rvm wrapper $(rvm current) bootup bluepill rvm wrapper $(rvm current) bootup bundle Start Discourse: # Run these commands as the discourse user RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ROOT=~/discourse RAILS_ENV=production NUM_WEBS=4 bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill load ~/discourse/config/discourse.pill Add the bluepill startup to crontab. # Run these commands as the discourse user crontab -e Add the following line: @reboot RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ROOT=~/discourse RAILS_ENV=production NUM_WEBS=4 bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill load ~/discourse/config/discourse.pill Congratulations! You've got Discourse installed and running! ## Updating Discourse # Run these commands as the discourse user bluepill stop # Pull down the latest release cd discourse git checkout master git pull git fetch --tags # To run on the latest version instead of bleeding-edge: #git checkout latest-release bundle install --deployment RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=900000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile cd bluepill start