Discourse & Mail in Box

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#1

I can see this community is the correct place to ask.

I have a cloud server running a Discourse Meta I was wondering if there is a method to install Mail-In-a-Box on the same cloud server. If so would prefer to do so without having to use 4 example an unsupported Discourse install like Docker Compose If doable can I use the same domain but with the prefix to the domain being for example mail.domain com with discourse being www.domain com?

What are the pros and cons?

Or isnit better to setup a new cloud server? If so can I link the new server to the same domain with the mail.domain com?

I only want a dedicated mail server for my forum.

#2

You have to run a separate VPS dedicated to Mail-in-a-Box. There is no option to run both together.

Yes, you can absolutely do this. You’ll need a decent understanding of DNS to get things right, but it is not a problem to do.

If you need assistance setting this up you can open a ticket at EmailSetupHelp :: Support Ticket System and I will be happy to assist.

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#3

Awesome thank you for the speedy response! This will still be considerable savings vs paying for a mail server.

What would you recommend for minimal vps(cloud) config?

  1. 1cpu 1g ram 20g 1tb transfer
  2. 1cpu 2g ram 50g 2tb transfer
  3. 2cpu 4g ram 80g 4tb transfer

My provider has easy plan changes. Should I need to upgrade plan later to a higger tier.

Now I already have a domain for my discourse. Can I use the same domain with a different prefix? ie server on mail.domain with my forum on www.domain?

#4

Could you elaborate on that comment?? I am curious what you mean as honestly, MiaB is a mail server. :slight_smile:

Unless your forum is huge and you are sending 100’s of messages a minute, the minimal specs should be quite sufficient.

That can be done, yes. DNS may be a little bit tricky as I mentioned before as there are a couple of questions/considerations to take into consideration first. Besides the “subdomain” for the mail server, which domain/sub-domain will the forum messages be sent from, and does the domain also have other email service elsewhere that needs to be maintained, etc?

#5

My apologies as am just waking up & coffee has not taken effect as of yet.

I meant compared to going with a mail server hosted plan ie mailgun. :wink:

Awesome as that is very economical! :beers: :sunglasses::+1:

Okay with domain registar I have went with google. As for email I did go with workspaces base plan to have business email helio@domain. Though don’t think this will complicate using the a mail server ap?

#6

Gotcha! Just curious - I didn’t know if Discourse was ‘selling’ mail servers as a paid option for instance.

Yeah, just try to avoid Digital Ocean… they don’t do a very good job of protecting their IP reputation.

Choice of registrar is a personal preference really. Google is meh IMHO, mainly because they have different ways to access DNS based on, well not sure really. It just seems that they’re more complicated unnecessarily than other registrars at times. /shrug
If you have Workspace for the domain, that does bring in one of those complications I was talking about … to best handle things you need to decide - ditch Workspace and host email on the MiaB for the root domain as well OR use a different 'sub’domain for the Discourse forum emails. You cannot have hello@domain hosted by Workspace, as well as forum@domain hosted by MiaB. You CAN however have something like forum@mail.domain hosted by MiaB and leave the other alone … This is where the more advanced DNS knowledge comes in.

#7

Cool I went with google as it provided ease of https cert. I am sure there are likely better potential options out there.

I do really appreciate your time and answers.

So might be best to use a seperate domain from forum application. As this could also be handy if I build other forums at a later date to use the same mail server ap. I imagine this can also create an extra layer of protection & not complicate dns setup vs what I had asked as each server has it’s own ip.

#8

Ya know, if you used a separate domain to host the MiaB on, that may be ideal … i.e. heliosurgemail.net or something … :slight_smile: Then the MiaB server mail.heliosurgemail.net can be the MX record (email host) for heliodiscourse.forum and otherforum.net, etc. :slight_smile: You DO NOT NEED a second domain name, but many do find it preferable. :slight_smile:

You’re still going to have some DNS trickery to deal with, but it will be much less involved. If you are going to register a second domain (i.e. don’t already have it) might I recommend using Gandi? In that case it is super easy to set up Secondary DNS for the domain that is hosting the mail server which is highly recommended.

ETA: Gandi also makes it easy to configure Glue records, unlike Google. Just saying…

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#9

Thank you again. This gives me a solid starting point.

If I might make a couple if suggestions to improve miab forum?

  1. Consider using Air theme it is a full polished theme that is very polished and easy setup. You can preview it on meta via a link.

  2. Docs plugin - will make it easier to build a how to section(category) was sponsored by Western digital iirc so can check there to see it in action. There iscalso a docs card filter Theme-componet

  3. Solved Plugin - This allows a category to have an option for an op to choose a best answer as a solution that gets added to Op’s first post (set category to goto first post)

If you need help can provide guidance on how to with pics.

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#10

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