Manual deployment

Manual deployment gives you complete control over your oForum installation. This guide covers binary installation, PostgreSQL setup, systemd services, and reverse proxy configuration.

Prerequisites

You’ll need:

Server: Linux (amd64/arm64) or macOS
PostgreSQL: Version 12 or higher
Reverse proxy: nginx or Caddy (for SSL/TLS)
Root access: For systemd service installation

Installing oForum

Automated installation

The easiest way to install oForum:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arcten/oforum/main/install.sh | sudo sh

This installs the binary to /usr/local/bin/oforum.

Manual installation

Or download pre-built binaries from the releases page:

Download the binary

# For Linux amd64
wget https://github.com/arcten/oforum/releases/latest/download/oforum-linux-amd64

# For Linux arm64
wget https://github.com/arcten/oforum/releases/latest/download/oforum-linux-arm64

# For macOS
wget https://github.com/arcten/oforum/releases/latest/download/oforum-darwin-amd64

Make it executable

chmod +x oforum-linux-amd64
sudo mv oforum-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/oforum

Verify installation

oforum version

You should see:

oforum v0.0.2

Building from source

If you prefer to build from source:

git clone https://github.com/arcten/oforum.git
cd oforum
go build -o oforum .
sudo mv oforum /usr/local/bin/

Requires Go 1.21 or higher.

PostgreSQL setup

Installing PostgreSQL

sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib
sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Creating the database

Switch to postgres user

sudo -u postgres psql

Create user and database

CREATE USER oforum WITH PASSWORD 'your_secure_password';
CREATE DATABASE oforum OWNER oforum;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE oforum TO oforum;
\q

Test the connection

psql -U oforum -d oforum -h localhost

Enter the password when prompted. If you can connect, you’re ready.

Securing PostgreSQL

Edit /etc/postgresql/*/main/pg_hba.conf (path may vary):

pg_hba.conf

# Allow password authentication for oforum user
local   oforum          oforum                                  md5
host    oforum          oforum          127.0.0.1/32            md5

Reload PostgreSQL:

sudo systemctl reload postgresql

Configuring oForum

Create environment file

Create a configuration directory:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/oforum
sudo chmod 755 /etc/oforum

Run the interactive setup:

cd /etc/oforum
sudo oforum init

Or create .env manually:

.env

DATABASE_URL=postgres://oforum:your_secure_password@localhost:5432/oforum?sslmode=disable
PORT=8080

Protect your .env file:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/oforum/.env
sudo chown root:root /etc/oforum/.env

Run migrations

cd /etc/oforum
sudo oforum migrate

You should see:

⟳ Running migrations...
✓ Migrations applied

Test the server

Start oForum manually to verify everything works:

cd /etc/oforum
sudo oforum

Visit http://localhost:8080. If it works, stop the server (Ctrl+C) and set up systemd.

Systemd service

Create a systemd service to run oForum automatically:

Create service file

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/oforum.service

Add this configuration:

/etc/systemd/system/oforum.service

[Unit]
Description=oForum - Minimal Self-Hostable Forum
After=network.target postgresql.service
Requires=postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/etc/oforum
EnvironmentFile=/etc/oforum/.env
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/oforum
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=oforum

# Security hardening
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateTmp=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
ReadWritePaths=/etc/oforum

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Set permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /etc/oforum

Enable and start service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable oforum
sudo systemctl start oforum

Check status

sudo systemctl status oforum

You should see:

● oforum.service - oForum - Minimal Self-Hostable Forum
   Active: active (running)

View logs

sudo journalctl -u oforum -f

Reverse proxy setup

oForum serves plain HTTP. Use a reverse proxy for SSL/TLS termination:

nginx

Install nginx

sudo apt install nginx

Create site configuration

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/oforum

/etc/nginx/sites-available/oforum

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name forum.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Enable site

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/oforum /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Caddy (easier SSL)

Caddy automatically provisions SSL certificates:

Install Caddy

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

Create Caddyfile

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

/etc/caddy/Caddyfile

forum.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

That’s it! Caddy handles HTTPS automatically.

Reload Caddy

sudo systemctl reload caddy

SSL/TLS with Let’s Encrypt (nginx)

For nginx, use Certbot to get free SSL certificates:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d forum.yourdomain.com

Certbot will:

Verify domain ownership
Obtain SSL certificate
Automatically configure nginx
Set up auto-renewal

Test renewal:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Updates and maintenance

Updating oForum

sudo oforum update
sudo systemctl restart oforum

Or manually:

wget https://github.com/arcten/oforum/releases/latest/download/oforum-linux-amd64
chmod +x oforum-linux-amd64
sudo mv oforum-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/oforum
sudo systemctl restart oforum

Database backups

Automate PostgreSQL backups:

#!/bin/bash
# /usr/local/bin/backup-oforum.sh

BACKUP_DIR="/var/backups/oforum"
DATABASE="oforum"
USER="oforum"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR
pg_dump -U $USER -h localhost $DATABASE | gzip > $BACKUP_DIR/oforum_$DATE.sql.gz

# Keep only last 7 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -name "oforum_*.sql.gz" -mtime +7 -delete

Make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/backup-oforum.sh

Add to crontab (daily at 2 AM):

sudo crontab -e

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup-oforum.sh

Monitoring

Check service health:

sudo systemctl status oforum
sudo journalctl -u oforum --since "1 hour ago"

Monitor resource usage:

top -p $(pgrep oforum)

Troubleshooting

Service won’t start

Check logs:

sudo journalctl -u oforum -n 50

Verify environment file:

sudo cat /etc/oforum/.env

Database connection errors

Test PostgreSQL connection:

psql -U oforum -d oforum -h localhost

Check PostgreSQL is running:

sudo systemctl status postgresql

Permission denied errors

Fix ownership:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /etc/oforum
sudo chmod 600 /etc/oforum/.env

Next steps

Environment variables reference
Security best practices
Set up monitoring with your preferred tools (Prometheus, Grafana, etc.)

Get Started

Self-Hosting

User Guide

Administration

CLI Reference

Manual deployment

Prerequisites

Installing oForum

Automated installation

Manual installation

Building from source

PostgreSQL setup

Installing PostgreSQL

Creating the database

Securing PostgreSQL

Configuring oForum

Create environment file

Run migrations

Test the server

Systemd service

View logs

Reverse proxy setup

nginx

Caddy (easier SSL)

SSL/TLS with Let’s Encrypt (nginx)

Updates and maintenance

Updating oForum

Database backups

Monitoring

Troubleshooting

Service won’t start

Database connection errors

Permission denied errors

Next steps

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Self-Hosting

User Guide

Administration

CLI Reference

​Prerequisites

​Installing oForum

​Automated installation

​Manual installation

​Building from source

​PostgreSQL setup

​Installing PostgreSQL

​Creating the database

​Securing PostgreSQL

​Configuring oForum

​Create environment file

​Run migrations

​Test the server

​Systemd service

​View logs

​Reverse proxy setup

​nginx

​Caddy (easier SSL)

​SSL/TLS with Let’s Encrypt (nginx)

​Updates and maintenance

​Updating oForum

​Database backups

​Monitoring

​Troubleshooting

​Service won’t start

​Database connection errors

​Permission denied errors

​Next steps

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Prerequisites

Installing oForum

Automated installation

Manual installation

Building from source

PostgreSQL setup

Installing PostgreSQL

Creating the database

Securing PostgreSQL

Configuring oForum

Create environment file

Run migrations

Test the server

Systemd service

View logs

Reverse proxy setup

nginx

Caddy (easier SSL)

SSL/TLS with Let’s Encrypt (nginx)

Updates and maintenance

Updating oForum

Database backups

Monitoring

Troubleshooting

Service won’t start

Database connection errors

Permission denied errors

Next steps