charts/bitnami/discourse

Discourse® packaged by Bitnami

Discourse is an open source discussion platform with built-in moderation and governance systems that let discussion communities protect themselves from bad actors even without official moderators.

Overview of Discourse®

Trademarks: This software listing is packaged by Bitnami. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offering are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

TL;DR

helm install my-release oci://registry-1.docker.io/bitnamicharts/discourse

Looking to use Discoursereg; in production? Try VMware Tanzu Application Catalog, the commercial edition of the Bitnami catalog.

⚠️ Important Notice: Upcoming changes to the Bitnami Catalog

Beginning August 28th, 2025, Bitnami will evolve its public catalog to offer a curated set of hardened, security-focused images under the new Bitnami Secure Images initiative. As part of this transition:

• Granting community users access for the first time to security-optimized versions of popular container images.
• Bitnami will begin deprecating support for non-hardened, Debian-based software images in its free tier and will gradually remove non-latest tags from the public catalog. As a result, community users will have access to a reduced number of hardened images. These images are published only under the “latest” tag and are intended for development purposes
• Starting August 28th, over two weeks, all existing container images, including older or versioned tags (e.g., 2.50.0, 10.6), will be migrated from the public catalog (docker.io/bitnami) to the “Bitnami Legacy” repository (docker.io/bitnamilegacy), where they will no longer receive updates.
• For production workloads and long-term support, users are encouraged to adopt Bitnami Secure Images, which include hardened containers, smaller attack surfaces, CVE transparency (via VEX/KEV), SBOMs, and enterprise support.

These changes aim to improve the security posture of all Bitnami users by promoting best practices for software supply chain integrity and up-to-date deployments. For more details, visit the Bitnami Secure Images announcement.

Introduction

This chart bootstraps a Discourse deployment on a Kubernetes cluster using the Helm package manager.

It also packages Bitnami Postgresql and Bitnami Redis® which are required as databases for the Discourse application.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes 1.23+
• Helm 3.8.0+
• PV provisioner support in the underlying infrastructure
• ReadWriteMany volumes for deployment scaling

Installing the Chart

To install the chart with the release name my-release:

helm install my-release oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

The command deploys Discourse on the Kubernetes cluster in the default configuration. The Parameters section lists the parameters that can be configured during installation.

Tip

: List all releases using helm list

Configuration and installation details

Resource requests and limits

Bitnami charts allow setting resource requests and limits for all containers inside the chart deployment. These are inside the resources value (check parameter table). Setting requests is essential for production workloads and these should be adapted to your specific use case.

To make this process easier, the chart contains the resourcesPreset values, which automatically sets the resources section according to different presets. Check these presets in the bitnami/common chart. However, in production workloads using resourcesPreset is discouraged as it may not fully adapt to your specific needs. Find more information on container resource management in the official Kubernetes documentation.

Rolling VS Immutable tags

It is strongly recommended to use immutable tags in a production environment. This ensures your deployment does not change automatically if the same tag is updated with a different image.

Bitnami will release a new chart updating its containers if a new version of the main container, significant changes, or critical vulnerabilities exist.

Update credentials

Bitnami charts configure credentials at first boot. Any further change in the secrets or credentials require manual intervention. Follow these instructions:

• Update the user password following the upstream documentation
• Update the password secret with the new values (replace the SECRET_NAME, PASSWORD and SMTP_PASSWORD placeholders)

kubectl create secret generic SECRET_NAME --from-literal=discourse-password=PASSWORD --from-literal=smtp-password=SMTP_PASSWORD --dry-run -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Setting up replication

By default, this Chart only deploys a single pod running Discourse. Should you want to increase the number of replicas, you may follow these simple steps to ensure everything works smoothly:

Tip

: Running these steps ensures the PostgreSQL instance is correctly populated. If you already have an initialised DB, you may directly create a release with the desired number of replicas. Remind to set discourse.skipInstall to true!

1. Create a conventional release, that will be scaled later:

   helm install my-release oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse
   ...
   

   Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

2. Wait for the release to complete and Discourse to be running successfully.

   $ kubectl get pods
   NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
   my-release-discourse-744c48dd97-wx5h9   2/2     Running   0          5m11s
   my-release-postgresql-0                 1/1     Running   0          5m10s
   my-release-redis-master-0               1/1     Running   0          5m11s
   

3. Perform an upgrade specifying the number of replicas and the credentials used.

   helm upgrade my-release --set replicaCount=2,discourse.skipInstall=true oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse
   

   Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

   Note that for this to work properly, you need to provide ReadWriteMany PVCs. If you don't have a provisioner for this type of storage, we recommend that you install the NFS provisioner chart (with the correct parameters, such as persistence.enabled=true and persistence.size=10Gi) and map it to a RWO volume.

   Then you can deploy Discourse chart using the proper parameters:

   persistence.storageClass=nfs
   postgresql.primary.persistence.storageClass=nfs
   

Installing plugins

You can install custom Discourse plugins during the release installation listing the desired plugin repositories via the discourse.plugins parameter. For example:

discourse:
  plugins:
  - https://github.com/discourse/discourse-oauth2-basic

Note: By default, plugins are persisted after the 1st installation, therefore it's not possible to update them on subsequent upgrades. If you want plugins to be updated on every upgrade, set the discourse.persistPlugins parameter to false.

Sidecars

If you have a need for additional containers to run within the same pod as Discourse (e.g. metrics or logging exporter), you can do so via the sidecars config parameter. Simply define your container according to the Kubernetes container spec.

sidecars:
- name: your-image-name
  image: your-image
  imagePullPolicy: Always
  ports:
  - name: portname
   containerPort: 1234

If these sidecars export extra ports, you can add extra port definitions using the service.extraPorts value:

service:
...
  extraPorts:
  - name: extraPort
    port: 11311
    targetPort: 11311

Using an external database

Sometimes you may want to have Discourse connect to an external database rather than installing one inside your cluster, e.g. to use a managed database service, or use run a single database server for all your applications. To do this, the chart allows you to specify credentials for an external database under the externalDatabase parameter. You should also disable the PostgreSQL installation with the postgresql.enabled option. For example with the following parameters:

postgresql.enabled=false
externalDatabase.host=myexternalhost
externalDatabase.user=myuser
externalDatabase.password=mypassword
externalDatabase.postgresUser=postgres
externalDatabase.postgresPassword=rootpassword
externalDatabase.database=mydatabase
externalDatabase.port=5432

Note also that if you disable PostgreSQL per above you MUST supply values for the externalDatabase connection.

In case the database already contains data from a previous Discourse installation, you need to set the discourse.skipInstall parameter to true. Otherwise, the container would execute the installation wizard and could modify the existing data in the database. This parameter force the container to not execute the Discourse installation wizard.

Similarly, you can specify an external Redis® instance rather than installing one inside your cluster. First, you may disable the Redis® installation with the redis.enabled option. As aforementioned, used the provided parameters to provide data about your instance:

redis.enabled=false
externalRedis.host=myexternalhost
externalRedis.password=mypassword
externalRedis.port=5432

Ingress

This chart provides support for Ingress resources. If you have an ingress controller installed on your cluster, such as nginx-ingress-controller or contour you can utilize the ingress controller to serve your application. To enable Ingress integration, set ingress.enabled to true.

The most common scenario is to have one host name mapped to the deployment. In this case, the ingress.hostname property can be used to set the host name. The ingress.tls parameter can be used to add the TLS configuration for this host.

However, it is also possible to have more than one host. To facilitate this, the ingress.extraHosts parameter (if available) can be set with the host names specified as an array. The ingress.extraTLS parameter (if available) can also be used to add the TLS configuration for extra hosts.

NOTE: For each host specified in the ingress.extraHosts parameter, it is necessary to set a name, path, and any annotations that the Ingress controller should know about. Not all annotations are supported by all Ingress controllers, but this annotation reference document lists the annotations supported by many popular Ingress controllers.

Adding the TLS parameter (where available) will cause the chart to generate HTTPS URLs, and the application will be available on port 443. The actual TLS secrets do not have to be generated by this chart. However, if TLS is enabled, the Ingress record will not work until the TLS secret exists.

Learn more about Ingress controllers.

Securing traffic using TLS

This chart facilitates the creation of TLS secrets for use with the Ingress controller (although this is not mandatory). There are several common use cases:

• Generate certificate secrets based on chart parameters.
• Enable externally generated certificates.
• Manage application certificates via an external service (like cert-manager).
• Create self-signed certificates within the chart (if supported).

In the first two cases, a certificate and a key are needed. Files are expected in .pem format.

Here is an example of a certificate file:

NOTE: There may be more than one certificate if there is a certificate chain.

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIID6TCCAtGgAwIBAgIJAIaCwivkeB5EMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMFYxCzAJBgNV
...
jScrvkiBO65F46KioCL9h5tDvomdU1aqpI/CBzhvZn1c0ZTf87tGQR8NK7v7
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

Here is an example of a certificate key:

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEogIBAAKCAQEAvLYcyu8f3skuRyUgeeNpeDvYBCDcgq+LsWap6zbX5f8oLqp4
...
wrj2wDbCDCFmfqnSJ+dKI3vFLlEz44sAV8jX/kd4Y6ZTQhlLbYc=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

• If using Helm to manage the certificates based on the parameters, copy these values into the certificate and key values for a given *.ingress.secrets entry.
• If managing TLS secrets separately, it is necessary to create a TLS secret with name INGRESS_HOSTNAME-tls (where INGRESS_HOSTNAME is a placeholder to be replaced with the hostname you set using the *.ingress.hostname parameter).
• If your cluster has a cert-manager add-on to automate the management and issuance of TLS certificates, add to *.ingress.annotations the corresponding ones for cert-manager.
• If using self-signed certificates created by Helm, set both *.ingress.tls and *.ingress.selfSigned to true.

Setting Pod's affinity

This chart allows you to set your custom affinity using the affinity parameter. Find more information about Pod's affinity in the kubernetes documentation.

As an alternative, you can use of the preset configurations for pod affinity, pod anti-affinity, and node affinity available at the bitnami/common chart. To do so, set the podAffinityPreset, podAntiAffinityPreset, or nodeAffinityPreset parameters.

Backup and restore

To back up and restore Helm chart deployments on Kubernetes, you need to back up the persistent volumes from the source deployment and attach them to a new deployment using Velero, a Kubernetes backup/restore tool. Find the instructions for using Velero in this guide.

Persistence

The Bitnami Discourse image stores the Discourse data and configurations at the /bitnami path of the container.

Persistent Volume Claims are used to keep the data across deployments. This is known to work in GCE, AWS, and minikube. See the Parameters section to configure the PVC or to disable persistence.

Parameters

Global parameters

Name	Description	Value
global.imageRegistry	Global Docker image registry	""
global.imagePullSecrets	Global Docker registry secret names as an array	[]
global.defaultStorageClass	Global default StorageClass for Persistent Volume(s)	""
global.security.allowInsecureImages	Allows skipping image verification	false
global.compatibility.openshift.adaptSecurityContext	Adapt the securityContext sections of the deployment to make them compatible with Openshift restricted-v2 SCC: remove runAsUser, runAsGroup and fsGroup and let the platform use their allowed default IDs. Possible values: auto (apply if the detected running cluster is Openshift), force (perform the adaptation always), disabled (do not perform adaptation)	auto

Common parameters

Name	Description	Value
kubeVersion	Force target Kubernetes version (using Helm capabilities if not set)	""
nameOverride	String to partially override discourse.fullname template (will maintain the release name)	""
fullnameOverride	String to fully override discourse.fullname template	""
clusterDomain	Kubernetes Cluster Domain	cluster.local
commonLabels	Labels to be added to all deployed resources	{}
commonAnnotations	Annotations to be added to all deployed resources	{}
extraDeploy	Array of extra objects to deploy with the release	[]
diagnosticMode.enabled	Enable diagnostic mode (all probes will be disabled and the command will be overridden)	false
diagnosticMode.command	Command to override all containers in the the deployment(s)/statefulset(s)	["sleep"]
diagnosticMode.args	Args to override all containers in the the deployment(s)/statefulset(s)	["infinity"]

Discourse Common parameters

Name	Description	Value
image.registry	Discourse image registry	REGISTRY_NAME
image.repository	Discourse image repository	REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse
image.digest	Discourse image digest in the way sha256:aa.... Please note this parameter, if set, will override the tag	""
image.pullPolicy	Discourse image pull policy	IfNotPresent
image.pullSecrets	Discourse image pull secrets	[]
image.debug	Enable image debug mode	false
auth.email	Discourse admin user email	user@example.com
auth.username	Discourse admin user	user
auth.password	Discourse admin password. WARNING: Minimum length of 10 characters	""
auth.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret to use for Discourse credentials	""
host	Hostname to create application URLs (include the port if =/= 80)	""
siteName	Discourse site name	My Site!
smtp.enabled	Enable/disable SMTP	false
smtp.host	SMTP host name	""
smtp.port	SMTP port number	""
smtp.user	SMTP account user name	""
smtp.password	SMTP account password	""
smtp.protocol	SMTP protocol (Allowed values: tls, ssl)	""
smtp.auth	SMTP authentication method	""
smtp.existingSecret	Name of an existing Kubernetes secret. The secret must have the following key configured: smtp-password	""
replicaCount	Number of Discourse & Sidekiq replicas	1
podSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled Discourse pods' Security Context	true
podSecurityContext.fsGroupChangePolicy	Set filesystem group change policy	Always
podSecurityContext.sysctls	Set kernel settings using the sysctl interface	[]
podSecurityContext.supplementalGroups	Set filesystem extra groups	[]
podSecurityContext.fsGroup	Set Discourse pod's Security Context fsGroup	0
automountServiceAccountToken	Mount Service Account token in pod	false
hostAliases	Add deployment host aliases	[]
podAnnotations	Additional pod annotations	{}
podLabels	Additional pod labels	{}
podAffinityPreset	Pod affinity preset. Allowed values: soft, hard	""
podAntiAffinityPreset	Pod anti-affinity preset. Ignored if affinity is set. Allowed values: soft or hard	soft
nodeAffinityPreset.type	Node affinity preset type. Ignored if affinity is set. Allowed values: soft or hard	""
nodeAffinityPreset.key	Node label key to match Ignored if affinity is set.	""
nodeAffinityPreset.values	Node label values to match. Ignored if affinity is set.	[]
affinity	Affinity for pod assignment	{}
nodeSelector	Node labels for pod assignment.	{}
tolerations	Tolerations for pod assignment.	[]
topologySpreadConstraints	Topology Spread Constraints for pod assignment spread across your cluster among failure-domains. Evaluated as a template	[]
priorityClassName	Priority Class Name	""
schedulerName	Use an alternate scheduler, e.g. "stork".	""
terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Seconds Discourse pod needs to terminate gracefully	""
updateStrategy.type	Discourse deployment strategy type	RollingUpdate
updateStrategy.rollingUpdate	Discourse deployment rolling update configuration parameters	{}
sidecars	Add additional sidecar containers to the Discourse pods	[]
initContainers	Add additional init containers to the Discourse pods	[]
pdb.create	Enable/disable a Pod Disruption Budget creation	true
pdb.minAvailable	Minimum number/percentage of pods that should remain scheduled	""
pdb.maxUnavailable	Maximum number/percentage of pods that may be made unavailable. Defaults to 1 if both pdb.minAvailable and pdb.maxUnavailable are empty.	""
extraVolumeMounts	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumeMounts for the Discourse pods	[]
extraVolumes	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumes for the Discourse pods	[]

Discourse container parameters

Name	Description	Value
discourse.skipInstall	Do not run the Discourse installation wizard	false
discourse.plugins	List of plugins to be installed before the container initialization	[]
discourse.persistPlugins	Persist plugins across container restarts	true
discourse.compatiblePlugins	Updates plugins to a compatible version on container initialization	true
discourse.command	Custom command to override image cmd	[]
discourse.args	Custom args for the custom command	[]
discourse.extraEnvVars	Array with extra environment variables to add Discourse pods	[]
discourse.extraEnvVarsCM	ConfigMap containing extra environment variables for Discourse pods	""
discourse.extraEnvVarsSecret	Secret containing extra environment variables (in case of sensitive data) for Discourse pods	""
discourse.containerPorts.http	Discourse HTTP container port	8080
discourse.extraContainerPorts	Optionally specify extra list of additional ports for WordPress container(s)	[]
discourse.livenessProbe.enabled	Enable livenessProbe on Discourse containers	true
discourse.livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for livenessProbe	500
discourse.livenessProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for livenessProbe	10
discourse.livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for livenessProbe	5
discourse.livenessProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for livenessProbe	6
discourse.livenessProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for livenessProbe	1
discourse.readinessProbe.enabled	Enable readinessProbe on Discourse containers	true
discourse.readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for readinessProbe	180
discourse.readinessProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for readinessProbe	10
discourse.readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for readinessProbe	5
discourse.readinessProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for readinessProbe	6
discourse.readinessProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for readinessProbe	1
discourse.startupProbe.enabled	Enable startupProbe on Discourse containers	false
discourse.startupProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for startupProbe	60
discourse.startupProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for startupProbe	10
discourse.startupProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for startupProbe	5
discourse.startupProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for startupProbe	15
discourse.startupProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for startupProbe	1
discourse.customLivenessProbe	Custom livenessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
discourse.customReadinessProbe	Custom readinessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
discourse.customStartupProbe	Custom startupProbe that overrides the default one	{}
discourse.resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, micro, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if discourse.resources is set (discourse.resources is recommended for production).	2xlarge
discourse.resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
discourse.containerSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled containers' Security Context	true
discourse.containerSecurityContext.seLinuxOptions	Set SELinux options in container	{}
discourse.containerSecurityContext.runAsUser	Set containers' Security Context runAsUser	0
discourse.containerSecurityContext.runAsGroup	Set containers' Security Context runAsGroup	0
discourse.containerSecurityContext.runAsNonRoot	Set container's Security Context runAsNonRoot	false
discourse.containerSecurityContext.privileged	Set container's Security Context privileged	false
discourse.containerSecurityContext.readOnlyRootFilesystem	Set container's Security Context readOnlyRootFilesystem	false
discourse.containerSecurityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Set container's Security Context allowPrivilegeEscalation	false
discourse.containerSecurityContext.capabilities.drop	List of capabilities to be dropped	["ALL"]
discourse.containerSecurityContext.capabilities.add	List of capabilities to be added	["CHOWN","SYS_CHROOT","FOWNER","SETGID","SETUID","DAC_OVERRIDE"]
discourse.containerSecurityContext.seccompProfile.type	Set container's Security Context seccomp profile	RuntimeDefault
discourse.lifecycleHooks	for the Discourse container(s) to automate configuration before or after startup	{}
discourse.extraVolumeMounts	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumeMounts for the Discourse pods	[]
persistence.enabled	Enable persistence using Persistent Volume Claims	true
persistence.storageClass	Persistent Volume storage class	""
persistence.accessModes	Persistent Volume access modes	[]
persistence.size	Persistent Volume size	10Gi
persistence.existingClaim	The name of an existing PVC to use for persistence	""
persistence.selector	Selector to match an existing Persistent Volume for Discourse data PVC	{}
persistence.annotations	Persistent Volume Claim annotations	{}

Sidekiq container parameters

Name	Description	Value
sidekiq.command	Custom command to override image cmd (evaluated as a template)	["/opt/bitnami/scripts/discourse/entrypoint.sh"]
sidekiq.args	Custom args for the custom command (evaluated as a template)	["/opt/bitnami/scripts/discourse-sidekiq/run.sh"]
sidekiq.extraEnvVars	Array with extra environment variables to add Sidekiq pods	[]
sidekiq.extraEnvVarsCM	ConfigMap containing extra environment variables for Sidekiq pods	""
sidekiq.extraEnvVarsSecret	Secret containing extra environment variables (in case of sensitive data) for Sidekiq pods	""
sidekiq.livenessProbe.enabled	Enable livenessProbe on Sidekiq containers	true
sidekiq.livenessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Delay before liveness probe is initiated	500
sidekiq.livenessProbe.periodSeconds	How often to perform the probe	10
sidekiq.livenessProbe.timeoutSeconds	When the probe times out	5
sidekiq.livenessProbe.failureThreshold	Minimum consecutive failures for the probe	6
sidekiq.livenessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the probe	1
sidekiq.readinessProbe.enabled	Enable readinessProbe on Sidekiq containers	true
sidekiq.readinessProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Delay before readiness probe is initiated	30
sidekiq.readinessProbe.periodSeconds	How often to perform the probe	10
sidekiq.readinessProbe.timeoutSeconds	When the probe times out	5
sidekiq.readinessProbe.failureThreshold	Minimum consecutive failures for the probe	6
sidekiq.readinessProbe.successThreshold	Minimum consecutive successes for the probe	1
sidekiq.startupProbe.enabled	Enable startupProbe on Sidekiq containers	false
sidekiq.startupProbe.initialDelaySeconds	Initial delay seconds for startupProbe	60
sidekiq.startupProbe.periodSeconds	Period seconds for startupProbe	10
sidekiq.startupProbe.timeoutSeconds	Timeout seconds for startupProbe	5
sidekiq.startupProbe.failureThreshold	Failure threshold for startupProbe	15
sidekiq.startupProbe.successThreshold	Success threshold for startupProbe	1
sidekiq.customLivenessProbe	Custom livenessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
sidekiq.customReadinessProbe	Custom readinessProbe that overrides the default one	{}
sidekiq.customStartupProbe	Custom startupProbe that overrides the default one	{}
sidekiq.resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, micro, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if sidekiq.resources is set (sidekiq.resources is recommended for production).	small
sidekiq.resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.enabled	Enabled containers' Security Context	true
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.seLinuxOptions	Set SELinux options in container	{}
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.runAsUser	Set containers' Security Context runAsUser	0
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.runAsGroup	Set containers' Security Context runAsGroup	0
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.runAsNonRoot	Set container's Security Context runAsNonRoot	false
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.privileged	Set container's Security Context privileged	false
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.readOnlyRootFilesystem	Set container's Security Context readOnlyRootFilesystem	false
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.allowPrivilegeEscalation	Set container's Security Context allowPrivilegeEscalation	false
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.capabilities.drop	List of capabilities to be dropped	["ALL"]
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.capabilities.add	List of capabilities to be added	["CHOWN","SYS_CHROOT","FOWNER","SETGID","SETUID","DAC_OVERRIDE"]
sidekiq.containerSecurityContext.seccompProfile.type	Set container's Security Context seccomp profile	RuntimeDefault
sidekiq.lifecycleHooks	for the Sidekiq container(s) to automate configuration before or after startup	{}
sidekiq.extraVolumeMounts	Optionally specify extra list of additional volumeMounts for the Sidekiq pods	[]

Traffic Exposure Parameters

Name	Description	Value
service.type	Discourse service type	ClusterIP
service.ports.http	Discourse service HTTP port	80
service.nodePorts.http	Node port for HTTP	""
service.sessionAffinity	Control where client requests go, to the same pod or round-robin	None
service.sessionAffinityConfig	Additional settings for the sessionAffinity	{}
service.clusterIP	Discourse service Cluster IP	""
service.loadBalancerIP	Discourse service Load Balancer IP	""
service.loadBalancerSourceRanges	Discourse service Load Balancer sources	[]
service.externalTrafficPolicy	Discourse service external traffic policy	Cluster
service.annotations	Additional custom annotations for Discourse service	{}
service.extraPorts	Extra port to expose on Discourse service	[]
ingress.enabled	Enable ingress record generation for Discourse	false
ingress.ingressClassName	IngressClass that will be be used to implement the Ingress (Kubernetes 1.18+)	""
ingress.pathType	Ingress path type	ImplementationSpecific
ingress.apiVersion	Force Ingress API version (automatically detected if not set)	""
ingress.hostname	Default host for the ingress record	discourse.local
ingress.path	Default path for the ingress record	/
ingress.annotations	Additional annotations for the Ingress resource. To enable certificate autogeneration, place here your cert-manager annotations.	{}
ingress.tls	Enable TLS configuration for the host defined at ingress.hostname parameter	false
ingress.selfSigned	Create a TLS secret for this ingress record using self-signed certificates generated by Helm	false
ingress.extraHosts	An array with additional hostname(s) to be covered with the ingress record	[]
ingress.extraPaths	An array with additional arbitrary paths that may need to be added to the ingress under the main host	[]
ingress.extraTls	TLS configuration for additional hostname(s) to be covered with this ingress record	[]
ingress.secrets	Custom TLS certificates as secrets	[]
ingress.extraRules	Additional rules to be covered with this ingress record	[]

Volume Permissions parameters

Name	Description	Value
volumePermissions.enabled	Enable init container that changes the owner and group of the persistent volume	false
volumePermissions.image.registry	Init container volume-permissions image registry	REGISTRY_NAME
volumePermissions.image.repository	Init container volume-permissions image repository	REPOSITORY_NAME/os-shell
volumePermissions.image.digest	Init container volume-permissions image digest in the way sha256:aa.... Please note this parameter, if set, will override the tag	""
volumePermissions.image.pullPolicy	Init container volume-permissions image pull policy	IfNotPresent
volumePermissions.image.pullSecrets	Init container volume-permissions image pull secrets	[]
volumePermissions.resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, micro, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if volumePermissions.resources is set (volumePermissions.resources is recommended for production).	nano
volumePermissions.resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
volumePermissions.containerSecurityContext.seLinuxOptions	Set SELinux options in container	{}
volumePermissions.containerSecurityContext.runAsUser	User ID for the init container	0
volumePermissions.containerSecurityContext.seccompProfile.type	Set container's Security Context seccomp profile	RuntimeDefault

Other Parameters

Name	Description	Value
serviceAccount.create	Enable creation of ServiceAccount for Discourse pods	true
serviceAccount.name	The name of the ServiceAccount to use.	""
serviceAccount.automountServiceAccountToken	Allows auto mount of ServiceAccountToken on the serviceAccount created	false
serviceAccount.annotations	Additional custom annotations for the ServiceAccount	{}

NetworkPolicy parameters

Name	Description	Value
networkPolicy.enabled	Specifies whether a NetworkPolicy should be created	true
networkPolicy.allowExternal	Don't require server label for connections	true
networkPolicy.allowExternalEgress	Allow the pod to access any range of port and all destinations.	true
networkPolicy.extraIngress	Add extra ingress rules to the NetworkPolicy	[]
networkPolicy.extraEgress	Add extra ingress rules to the NetworkPolicy	[]
networkPolicy.ingressNSMatchLabels	Labels to match to allow traffic from other namespaces	{}
networkPolicy.ingressNSPodMatchLabels	Pod labels to match to allow traffic from other namespaces	{}

Discourse database parameters

Name	Description	Value
postgresql.enabled	Switch to enable or disable the PostgreSQL helm chart	true
postgresql.auth.enablePostgresUser	Assign a password to the "postgres" admin user. Otherwise, remote access will be blocked for this user	true
postgresql.auth.postgresPassword	Password for the "postgres" admin user	bitnami
postgresql.auth.username	Name for a custom user to create	bn_discourse
postgresql.auth.password	Password for the custom user to create	""
postgresql.auth.database	Name for a custom database to create	bitnami_application
postgresql.auth.existingSecret	Name of existing secret to use for PostgreSQL credentials	""
postgresql.architecture	PostgreSQL architecture (standalone or replication)	standalone
postgresql.primary.resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if primary.resources is set (primary.resources is recommended for production).	nano
postgresql.primary.resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
externalDatabase.host	Database host	localhost
externalDatabase.port	Database port number	5432
externalDatabase.user	Non-root username for Discourse	bn_discourse
externalDatabase.password	Password for the non-root username for Discourse	""
externalDatabase.database	Discourse database name	bitnami_application
externalDatabase.create	Switch to enable user/database creation during the installation stage	true
externalDatabase.postgresUser	PostgreSQL admin user, used during the installation stage	""
externalDatabase.postgresPassword	PostgreSQL admin password, used during the installation stage	""
externalDatabase.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret resource containing the database credentials	""
externalDatabase.existingSecretPasswordKey	Name of an existing secret key containing the database credentials	password
externalDatabase.existingSecretPostgresPasswordKey	Name of an existing secret key containing the database admin user credentials	postgres-password

Redis® parameters

Name	Description	Value
redis.enabled	Switch to enable or disable the Redis® helm	true
redis.auth.enabled	Enable password authentication	true
redis.auth.password	Redis® password	""
redis.auth.existingSecret	The name of an existing secret with Redis® credentials	""
redis.architecture	Redis® architecture. Allowed values: standalone or replication	standalone
redis.master.resourcesPreset	Set container resources according to one common preset (allowed values: none, nano, small, medium, large, xlarge, 2xlarge). This is ignored if master.resources is set (master.resources is recommended for production).	nano
redis.master.resources	Set container requests and limits for different resources like CPU or memory (essential for production workloads)	{}
externalRedis.host	Redis® host	localhost
externalRedis.port	Redis® port number	6379
externalRedis.password	Redis® password	""
externalRedis.existingSecret	Name of an existing secret resource containing the Redis&trade credentials	""
externalRedis.existingSecretPasswordKey	Name of an existing secret key containing the Redis&trade credentials	redis-password

The above parameters map to the env variables defined in bitnami/discourse. For more information please refer to the bitnami/discourse image documentation.

Specify each parameter using the --set key=value[,key=value] argument to helm install. For example,

helm install my-release \
  --set auth.username=admin,auth.password=password \
    oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts.

The above command sets the Discourse administrator account username and password to admin and password respectively.

NOTE: Once this chart is deployed, it is not possible to change the application's access credentials, such as usernames or passwords, using Helm. To change these application credentials after deployment, delete any persistent volumes (PVs) used by the chart and re-deploy it, or use the application's built-in administrative tools if available.

Alternatively, a YAML file that specifies the values for the above parameters can be provided while installing the chart. For example,

helm install my-release -f values.yaml oci://REGISTRY_NAME/REPOSITORY_NAME/discourse

Note: You need to substitute the placeholders REGISTRY_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME with a reference to your Helm chart registry and repository. For example, in the case of Bitnami, you need to use REGISTRY_NAME=registry-1.docker.io and REPOSITORY_NAME=bitnamicharts. Tip: You can use the default values.yaml

Troubleshooting

Find more information about how to deal with common errors related to Bitnami's Helm charts in this troubleshooting guide.

Upgrading

To 17.0.0

This major updates the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 22.0.0, which updates Redis® from 8.0 to 8.2. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version. No major issues are expected during the upgrade.

To 16.0.0

This major updates the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 21.0.0, which updates Redis® from 7.4 to 8.0. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version. No major issues are expected during the upgrade.

To 15.1.0

This version introduces image verification for security purposes. To disable it, set global.security.allowInsecureImages to true. More details at GitHub issue.

To 15.0.0

This major updates the PostgreSQL subchart to its newest major, 16.0.0, which uses PostgreSQL 17.x. Follow the official instructions to upgrade to 17.x.

To 14.0.0

This major updates the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 20.0.0. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version.

To 13.0.0

This major bump changes the following security defaults:

• resourcesPreset is changed from none to the minimum size working in our test suites (NOTE: resourcesPreset is not meant for production usage, but resources adapted to your use case).
• global.compatibility.openshift.adaptSecurityContext is changed from disabled to auto.
• The networkPolicy section has been normalized amongst all Bitnami charts. Compared to the previous approach, the values section has been simplified (check the Parameters section) and now it set to enabled=true by default. Egress traffic is allowed by default and ingress traffic is allowed by all pods but only to the ports set in containerPorts and extraContainerPorts.

This could potentially break any customization or init scripts used in your deployment. If this is the case, change the default values to the previous ones.

To 12.0.0

This major updates the PostgreSQL subchart to its newest major, 13.0.0. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version.

To 11.0.0

This major updates the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 18.0.0. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version.

NOTE: Due to an error in our release process, Redis®' chart versions higher or equal than 17.15.4 already use Redis® 7.2 by default.

To 9.0.0

This major updates the PostgreSQL subchart to its newest major, 12.0.0. Here you can find more information about the changes introduced in that version.

To 8.0.0

This major update the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 17.0.0, which updates Redis® from its version 6.2 to the latest 7.0.

To 7.0.0

This major upgrades the Discourse version to 2.8.0.

What changes were introduced in this major version?

This version includes a breaking change in the lazy-yt plugin, and the recommendation is to remove it, or manually upgrade it.

Upgrading Instructions

To upgrade to 7.0.0 from 6.x, follow these steps below:

1. Upgrade to the latest version of the bitnami/discourse chart with Diagnostics mode:

helm upgrade --set diagnosticMode.enabled=true [...] bitnami/discourse

1. Remove or upgrade the lazy-yt plugin. To remove it, execute the following command inside the discourse container's shell:

rm -rf /bitnami/discourse/plugins/lazy-yt

1. Ensure that the initialization scripts work:

/opt/bitnami/scripts/discourse/entrypoint.sh /opt/bitnami/scripts/discourse/setup.sh

1. Upgrade the Helm deployment without Diagnostics mode.

To 6.0.0

This major release renames several values in this chart and adds missing features, in order to be inline with the rest of assets in the Bitnami charts repository. Additionally updates the PostgreSQL & Redis subcharts to their newest major 11.x.x and 16.x.x, respectively, which contain similar changes.

• discourse.host and discourse.siteName were renamed to host and siteName, respectively.
• discourse.username, discourse.email, discourse.password and discourse.existingSecret were regrouped under the discourse.auth map.
• discourse.smtp map has been renamed to smtp.
• service.port and service.nodePort were regrouped under the service.ports and service.nodePorts maps, respectively.
• ingress map is completely redefined.

How to upgrade to version 6.0.0

To upgrade to 6.0.0 from 5.x, it should be done reusing the PVC(s) used to hold the data on your previous release. To do so, follow the instructions below (the following example assumes that the release name is discourse and the release namespace default):

NOTE: Please, create a backup of your database before running any of those actions.

1. Obtain the credentials and the names of the PVCs used to hold the data on your current release:

export DISCOURSE_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse -o jsonpath="{.data.discourse-password}" | base64 --decode)
export POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse-postgresql -o jsonpath="{.data.postgresql-password}" | base64 --decode)
export REDIS_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse-redis -o jsonpath="{.data.redis-password}" | base64 --decode)
export POSTGRESQL_PVC=$(kubectl get pvc -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=discourse,app.kubernetes.io/name=postgresql,role=primary -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

1. Delete the PostgreSQL statefulset (notice the option --cascade=false) and secret:

kubectl delete statefulsets.apps --cascade=false discourse-postgresql
kubectl delete secret postgresql --namespace default

1. Upgrade your release using the same PostgreSQL version:

CURRENT_PG_VERSION=$(kubectl exec discourse-postgresql-0 -- bash -c 'echo $BITNAMI_IMAGE_VERSION')
helm upgrade discourse bitnami/discourse \
  --set loadExamples=true \
  --set web.baseUrl=http://127.0.0.1:8080 \
  --set auth.password=$DISCOURSE_PASSWORD \
  --set postgresql.image.tag=$CURRENT_VERSION \
  --set postgresql.auth.password=$POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD \
  --set postgresql.persistence.existingClaim=$POSTGRESQL_PVC \
  --set redis.password=$REDIS_PASSWORD

1. Delete the existing PostgreSQL pods and the new statefulset will create a new one:

kubectl delete pod discourse-postgresql-0

To 5.0.0

This major update the Redis® subchart to its newest major, 15.0.0. For more information on this subchart's major and the steps needed to migrate your data from your previous release, please refer to Redis® upgrade notes..

To 4.0.0

The Bitnami Discourse image was refactored and now the source code is published in GitHub in the rootfs folder of the container image repository.

How to upgrade to version 4.0.0

Upgrades from previous versions require to specify --set volumePermissions.enabled=true in order for all features to work properly:

helm upgrade discourse bitnami/discourse \
    --set discourse.host=$DISCOURSE_HOST \
    --set discourse.password=$DISCOURSE_PASSWORD \
    --set postgresql.postgresqlPassword=$POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD \
    --set postgresql.persistence.existingClaim=$POSTGRESQL_PVC \
    --set volumePermissions.enabled=true

Full compatibility is not guaranteed due to the amount of involved changes, however no breaking changes are expected aside from the ones mentioned above.

To 3.0.0

This major updates the Redis® subchart to it newest major, 14.0.0, which contains breaking changes. For more information on this subchart's major and the steps needed to migrate your data from your previous release, please refer to Redis® upgrade notes..

To 2.0.0

On November 13, 2020, Helm v2 support was formally finished, this major version is the result of the required changes applied to the Helm Chart to be able to incorporate the different features added in Helm v3 and to be consistent with the Helm project itself regarding the Helm v2 EOL.

• Previous versions of this Helm Chart use apiVersion: v1 (installable by both Helm 2 and 3), this Helm Chart was updated to apiVersion: v2 (installable by Helm 3 only). Here you can find more information about the apiVersion field.
• Move dependency information from the requirements.yaml to the Chart.yaml
• After running helm dependency update, a Chart.lock file is generated containing the same structure used in the previous requirements.lock
• The different fields present in the Chart.yaml file has been ordered alphabetically in a homogeneous way for all the Bitnami Helm Chart.

Considerations when upgrading to this version

• If you want to upgrade to this version using Helm v2, this scenario is not supported as this version does not support Helm v2 anymore.
• If you installed the previous version with Helm v2 and wants to upgrade to this version with Helm v3, please refer to the official Helm documentation about migrating from Helm v2 to v3.

Useful links

• Bitnami Tutorial
• Helm docs
• Helm Blog

How to upgrade to version 2.0.0

To upgrade to 2.0.0 from 1.x, it should be done reusing the PVC(s) used to hold the data on your previous release. To do so, follow the instructions below (the following example assumes that the release name is discourse and the release namespace default):

NOTE: Please, create a backup of your database before running any of those actions.

1. Obtain the credentials and the names of the PVCs used to hold the data on your current release:

export DISCOURSE_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse -o jsonpath="{.data.discourse-password}" | base64 --decode)
export DISCOURSE_FERNET_KEY=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse -o jsonpath="{.data.discourse-fernetKey}" | base64 --decode)
export DISCOURSE_SECRET_KEY=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse -o jsonpath="{.data.discourse-secretKey}" | base64 --decode)
export POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse-postgresql -o jsonpath="{.data.postgresql-password}" | base64 --decode)
export REDIS_PASSWORD=$(kubectl get secret --namespace default discourse-redis -o jsonpath="{.data.redis-password}" | base64 --decode)
export POSTGRESQL_PVC=$(kubectl get pvc -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=discourse,app.kubernetes.io/name=postgresql,role=primary -o jsonpath="{.items[0].metadata.name}")

1. Delete the Discourse worker & PostgreSQL statefulset (notice the option --cascade=false):

kubectl delete statefulsets.apps --cascade=false discourse-postgresql
kubectl delete statefulsets.apps --cascade=false discourse-worker

1. Upgrade your release:

NOTE: Please remember to migrate all the values to its new path following the above notes, e.g: discourse.loadExamples -> loadExamples or discourse.baseUrl=http://127.0.0.1:8080 -> web.baseUrl=http://127.0.0.1:8080.

helm upgrade discourse bitnami/discourse \
  --set loadExamples=true \
  --set web.baseUrl=http://127.0.0.1:8080 \
  --set auth.password=$DISCOURSE_PASSWORD \
  --set auth.fernetKey=$DISCOURSE_FERNET_KEY \
  --set auth.secretKey=$DISCOURSE_SECRET_KEY \
  --set postgresql.postgresqlPassword=$POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD \
  --set postgresql.persistence.existingClaim=$POSTGRESQL_PVC \
  --set redis.password=$REDIS_PASSWORD \
  --set redis.cluster.enabled=true

1. Delete the existing Discourse worker & PostgreSQL pods and the new statefulset will create a new one:

kubectl delete pod discourse-postgresql-0
kubectl delete pod discourse-worker-0

License

Copyright © 2025 Broadcom. The term "Broadcom" refers to Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.