Self-hosting

Most people use InfoEmu as a managed cloud — you don’t touch servers. This section is for the Self-Hosted edition: the community forum delivered as a Docker image that you run on your own infrastructure.

Managed vs. self-hosted

If you’re on a managed InfoEmu plan, you don’t need anything in this section — configuration, deployment, backups, and TLS are handled for you. These pages are for Self-Hosted license holders and operators.

What the Self-Hosted edition is

• A one-time license for the community forum (see Plans & pricing). Fulfilment is manual: after purchase you receive the Docker image reference, artifact links, and a setup guide. To buy or ask questions, email hi@infoemu.com.
• The same forum application that powers managed communities, run under your control.

What you provide

• A host that can run Docker (Linux).
• PostgreSQL and Redis (either as containers alongside the app or as managed services you point the app at).
• SMTP credentials for outbound email (activation, password resets, notifications).
• A reverse proxy / TLS terminator in front of the app (the container serves plain HTTP; you own the certificate).
• Backups of your database and uploads (you own the backup and restore process).

How the app boots

The image is env-driven: it reads its configuration from the environment, runs its database migrations and feature seeding idempotently on every start, and never ships default credentials. You create the first admin explicitly.

The pages in this section, in the order you’ll want them:

1. Configuration — how settings resolve and the essentials to set.
2. Environment variables — the reference.
3. Deploy with Docker — run the container, health checks, migrations, reverse proxy.
4. CLI reference — the bluset command, including GDPR tooling.
5. Connect a support inbox — optional email-to-ticket help desk.