Problem: Discourse forum shows blank page or browser unable to connect even on the right domain name after a new Discourse installation on Amazon Lightsail instance.
Issue is due to the HTTPS not configured for the new Amazon Lightsail instance that discourse is installed.
Solution: Remove third party plugin from containers/app.yml and rebuild
- Go to the Networking tab for the particular Amazon Lightsail instance, you should see current default settings:
Application / Protocol / Port range
SSH / TCP / 22
HTTP / TCP / 80
- Click ‘+ Add another’ to add new row: HTTPS / TCP / 443
Additional note:
This happened for fresh installation of discourse on a new Amazon Lightsail on an existing domain (hostname) that has hosted working/production discourse that has enabled Let’s Encrypt. Suspect issue due to HTTPS / Let’s Encrypt already configured for that particular domain DNS record so must enable HTTPS port in networking in order for the domain to direct correctly / load up the successful installation page.