Get Bitnami app to run in the root?

General
1

Apologies in advance for the newbie question. I’ve deployed a small instance running Discourse within the Bitnami console. I can now reach Discourse on the following domain:

http://<myapp>.bitnamiapp.com/discourse

I’ve also got a CNAME pointing to this server instance. But how can I make the Discourse app run within the root? So it can be accessed directly on:

    http://<myapp>.bitnamiapp.com/

Do I need to use Putty to get a terminal window and modify the host headers? Linux is foreign territory for me so any guides to help me achieve this would be much appreciated.

2

1. Connect to Your Server Using PuTTY

  • Download PuTTY if you haven’t already.
  • Get your server’s public IP or hostname and SSH credentials from your Bitnami launchpad.
  • Open PuTTY and SSH into your server:
    • Hostname: your-server-ip or yourapp.bitnamiapp.com
    • Port: 22
    • Username: Usually bitnami
    • Use your private key if you’re on AWS/Google Cloud, or your password if set.

2. Backup the Existing Configuration

Before changing anything, back up the Apache configuration:

sudo cp /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf.bak

3. Modify Apache Configuration

Open the file to edit:

sudo nano /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf

Look for this section that looks like this:

# Default Virtual Host configuration.
<VirtualHost _default_:80>
  DocumentRoot "/opt/bitnami/apache2/htdocs"
  ...
  Include "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/conf/httpd-prefix.conf"
  Include "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/conf/httpd-app.conf"
</VirtualHost>

Change:

Include "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/conf/httpd-prefix.conf"

to:

# Include "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/conf/httpd-prefix.conf"

Then edit the file:

sudo nano /opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/conf/httpd-prefix.conf

Comment out or delete this line:

Alias /discourse/ "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/htdocs/public/"

Replace it with:

DocumentRoot "/opt/bitnami/apps/discourse/htdocs/public"

4. Restart Apache

Once you’ve made the changes, restart the Apache server to apply them:

sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache

5. Test Your Site

Now visit:
http://<myapp>.bitnamiapp.com/

It should now serve Discourse from the root URL.

Tip: Static Files or Redirection Issues?

Discourse is optimized to run on its own (usually via Docker), and may not always behave perfectly if installed through Bitnami in a subdirectory. For best long-term use, consider using the official Discourse Docker installation on a clean VPS like DigitalOcean.