Self-Host your own Ghost Blog

Amresh Prasad Sinha — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 10:04:58 +0000

We are going to install Ghost CMS with Mysql database in Docker and reverse proxy it with the help of Traefik.

Prerequisites

A domain name.
(Optional) If you want to have a newsletter then you need a SMTP server. I would suggest you Mailgun as it goes pretty well with Ghost.
A server with Traefik installed. Follow this guide for hosting Traefik on your server.

Simplify your deployment with Traefik - A comprehensive walk-through

Deploying docker containers, managing routes, generating TLS certificates, and load balancing can be a hassle sometimes. It may become more difficult to manage all the stuff if you want to run multiple docker containers on the same host!

fossian.com

Step-1: Create required directories and files

Directory Tree:

├── ghost-blog
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   └── blog
│       ├── config.production.json
│       └── content

mkdir -p ghost-blog/blog/content && \
  cd ghost-blog && \
  touch ./blog/config.production.json && \
  nano ./docker-compose.yml

Paste the following to the docker-compose.yml

version: '3.7'

services:
  ghost:
    image: ghost:5.2.3
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - db
    environment:
      NODE_ENV: production
    networks:
      - default
      - web
    volumes:
      - ./blog/content:/var/lib/ghost/content
      - ./blog/config.production.json:/var/lib/ghost/config.production.json
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.docker.network=web"
      - "traefik.http.routers.ghost-secure.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.ghost-secure.rule=Host(`fossian.com`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.ghost-secure.service=ghost-service"
      - "traefik.http.services.ghost-service.loadbalancer.server.port=2368"

  db:
    image: mysql:oracle
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: your_mysql_root_password
      MYSQL_USER: ghost
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ghostdbpass
      MYSQL_DATABASE: ghostdb
    networks:
      - default
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/mysql

networks:
  web:
    external: true

Make sure you change domain name in 4th label under ghost service. Also change the database credentials under db service.

I am using Mysql instead of MariaDB as Ghost has announced that they are going to remove support for other databases from upcoming major releases. Also, the image used for Mysql here is mysql:oracle. It has support for multi-architecture so you can also host it on Oracle cloud's Ampere chips (arm64) based instances or your raspberry pi (arm64) as well.

Now edit the Ghost Configuration file config.production.json

nano ./blog/config.production.json

 {
  "url": "https://fossian.com",
  "server": {
    "port": 2368,
    "host": "0.0.0.0"
  },
  "database": {
    "client": "mysql",
    "connection": {
      "host": "db",
      "port": 3306,
      "user": "ghost",
      "password": "ghostdbpass",
      "database": "ghostdb"
    }
  },
  "mail": {
    "transport": "SMTP",
    "options": {
      "service": "Mailgun",
      "auth": {
        "user": "postmaster@example.mailgun.org",
        "pass": "1234567890"
      }
    }
  },
  "logging": {
    "path": "/var/lib/ghost/content/logs/",
    "level": "info",
    "rotation": {
      "enabled": true,
      "count": 15,
      "period": "1d"
    },
    "transports": ["stdout", "file"]
  },
  "paths": {
    "contentPath": "/var/lib/ghost/content"
  }
}

Make sure you change the url on 2nd line to your blog URL and database credentials according to what you filled in docker-compose.yml.

Also, edit the SMTP credentials in mail key. If you are using mailgun then you just need to change the user and pass which you will get from mailgun dashboard after signing up. If you are using any other service like sendgrid then make sure you check Ghost's official configuration docs.

Configuration - Adapt your publication to suit your needs

Find out how to configure your Ghost publication or override Ghost's default behaviour with robust config options, including mail, storage, scheduling and more!

ghost.org

If you don't want to have a newsletter or a membership feature in your blog then change the content of mail key as shown:

"mail": {
    "transport": "Direct",
},

Now simply run docker-compose to deploy your Ghost blog!

docker-compose up -d

Wait for 1 minute and access your Ghost blog at https://yourdomain

Don't forget to log in to your dashboard at https://yourdomain/ghost

Wrapping Up

That's pretty much it! Feel free to comment below if you have any issues. And checkout my blog Fossian where I post about Cloud, Linux and Open Source!

Fossian - Your gateway to Cloud, Linux and Open Source!

Fossian.com - Your gateway to Cloud, Linux and Open Source! Fossian is a blog for all sorts of tutorials, guides, cheat sheets, news, hacks, etc related to Cloud, Linux and Open Source!