Ghost Installation 101 The Ultimate Guide For Beginners
How to Set Up a Ghost Installation Ghost is a CMS designed specifically for bloggers and content creators. It is a unique CMS with features that distinguish it from other CMS solutions such as WordPress. Ghost is simple to install and configure for production. In this article, we'll employ ghost-CLI, an application for command line to set up and deploy Ghost quickly and easily. Installing Ghost Ghost is a free blogging platform that gives you an elegant interface for publishing and creating content. It was created following a successful crowdfunding campaign as an non-profit project. More Bonuses is now accessible without licensing restrictions. It is used by many developers across the globe and has a huge support community. It is a light, responsive CMS that is compatible with all devices. To install Ghost, follow the steps below: First, sign into your droplet using SSH and change your user's prompt to # (it should be the only thing on your screen). This will instruct the terminal where to install the required packages. Run the command node-v to verify that it has been installed correctly. After a short time, Ghost will ask you to enter your blog's URL. This is a better idea than waiting until after you've setup your domain and uploaded your website. This will give you a chance to test your blog and fix any issues before putting it public. Press enter to begin the installation process. The installation process will take a few minutes. When asked for your hostname, use 127.0.0.1. (Using the default will cause Ghost to use IPv6 addresses, which could result in an ECONNREFUSED later). Answer Y if asked if you would like to install Systemd. This will configure Nginx to serve your Ghost blog. It redirects requests from port 80 to port 2368 which is the port that Ghost runs on. This makes it easier for visitors to access your blog without having to add the 2368 at the end. It will also set up the appropriate HTTP headers, so that you'll be able see the real IP addresses in your Ghost logs. You'll need to add Ghost as a database user. Create a user name ghostuser, with a secure password and a suitable username. Add it to the sudoers group to allow it to execute sudo commands. Su – ghostuser will launch an account for the user named ghostuser. Installing Nginx Nginx can be used as a webserver to serve static content. It can also be used as a reverse proxy and to connect with FastCGI programs. It is a lighter alternative to Apache that can offer better performance and a smaller footprint in memory. The configuration files of Nginx can be loaded without the need to shut down and restart. This is accomplished by sending an alert to the master process which examines the syntax of the new configuration file and makes any modifications. It also sends an email to the previous worker processes and ask them to stop accepting any new connections and to keep maintaining existing connections. To create a configuration file for Nginx, open the “/etc/nginx/sites-available/” directory and then create a symbolic link to the file you want to use in the “/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/” directory. The symbolic links, or symlinks will be used to track which of the Nginx server blocks are enabled. This will enable your Nginx server to respond to requests from your domain as well as the default site. The nginx syntax is very flexible. It can be configured to do a wide range of things, like allowing SSL connections or setting reverse proxy servers among other things. Visit the official Nginx Documentation for more details. Unlike Apache, Nginx uses an asynchronous event-driven connection handling algorithm instead of creating the process from scratch for every request. This makes it more efficient for websites with high traffic. It can also be set up to cache static content throughout your site, which can enhance performance. Nginx can be used as a reverse proxy that routes clients' (e.g. web browser) requests to other servers. This can be beneficial to balance load, speeding up websites, and also providing additional security. You can verify that the Nginx is accepting HTTP requests using a program like nginxstat, or by checking the logs within the “/var/log/nginxdirectory” on your Ubuntu computer. This will show any errors that might be causing problems. You can also start and stop Nginx by using the systemctl command. To do this, enter the following: Configuring Ghost Once you've installed Ghost and you've set it up, you can start using it to publish your blog. Themes let you customize the look and feel of your site. Ghost offers a wide selection of themes, from simple to the complicated. Certain themes are free while others aren't. No matter which theme you choose, keep in mind that Ghost's primary goal is to function as a blogging platform. It's not built to handle more complex pages like landing pages or online stores. You can set up Ghost to make use of an SMTP email service to send messages and newsletters. This is crucial to ensure that your customers receive email from you and don't get any. Fortunately, there are several reputable SMTP services that you can connect to Ghost. It's important to keep in mind that you'll need an additional login and password to access SMTP compared to your Ghost account. It is recommended to write down or save your SMTP details in a secure location. You can override Ghost’s default behavior by creating an individual configuration file that you can customize it to meet your requirements. You can create an individual configuration file by using the ghost-cli command. There are a few settings that are required by default, as well as many other optional ones. You can also add a Redis cache adapter to allow Ghost to keep data in memory rather than in the database. This reduces response time by avoiding the need to pull data from the database each time a page is rendered. It can be especially helpful for sites that load a lot and have complicated templates that need a lot of get helpers. The command ghost-cli -cache-adapter adapter> —configure_cache( adapter>) will configure the cache adapter and set the cache size. You can also edit the name of the cache, which is displayed in the admin panel. It is crucial to keep your Ghost installation up-to-date to ensure that it functions correctly and remains safe. Ghost releases new versions of its software regularly. On the official website, you can find out how to upgrade the software. Backup your data and files prior to upgrading to a more recent version. Starting Ghost Once the Setup phase has been over and the Ghost will begin its hunting phase. In this phase the Ghost will be visible to players and begin to move around the map, killing anyone it encounters. You should hide in rooms, closets, or behind furniture to stay out of this risky part of the game. The Ghost will only attack players in its range of vision, therefore it is essential to remain completely hidden at all times. In the DigitalOcean marketplace, choose the “Droplet” option and choose an option to begin with (the most affordable one is sufficient for now). After you've created your droplet, make note of its public IP address. This will be required later when you connect over SSH. Once your server has been configured, you can start creating blog pages and postings. You can pick from a range of themes that are free as in addition to premium themes. The platform also supports a variety of integrations such as Google Analytics, Zapier, MailChimp, and more. It utilizes Markdown instead of visual WYSIWYG editing which lets you concentrate on writing and not designing. This makes it a great option for portfolio and blog websites.