Ghost - Developer Guide

Welcome to the Ghost Deployment Guide for AWS! Ghost is a powerful open-source publishing platform built for modern online publishing. Whether you're running a blog, newsletter, or membership site, this guide walks you through deploying Ghost on AWS using Meetrix's pre-configured AMI, configuring your domain, enabling SSL, and operating it reliably.

Launching the AMI

Step 1: Find and Select the 'Ghost' AMI

1. Log in to your AWS Management Console.
2. Navigate to the 'Ghost' product in AWS Marketplace.

Step 2: Initial Setup & Configuration

1. Click the "Continue to Subscribe" button.
2. Accept the terms and click "Continue to Configuration".

Step 3: Launching the Instance

1. Select the "CloudFormation" fulfillment option and choose your preferred region, then click "Continue to Launch".
2. From the action menu, select "Launch CloudFormation" and click "Launch".

Create CloudFormation Stack

Step 1: Create Stack

1. Ensure the "Template is ready" option is selected under "Prepare template".
2. Click "Next".

Step 2: Specify Stack Details

1. Provide a unique "Stack name".
2. Provide the "Admin Email" for SSL generation.
3. For "DeploymentName", enter a name of your choice.
4. Provide a public domain name for "DomainName" (SSL will be set up automatically during deployment).
5. Choose an instance type for "InstanceType" (Recommended: t3.small).
6. Select your preferred "KeyName".
7. Set "SSHLocation" as "0.0.0.0/0".
8. Keep "SubnetCidrBlock" as "10.0.0.0/24".
9. Keep "VpcCidrBlock" as "10.0.0.0/16".
10. Click "Next".

Step 3: Configure Stack Options

1. Choose "Roll back all stack resources" and "Delete all newly created resources" under the "Stack failure options" section.
2. Click "Next".

Step 4: Review

1. Review and verify the details you've entered.

2. Tick the box that says "I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names".

3. Click "Submit".

Afterward, you'll be directed to the CloudFormation stacks page. Please wait for 5–10 minutes until the stack has been successfully created.

Update DNS

Step 1: Copy IP Address

Copy the public IP labeled "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab of your CloudFormation stack.

Step 2: Update DNS

1. Go to AWS Route 53 and navigate to "Hosted Zones".
2. Click Create record.
3. Add the record name and paste the copied "PublicIp" into the "Value" textbox.
4. Click "Save".

Access Ghost

Once the DNS propagates, you can access your Ghost site using the "DashboardUrl" provided in the "Outputs" tab. To access the Ghost Admin panel, append /ghost to your domain:

https://your-domain.com/ghost

Create your administrator account by providing your name, email, and password on the setup screen.

After completing setup, you'll be taken to the Ghost Admin dashboard where you can create posts, manage members, configure your theme, and set up newsletters.

Generate SSL Manually

Ghost will automatically try to set up SSL when a Route 53-hosted domain is provided. If it fails, follow these steps to generate SSL manually.

Step 1: Copy IP Address

1. Follow the Update DNS steps above, if not already done.
2. Copy the Public IP labeled "PublicIp" in the "Outputs" tab of your CloudFormation stack.

Step 2: Log in to the Server

1. Open the terminal and navigate to the directory where your private key is located.
2. Run:

ssh -i <your-key-name>.pem ubuntu@<Public IP address>

3. Type "yes" and press Enter to confirm.

Step 3: Generate SSL

Run the following command and follow the prompts:

bash /root/certificate_generate_standalone.sh

Check Server Logs

Step 1: Log in to the Server

1. Open the terminal and navigate to the directory where your private key is located.
2. Connect to your instance using the following command:

ssh -i <your-key-name>.pem ubuntu@<Public IP address>

3. Type "yes" and press Enter to confirm the host fingerprint and log in.

Step 2: Check the Logs

sudo docker ps

sudo docker logs <container_id or container_name>

Shutting Down Ghost

1. Click the link labeled "Instance" in the "Resources" tab of your CloudFormation stack to navigate to the EC2 instance.
2. Stop the instance by selecting the checkbox and clicking "Stop instance" from the "Instance state" dropdown. You can restart it at any time by selecting "Start instance".

Remove Ghost

Delete the CloudFormation stack from the AWS Management Console under "CloudFormation > Stacks" by selecting the stack and clicking the "Delete" button. This will remove all associated AWS resources.

Upgrades

When a new version of Ghost is available, we will update the product in AWS Marketplace. You can check the current product version in the Marketplace listing. If a newer version is available, remove the previous deployment and re-launch using the newer AMI version. Remember to back up your Ghost content and configuration before removing the existing stack.

Troubleshoot

1. If you encounter a vCPU quota error when launching the stack, follow https://meetrix.io/blogs/increase-aws-vcpu-quota/ to increase your vCPU limit.

2. If you see a "do not have sufficient capacity" error while creating the stack, try changing the AWS region or retry at a later time.

3. If the Ghost admin panel is not accessible immediately after deployment, wait 5–10 minutes for the service to fully initialise, then refresh the page.

4. Check disk usage to ensure the instance storage is not full:

• Log into the server and run:

df -h

• If the root volume is between 90–100%, increase the EBS volume size following AWS documentation. Then reboot the instance and restart the Ghost service.

Conclusion

The Meetrix Ghost Deployment Guide helps you set up Ghost on AWS quickly and securely. Whether you're a developer, content creator, or DevOps engineer, this guide provides step-by-step instructions to deploy Ghost in a scalable and reliable way — with SSL, Docker-based management, and AWS best practices built in.

Technical Support

Reach out to Meetrix Support (aws@meetrix.io) for assistance with your Ghost deployment.