Ghost is one of the most popular open source blogging platforms. It boasts powerful features for almost everything related to blogging, such as editing, publishing, email newsletters, and offering paid subscriptions. Ghost offers pre-made themes that you can use to set up your blog quickly, but thanks to its extensive API, you can also use it as a headless CMS for your custom frontend.
Deploying Ghost with Docker has many advantages. With Docker containers, you get a flexible and easily reproducible way to run your blog. It allows you to spin up another instance quickly when one fails or updates. On top of that, you get the same setup experience, regardless of if you’re in a development or production environment.
This article will guide you through the entire process of setting up a Ghost blog with Docker. You can find all configuration files from this tutorial in this GitHub repo.
Ghost’s Features
Before diving in, let’s first explore some of Ghost’s features in depth.
Simplicity and Ease of Use
As you’ll see in a bit, Ghost is very simple to set up, especially with the pre-made Docker image. On top of that, the other parts of the Ghost experience are easy to grasp, too. Everything from the content editor to the settings panel has a clean, minimal design.
Editing and Publishing Experience
The Ghost editor is one of the best in the business. It provides everything you need to create excellent content, including:
Floating formatting menu.
Image, HTML, and other content blocks.
Media embeds for Twitter, YouTube, CodePen, and more.
Markdown shortcuts.
Reusable content snippets.
When you’re done writing, publishing is just a matter of providing some metadata and hitting the Publish button.
Email Newsletters
In addition to blogging, Ghost can also be used for email newsletters. With its built-in email design editor, members list, email analytics, and Mailgun integrations, you get a feature-complete solution for running your own newsletter right from your blog.
Subscriptions and Memberships
Thanks to its Stripe integration, a custom API, and a member administration dashboard, Ghost has everything you need to implement paid subscriptions and monetize your blog. You can create anything from a straightforward donation system to paywalled content or premium newsletters.
Setting Up Ghost with Docker
This guide assumes you’re running Ubuntu 18.04 or newer. To run Ghost in Docker, a minimum of 1 GB of RAM and a decent CPU are recommended.
Installing Docker
Before installing Ghost, you’ll need to install Docker Engine and Docker Compose. Be sure to uninstall any previous versions of Docker Engine that might be installed on your system:
If everything was set up correctly, you should see version numbers for Docker Engine and Docker Compose in your terminal.
Running the Ghost Image
With Docker ready, you can now use it to download and run the Ghost image.
For Development
This is the easiest way to get the Ghost image up and running for development purposes. With this setup, the container is stateless, meaning all data will be lost if anything happens to it. Also, by default, the Ghost blog is using an SQLite database.
Run the Ghost image using the following command:
docker run -d --name my-ghost-blog -e url=http://localhost:2368 -p 2368:2368 ghost
This will create a container named my-ghost-blog using the official Ghost image provided by the Docker community. The Ghost blog will be accessible on port 2368.
While convenient and great for development purposes, this setup isn’t ready for production. For that, a bit more configuration is required.
For Production
Start by creating a dedicated directory, like my-ghost-blog, and a docker-compose.yml file inside it:
mkdir my-ghost-blog
cd my-ghost-blog
touch docker-compose.yml
Inside the file, define the configuration for Docker containers:
With this config, an additional MySQL database container will be created using a MariaDB image. Additionally, a dedicated volume is added for the Ghost blog to provide stateful storage.
Now, execute the configuration with docker-compose up -d. You can now see the Ghost blog on port 2368.
Setting Up Your Ghost Blog
To get started with Ghost, go to http://localhost:2368/ghost. This is where your admin panel will be located. Going there for the first time, you should see a setup screen like the below:
Fill out the form, and you’ll be greeted with the dashboard.
To create your first post, click the + button next to Posts, which will take you to the post editor.
From inside the editor, you can write your blog post and set all of its metadata. When you’re done, click Publish to make your post public.
Exposing and Securing the Ghost Blog
Now, while the Ghost blog is up and running, there’s still some setup to be done on the backend. You’ll have to expose the app for outside access with a proxy like Nginx and secure it with an SSL certificate. This process will require a domain, which we’ll refer to as example.com.
Obtaining an SSL Certificate
To obtain an SSL certificate for your domain, you’ll first have to install the latest Certbot package with the Snapd package installer.
First, ensure Snapd is up-to-date and that no older versions of Certbot are installed:
Finally, run the following command to generate and download the certificate for your domain:
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d example.com
With the SSL certificate ready, you can move on to Nginx.
Creating Custom Nginx Docker Image
In this example, you’ll see how to run Nginx as a separate container with Docker Compose.
To get started, create a new nginx folder:
mkdir nginx
cd nginx
You have to alter the official Nginx image to include a custom Nginx config. To do so, create a file called ghost.conf to hold the custom Nginx config:
This configuration exposes the Ghost app running in a separate container (at http://ghost:2368), and includes the necessary configuration for the SSL certificate to work correctly.
Now, create a new Dockerfile where you’ll alter the Nginx default image:
FROM nginx:latest
RUN rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
COPY ghost.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d
With the Dockerfile ready, you can now return to your Docker Compose configuration.
Updating the Docker Compose Config
If your Ghost blog is still running, you should first stop it with the docker-compose down command. As the configuration has already had a volume attached, all the data will persist through the reset.
Update the docker-compose.yml file to add a separate Nginx container, and remove the ports property from the ghost container:
With that done, run the app with docker-compose up -d once again. If everything is set up correctly, you should see your Ghost blog under https://example.com.
Deployment Options
Thanks to Docker’s popularity and flexibility, there are tons of options to choose from when it comes to hosting your app. A well-designed containerized app can run everywhere from virtual private servers to dedicated Docker cloud environments or Kubernetes clusters.
Some of the most popular Docker deployment platforms include:
In this post, you’ve learned how to leverage the flexible and reproducible architecture allowed by Docker to set up your own Ghost blog. The only thing left now is to fill it with excellent technical content. That’s where Draft.dev steps in.
