How to install Ghost Blog CMS on Ubuntu with Free SSL

In today tutorial we are going to see the Installation Method for Ghost blog CMS on Ubuntu 16.04 with Free SSL.

Update - How to Install Ghost on Ubuntu With Free SSL & HTTP/2

Requirements

• SSD VPS - Minimum 1GB Ram
• SSH Terminal and Windows OS (Use Putty)
• OS - Ubuntu 16.04 64bit LTS

Hosting

• Digitalocean
• Vultr
• Linode

Features

• Nginx
• Free SSL with A+ Grade
• HTTP/2

How to Install Ghost Blog CMS on Ubuntu

Here is the Step by Step Guide to install Ghost Blog CMS on Ubuntu with Free SSL

• Create droplet/server with 16.04 Ubuntu its Requires min 1GB Ram for Smooth running
• Connect your Droplet/Server on SSH Terminal
• update your packages and tools

sudo apt update && apt upgrade -y

• install the Zip and other essential tools

sudo apt install -y zip build-essential

• Now install Let's Encrypt

sudo apt install -y letsencrypt

• check let's encrypt version

letsencrypt --version

• Now install Let's Encrypt Free SSL Certificate to your Domain

letsencrypt certonly -d example.com -d www.example.com --email me@example.com --agree-tos --standalone

Install Node.js TLS Version

• Install Python install python software properties

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

• now download node.js setup package via curl method

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -

• Install Node.js and NPM

sudo apt-get install nodejs

Install Nginx Server

• Download packages and Keys

wget https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key && apt-key add nginx_signing.key

rm nginx_signing.key

printf "deb https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ xenial nginx \ndeb-src https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ xenial nginx \n" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

• Install Nginx

sudo apt update && apt install nginx -y

• Start the Nginx

sudo service nginx start

• Now Configure Nginx as Reverse Proxy and Create ghost.conf File

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/ghost.conf

• Copy and paste this Below code on ghost.conf

server {  
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    if ($scheme = http) {
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
    }

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_timeout 10m;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS';
    ssl_stapling on; 
    ssl_stapling_verify on;

    add_header x-xss-protection "1; mode=block" always;
    add_header x-frame-options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload";

    client_max_body_size 10G;

    location / {

        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:2368;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_hide_header X-powered-by;

    }

}

• Replace example.com with your domain name

• CTRL + X to save the Settings
• After that, it asks confirmation to save the settings click yes to save the settings
• Pree Enter to Exit
• Verify the Configuration

nginx -t

• Restart the Nginx

sudo service nginx restart

Install Ghost Blog CMS

• First Create a Web root directory for Ghost Installation

mkdir -p /var/www/

• Create a New User for Ghost

adduser ghost

• Now go to www folder

cd /var/www

• Download the Latest version of Ghost Blog CMS

wget https://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip

• unzip the package

unzip ghost-latest.zip -d ghost

• set the permission

chown -R ghost:ghost /var/www/ghost/

• remove the Downloaded zip pack

rm ghost-latest.zip

• Now Open as ghost user

su - ghost

• install NPM Modules on Ghost Blog CMS
• Open Ghost folder

cd /var/www/ghost

• Install NPM Production

npm install --production

• Now configure your Ghost blog

cp config.example.js config.js

• Open config.js file

nano /var/www/ghost/config.js

• update your Ghost blog URL

• Save the Modification and Exit
• Now start your Ghost Blog

npm start --production

• it will setup Everything for you :)

Run the Ghost Blog Forever

If we Close the terminal or server Our Ghost blog also automatically stopped for this we need to install Forever Node Process to live our Ghost blog For 24x7.

• open as su user

su - ghost

• Open ghost installed Folder

cd /var/www/ghost

• Now Install the NPM Forever process

npm install forever

• export the Forever Command Process to your Node Modules path

echo "export PATH=/var/www/ghost/node_modules/forever/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

• Now start the Ghost blog for Forever

NODE_ENV=production /var/www/ghost/node_modules/forever/bin/forever start index.js

• That's all Successfully we install Ghost Blog CMS on Ubuntu with Free SSL
• Now open this URL & Set up your New Ghost blog

https://example.com/ghost/setup/

• Replace example.com with your Ghost blog URL

SSL with A+ Grade

HTTP/2 Support

Run Ghost blog as service

This one is very important on Ghost blog CMS run ghost blog as service will help us Start/stop/restart our Ghost blog.
Here are the Guide to Install and Activate ghost.service on Ubuntu

From the Editor's Desk

If you Need any Help in Ghost Blog CMS Installation Just drop your Comments here I will Guide you.