Install Ghost CMS on Ubuntu 20.04

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Introduction

Ghost is a lightweight, open-source Content Management System (CMS) and blogging platform built with Node.js. It is customizable and has many pre-built themes available. In this article, you'll learn how to install Ghost CMS on Ubuntu 20.04.

Prerequisites

Deploy a fully updated Vultr Ubuntu 20.04.
Create a non-root user with sudo access.
Create a DNS "A" record, such as ghost.example.com, that resolves to the IP address for your server.
Install MySQL on your Ubuntu server.

1. Create the Ghost Database

SSH to the server as your non-root user with sudo access.
Login to mysql.
```
$ sudo mysql -u root -p
```
Create a database named ghost.
```
CREATE DATABASE ghost;
```

Create a database user named ghost.

CREATE USER 'ghost'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'StrongPassword';

Grant all privileges of the ghost database to the user ghost.
```
GRANT ALL ON ghost.* TO 'ghost'@'localhost';
```
Flush privileges for the changes to take effect.
```
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
```
Exit MySQL.

exit

2. Install Nginx

Install Nginx.
```
$ sudo apt-get install nginx -y
```
Enable Nginx server to start on boot.
```
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx
```
Allow firewall for both HTTP and HTTPS connections.
```
$ sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
```

3. Install Node.js

Add the NodeSource APT repository for Node 14.

$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash

Install Node.js.
```
$ sudo apt-get install nodejs -y
```

4. Install Ghost

Install Ghost-CLI.
```
$ sudo npm install ghost-cli@latest -g
```
Create a directory /var/www/ghost/.
```
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/ghost/
```

Set ownership of the directory to the current user account.

$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/ghost/

$ sudo chmod 775 /var/www/ghost

Go to /var/www/ghost/ directory.
```
$ cd /var/www/ghost/
```
Install Ghost.
```
$ ghost install
```

Answer the prompts as shown.

? Enter your blog URL: https://ghost.example.com

? Enter your MySQL hostname: localhost

? Enter your MySQL username: ghost

? Enter your MySQL password: [hidden]

? Enter your Ghost database name: ghost

? Configuring Ghost

? Setting up instance

? Do you wish to set up Nginx? Yes

? Do you wish to set up Systemd? Yes

? Do you want to start Ghost? (Y/n) Y

Navigate to your Ghost admin portal. For example:
```
https://ghost.example.com/ghost/
```

More Information

Ghost documentation

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