Changes to Ghost support

horvath

Did the separate docs ever get written?

sean

horvath not just yet, apologies. I'll announce here when that is ready.

horvath

Any updates here?

sean

horvath Not yet, really sorry about the delay! Our support load should taper off as we approach the Christmas holiday, so I'm hoping to have it done in the coming week.

horvath

sean

no worries.. just was curious if it was something I might be able to figure out?

horvath

BTW, I have had some time to get back to using my account here. I was one of the herd from webfaction and haven't had time to really check things out here. Very impressive the level of automation and quality of the documentation you put out. I'm not in a crazy hurry for this. I was hoping it was one of those... "oh yea, let me publish that" kind of thing.

sean

horvath hey thanks for the kind feedback, I really appreciate it!

There's not too much to be figured out, most I just need the time to do the writing. If you want to give it a shot:

Create 2 proxy port apps, one for mysql and one for Ghost.
Download the MySQL community server from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/, you'll need the RHEL7/x86 version.
Adapt the steps at https://community.opalstack.com/d/91-howto-install-and-run-a-private-mariadb-server-instance-on-opalstack to run your MySQL server instead of the system MariaDB server.
Read the code in our Ghost installer at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opalstack/installers/master/core/ghost/install.py to identify the tasks that it performs and then do those same tasks manually, except that you'll change the Ghost config to connect to your MySQL app instead of a SQLite database.

horvath

sean

You can see by my quick response how high a priority it is for me 🙂. That was exacly the kind of response I was looking for. I'll keep track of my experience and suggest updates.

Speaking of which.... the level of automation you have is remarkable.

I have owned my primary domain for decades so it is never to move around. When webfaction died, I wasn't "paying attenion".

You guys are doing it right!
.

justincox

I don’t see Ghost listed in the application list. Does that mean the bundled installer is still not available?

nick

justincox Yes, please see the OP at the start of the thread.

Because of this situation we've decided to temporarily remove Ghost from our officially supported apps.

Still no ETA at this time but we will make an announcement here.

justincox

nick Are the steps from December still accurate or are there newer versions to follow?

nick

justincox I think so, though if you have any issues feel free to open a support ticket.

nick

THIS GUIDE IS DEPRECIATED AS OF GHOST 5.71.0 SINCE IT DROPPED NODE 16 SUPPORT, PLEASE USE THE DEDICATED INSTALL GUIDE.

For anyone interested - these instructions should get a Ghost/MySQL instance up and running in production mode on the Opalstack platform. Here are the variables you need to know in order to use the guide (replace them with the values you choose to assign to each):

MYGHOST = new shell user name
GHOSTAPP = nginx proxy app 1, note assigned port = GAPORT
GHOSTDB = nginx proxy app 2, note assigned port = DBPORT
GHOSTDBNAME = ghost database name
GHOSTDBUSER = ghost db user name
GHOSTDBUSERPWD = ghost db user password
GHOSTDBROOTPWD = ghost db root user password
YOURDOMAIN.COM = domain to use for the app

Pre-installation

Create a new shell user, e.g. MYGHOST
Create two NXINX proxy apps GHOSTAPP and GHOSTDB, noting the assigned ports for each
Create a site record in dashboard assigning GHOSTAPP and YOURDOMAIN.COM, enabling HTTPS too
SSH to your server using shell user MYGHOST

Setup MySQL Instance

**#Create the MySQL config file**
cd ~/apps/GHOSTDB
mkdir -p {etc,var,tmp}
echo -e "[client]\nport = DBPORT\nsocket = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock\n\n[mysqld]\nport = DBPORT\nsocket = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock\ntmpdir = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/tmp\ndatadir = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/data\ninnodb_log_group_home_dir = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/data\nlog_error = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/maria.log\npid_file = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/var/pid\nsql_mode = STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION\n\n[mysqld_safe]\nlog-error = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/maria.log\npid-file = /home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/var/pid" > ~/apps/GHOSTDB/etc/my.cnf

**#Download and setup MySQL**
wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-8.0/mysql-8.0.32-el7-x86_64.tar.gz
tar xzf mysql-8.0.32-el7-x86_64.tar.gz --strip-components=1
~/apps/GHOSTDB/bin/mysqld --defaults-file=/home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTDB/etc/my.cnf --initialize-insecure --user=$USER --datadir=$PWD/data --tmpdir=$PWD/tmp

**#Start the MySQL instance, login and set up root and new user:**
nohup $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/bin/mysqld_safe --defaults-file=$HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/etc/my.cnf --socket=$HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock > $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/nohup.out 2>&1 &
~/apps/GHOSTDB/bin/mysql -P DBPORT -S $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock -u root
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'GHOSTDBROOTPWD';
create database GHOSTDBNAME;
create user 'GHOSTDBUSER'@'localhost' identified by 'GHOSTDBUSERPWD';
grant usage on *.* to 'ghostdbuser'@'localhost';
grant all on GHOSTDBNAME.* to 'GHOSTDBUSER'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

**#How to start/stop database**
Start: nohup $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/bin/mysqld_safe --defaults-file=$HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/etc/my.cnf --socket=$HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock > $HOME/apps/ghostdb/nohup.out 2>&1 &
Stop: $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/bin/mysqladmin -u root -P DBPORT -S $HOME/apps/GHOSTDB/var/mysql.sock -p shutdown

Setup Ghost Instance w/MySQL -- NOTE: Node v16 support has been dropped as of Ghost 5.71.0 so you will have to compile Node v18.12.1 instead, see the updated official guide here.

**#Get and unpack Nodejs v16.20.0**
cd ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/
wget https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-v16.x/node-v16.20.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
tar xf node-v16.20.0-linux-x64.tar.xz --strip 1 -C $PWD

**#Export for Node PATH, update NPM and install some Ghost requirements via SCL**
export PATH=$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
scl enable devtoolset-10 -- npm install -g npm@9.8.1
scl enable devtoolset-10 -- npm install --prefix=~/apps/GHOSTAPP @vscode/sqlite3
scl enable devtoolset-10 -- npm install --prefix=~/apps/GHOSTAPP ghost-cli@latest

**#Install the Ghost instance**
mkdir ./instance && cd ./instance
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost install local --port GAPORT --log file --no-start

**#Replace the sqlite3 package**
rm -r ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance/current/node_modules/sqlite3
cp -r ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/@vscode/sqlite3 ~/apps/ghostapp/instance/current/node_modules/

**#Create the Ghost config file for production, disable default config files**
echo -e '{ \n\t"url": "https://YOURDOMAIN.COM", \n\t"server": { \n\t\t"host": "127.0.0.1", \n\t\t"port": GAPORT }, \n\t"database": { \n\t\t"client": "mysql", \n\t\t"connection": { \n\t\t\t"host": "127.0.0.1", \n\t\t\t"port": DBPORT, \n\t\t\t"user": "GHOSTDBUSER", \n\t\t\t"password": "GHOSTDBUSERPWD", \n\t\t\t"database": "GHOSTDBNAME" \n\t\t} \n\t}, \n\t"paths": { \n\t\t"contentPath": "/home/MYGHOST/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance/content/" \n\t}, \n\t"logging": { \n\t\t"level": "info", \n\t\t"rotation": { \n\t\t\t"enabled": true \n\t\t}, \n\t\t"transports": [\n\t\t\t"file", \n\t\t\t"stdout"\n\t\t], \n\t\t"path": "/home/MYGHOST/logs/apps/GHOSTAPP/"\n\t} \n}' > ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance/config.production.json
find ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance/versions/X.XX.X/core/shared/config/env/ -type f -name "*.json" -exec sh -c 'mv "$1" "${1%.json}.json-backup"' _ {} \;
**#NOTE**: Replace X.XX.X with the version number that got installed when you used 'ghost install' prior

**#Create start and stop scripts**
echo '#!/bin/bash' > ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start; echo "PATH=~/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:\$PATH" >> ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start; echo "NODE_ENV=production ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost start -d ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance --no-setup-linux-user" >> ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start; chmod +x ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start; echo '#!/bin/bash' > ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/stop; echo "PATH=~/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:\$PATH" >> ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/stop; echo "~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost stop -d ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance --no-setup-linux-user" >> ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/stop; chmod +x ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/stop

**#Start Ghost**
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start

Post setup instructions

**#Set domain you want to serve the Ghost app with**
cd ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost config url https://YOURDOMAIN.COM
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost restart

**#Immediately visit your Ghost admin URL and create the admin user when it's available, e.g.**
https://YOURDOMAIN.COM/ghost/
**#NOTE**: If this process appears to stall, after about 15-20 seconds or so just click the black button you just did again and it should take you to a login page. I haven't seen any problems that stem from this issue yet and the logs were not clear why this was happening.

**#Add cron to keep the app up**
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start > /dev/null 2>&1") | crontab -

**#How to start/stop/restart Ghost app**
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/start
~/apps/GHOSTAPP/stop
export PATH=$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin:$PATH && cd ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance && ~/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin/ghost restart

**#Don't forget to setup mail!**
https://ghost.org/docs/config/#mail (note: you have to restart Ghost after modifying any of the config json files)

Updates and maintenance

To run the ghost command for updates and other maintenance tasks, first set your shell path by running the following command:

export PATH=$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin:$PATH

You'll then be able to run ghost for updates etc, for example:

export PATH=$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/bin:$HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
cd $HOME/apps/GHOSTAPP/instance
ghost backup --no-setup-linux-user
ghost update --no-setup-linux-user

More ghost commands are documented at: https://ghost.org/docs/ghost-cli/

I hope this has been helpful in leui of the current Ghost installer issues! 🙂🙂🙂

sean

nick thanks, Nick!

Jamie

nick Awesome! Thank you!

justincox

Thanks for the work, Nick!

nick

Hi everyone, I made some significant updates to the MySQL section of the build details as it was reportedly showing versioning issues with the original instructions. It might be better to start from scratch if you are not comfortable updating an existing Ghost app that was using the old DB method if you've already set everything up. As always, feel free to let us know if you are having any issues and we will happily help 🙂

justincox

Ghost has been running well, but over the weekend, I updated from 5.44.0 to 5.46.0 and everything broke. Working with the Ghost developer forum, it seems there are a few things amiss with the Opalstack install. I don't know if it's because I'm on a shared stack, or if it's a result of the install settings.

Essentially, the main content folder is not being respected. Files are uploaded and stored in the versions folder, which means upgrading breaks everything. I manually moved the images and files to the current versions folder, but that doesn't solve the problem longterm -- the next software update will just break all the images and links again. The development forum said there might be an issue with file permissions or the config file settings. I tried changing the config file path to the content folder, but it just seems to crash Ghost on the restart.

Any suggestions?

Here's the development forum thread: https://forum.ghost.org/t/upgrading-to-5-46-deleted-routes-and-redirects-and-broke-all-images/38152/7

nick

justincox I will need a bit of time to test this before updating the guide. But I'm wondering, did this happen with a ghost install from my older instructions or using the updated instructions I made on April 12th? In the mean time if your app structure is intact or if you can undo your manual changes, you can try using ghost update --rollback to go back to the working version (if you didn't make a backup beforehand). Then if you open a ticket we may be able to look at troubleshooting update issues.

justincox

nick I realized I misread the previous reply. My installation is working just fine, it's just placing content in the wrong place. Here's what I put in the Ghost forum that hopefully better explains what's going on:

The content path in the config is "paths": { "contentPath": "content/" }, which should point to /home/<user>/apps/ghost_app/instance/content/ since the config file is in /home/<user>/apps/ghost_app/instance/. When I changed it to read the full directory address, Ghost wouldn’t boot.

I manually moved the images, routes, and redirects files into their appropriate places from the /instance/versions/5.44.0/content/ directory. However, I know Ghost is still reading the information from the /instance/versions/5.44.0/content/ directory because I deleted the routes file from there and my routing rules broke when I rebooted Ghost despite them being in the appropriate /instance/content/settings/ directory.

nick

justincox I'm not sure why updating contentPath broke things for you when setting it in the config.production.json file. I just did that for your app and was able to restart it fine, which looks also to have fixed your broken links. The guide has been updated to include the full path here also. Hope this helps!