Guide

How to install Ghost on Google Cloud for free

A full guide for installing, configuring and running Ghost on a Google Cloud Platform, for free use in production environments.

Predrag Cvetkovski

— 8 min read
Self-hosted Ghost on Google Cloud diagram
Self-hosted Ghost on Google Cloud

Building and maintenance of a website is non-trivial, no matter which language or stack you choose. It is almost like building your custom car and being the car mechanic when it breaks. I still do it, however, for publishing I found Ghost to be the best alternative out there, here is why 👉 https://ghost.org/alternatives/

Ghost is also inexpensive when compared to your time-investment or using any alternative. If you have a large subscriber base and you are generating revenue, supporting Ghost is your next best investment.

However, if you are just starting, Ghost is open-source and you can install it on your own server at home or spin it online for free at Fly.io, Oracle Cloud or Google Cloud. In this blog I will show you how to do it on Google Cloud.

Prerequisites

  • Google Cloud free-tier account to host:
    • Server (at least 1GB memory)
    • Ubuntu 22.04 (or 16.04, 18.04, 20.04)
    • NGINX (minimum of 1.9.5 for SSL)
    • Node.js (see supported versions)
    • MySQL 8
    • Systemd
  • Domain name pointing to the server's IP
  • Bulk email delivery service for newsletters

1. Create Google Cloud account

1.1. Set up account

  • Go to https://console.cloud.google.com > Sign in.
  • Click Try for free > Create Payment profile.
  • Enter Create a project and select the top result in the Search bar:
    • Project name:ghost-free
    • Location:No organization
  • Click Activate Free trial, in the floating topbar. Create billing account.
  • Click Activate a paid account, in the floating topbar, to protect your project from removal after the 90-day trial period.
  • Go to Billing > Budgets & alerts > Create budget:
    • Name: ghost-free-budget
    • Time range: Monthly
    • Budget type: Specified amount
    • Target amount: 3.00
    • Manage notifications: Email alerts to billing admins and users
    • Click Finish, this project will run on the free tier, nevertheless it is prudent to enable monitoring.

1.2. Spin up a web server

  • Enter Compute engine and select the top result in the Search bar:
    • Click Enable API> Enable billing
    • Select > My billing account > click Set account
  • Click Create Instance > Select New VM instance from template > Click Create instance template:
    • Name: ghost-free-web-server
    • Machine configuration: General-purpose
    • Series: E2
    • Machine type: e2-micro (2 vCPU, 1 core, 1GB memory)
    • Boot disk > Change:
      • Operating system: Ubuntu
      • Version: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (x86/64, amd64)
      • Boot disk type: Standard persistent disk
    • Firewall:
      • Allow HTTP traffic
      • Allow HTTPS traffic
    • Advanced Options > Networking > Network tags:
      • Type mail then press Enter
    • Security:
      • Turn on Secure Boot, vTPM, and Integrity Monitoring
      • Click Create
  • Click New VM instance from template:
  • Enter Snapshots and select the top result in the Search bar:
    • Select Snapshot Schedule
    • Click Create Snapshot Schedule
    • Name: weekly-backup-schedule
    • Schedule location: us-west1 (the same region as your instance)
    • Snapshot storage location: Regional
    • Location: us-west1
    • Schedule frequency: Weekly
    • Click Create
  • Go to Disks > ghost-free > Edit:
    • Snapshot schedule: weekly-backup-schedule

1.3. Initialize VPC Network

  • Enter VPC networks and select the top result in the Search bar:
    • Go to Firewall > Create Firewall Rule:
    • Name: allow-outgoing-587
    • Logs: Off
    • Direction: Egress
    • Action on match: Allow
    • Targets: Specified target tags > mail
    • Destination filter: IPv4 ranges > 0.0.0.0/0
    • Protocols and ports: Specified protocols and ports > TCP: 587
    • Click Create
  • Enter IP addresses and select the top result in the Search bar:
    • Go to IP addresses > Reserve External Static Address:
    • Name: ghost-free-ip
    • Network service tier: Standard
    • Region: us-west1 (the same region as your instance)
    • Attached to: ghost-free
    • Click Reserve
  • Select and copy IP Address assigned to External Access type.

2. Get domain name and set up Mailgun

2.1. Register a domain name

  • Go to https://www.namecheap.com > buy a domain. For example, ghostfree.com. Replace ghostfree.com below with your own domain name.
  • Click Manage > Advanced DNS:
  • Then Add new record:
  • Type: A
  • Host: @
  • IP address: paste External IP address from GCP > IP Address
  • Click > Save all changes
  • Toggle on DNSSEC

2.2 Set up email delivery system

  • Go to https://www.mailgun.com > Get started for free > enter Payment information > select Foundation Trial
  • Click Dashboard > go to your Profile > Plan & Billing > click ⚙️ icon> Unsubscribe switching to Flex plan (free, if you send less than 1,000 emails/month), more details at: https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-does-PAYG-billing-work-
  • Go to Sending > Domains > click Add new domain:
    • Domain name: mg.ghostfree.com
    • Click Add domain
    • DNS records > copy SPF, DKIM, MX and CNAME records
    • Go to Namecheap > paste/create new records for Mailgun
    • Go back to Mailgun > Verify DNS records
  • Go to Sending > Domain Settings > SMTP credentials > copy login email postmaster@mg.ghostfree.com > click Reset Password > save credentials in your password manager.
  • Go to your Profile > API security > Mailgun API keys > click go to your Add new key > copy key and store in your password manager.

3. Install Ghost on Ubuntu

3.1. Set up VM instance

  • Go to Google Cloud > enter VM instances and select the top result in the Search bar:
  • Click SSH to open secure shell in a pop-up window.
  • Set a password for the root user:
    sudo passwd
  • Switch to root user and authenticate:
    su
  • Update Linux:
    apt update && apt -y upgrade
  • To allow any updated services to restart, go back to Google Cloud, Stop and Resume the instance, then SSH again.
  • Make a new user called service_account and grant it sudo:
    adduser service_account && usermod -aG sudo service_account
  • Set a password for service_account. Leave default user information fields for service_account. Confirm with Y.
  • Switch to service_account:
    su - service_account

3.2. Install Ghost dependencies

  • Install Nginx and open the firewall:
    sudo apt install -y nginx && sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
  • Install NodeJS:
    sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg
NODE_MAJOR=18
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE_MAJOR.x nodistro main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nodejs -y
sudo npm install -g npm@latest
  • Install MySQL:
    sudo apt install -y mysql-server
  • Clean up:
    sudo apt -y autoremove
  • Stop the snapd process to save on RAM:
    sudo systemctl stop snapd.service
  • Start MySQL in modified mode:
    sudo systemctl set-environment MYSQLD_OPTS="--skip-networking --skip-grant-tables"
sudo systemctl start mysql.service
sudo mysql -u root
  • This will load the MySQL command line. Enter:
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
USE mysql;
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' WITH mysql_native_password identified BY 'yourpasswordhere';
QUIT;
  • replacing yourpasswordhere with your chosen MySQL root password.
  • Restart MySQL and switch to production mode. Run:
    sudo systemctl unset-environment MYSQLD_OPTS
sudo systemctl revert mysql
sudo killall -u mysql
sudo systemctl restart mysql.service
sudo mysql_secure_installation
  • then configure as follows:
    • Install validate password component? — N
    • Remove anonymous users? — Y
    • Disallow root login remotely? — N
    • Remove test database and its privileges? — Y
    • Reload privilege tables? — Y
  • Access MySQL:
    sudo mysql -u root
  • This will load the MySQL command line. Enter:
    CREATE USER 'user_site'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpasswordhere';
CREATE DATABASE site_prod;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON site_prod.* TO 'user_site'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
QUIT;
  • replacing yourpasswordhere with your chosen MySQL root password.
  • Turn off MySQL’s performance schema to reduce memory usage:
    sudo nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf
  • then add the following lines at the bottom of the file:
    [mysqld]
performance_schema=0
  • then Ctrl-X > Y > Enter to save and quit.
  • Restart MySQL and log in:
    sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart
sudo mysql -u root -p
  • Then in the MySQL command line, run:
    show variables like 'performance_schema';
  • Verify that the performance_schema variable is indeed OFF, then
    quit;

3.3. Set up Ghost

  • Install Ghost CLI:
    sudo npm install ghost-cli@latest -g
  • Make a new directory called ghost, set its permissions, then navigate to it:
    sudo mkdir /var/www/ghost`
sudo chown service_account:service_account /var/www/ghost
sudo chmod 775 /var/www/ghost
  • Navigate to the website folder and install Ghost:
    cd /var/www/ghost && ghost install
  • then configure as follows:
    • Blog URL: https://ghostfree.com
    • MySQL hostname: localhost
    • MySQL username: root
    • MySQL password: the password you set for root
    • Ghost database name: ghost_prod
    • Set up Ghost MySQL user? — Y
    • Set up NGINX? — Y
    • Set up SSL? — Y, then enter your email
    • Set up systemd? — Y
      • If you entered a value wrong, interrupt with Ctrl + C then run ghost setup, otherwise:
    • Start Ghost? — Y
  • Ghost is live at: https://ghostfree.com/ghost

3.4. Set up Mailgun on Ghost

  • While still inside /var/www/ghost, run:
    sudo nano config.production.json
  • and update the "mail" section as follows, using spaces (not tabs) to indent:
    "mail": {
  "transport": "SMTP",
  "options": {
    "service": "Mailgun",
    "host": "smtp.mailgun.org",
    "port": "587",
    "secure": false,
    "auth": {
      "user": "your-mailgun-username",
      "pass": "your-mailgun-password"
    }
  }
},
  • replacing "your-mailgun-username" and "your-mailgun-password" with your Mailgun SMTP credentials and host domain.
  • Then Ctrl-X > Y > Enter to save and quit.
  • Restart Ghost for the config to take effect:
    ghost restart

4. Configure email newsletter

  • Go to https://ghostfree.com/ghost. Create your admin login credentials.
  • Customize your site > click ⚙️ icon > Email newsletter > Mailgun settings > click Edit:
    • Mailgun region: US (from Mailgun > Domain Settings > SMTP credentials)
    • Mailgun domain: mg.ghostfree.com
    • Mailgun Private API key: your-API-key

5. Future maintenance

5.1 Enable Ghost auto-start

  • Cron job to restart Ghost, whenever the virtual machine restarts.
  • From the home directory of service_account, run:
    crontab -e
  • and press 1 to select Nano as your text editor.
  • Paste the following into the cronfile:
    @reboot cd /var/www/ghost && /usr/bin/ghost start
  • then Ctrl-X > Y > Enter to save and quit.

5.2. Create maintenance scripts

  • Create an update script in the home directory of service_account:
    cd && sudo nano update-ghost.sh
  • Paste the following text into the update script:
    sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt clean && sudo apt autoclean && sudo apt autoremove
sudo npm install -g npm@latest
sudo rm -r /usr/lib/node_modules/ghost-cli
cd /var/www/ghost
sudo npm install -g ghost-cli@latest
sudo find ./ ! -path "./versions/*" -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;
ghost backup
ghost stop
ghost update
ghost ls
ghost start
sudo reboot
  • then Ctrl-X > Y > Enter to save and quit.
  • Make it executable:
    sudo chown service_account:service_account update-ghost.sh
sudo chmod 775 update-ghost.sh
  • In the future, to keep Ghost up date, go to Google Cloud > enter VM instances and select the top result in the Search bar:
  • Click SSH to open secure shell in a pop-up window.
    su - service_account
./update-ghost.sh
  • Note that ghost backup requires your Ghost admin credentials.

Conclusion

In this blog post, I have shown you how to install Ghost on GCP for free. By following these steps, you can create a self-hosted Ghost blog that is both powerful and affordable.

Additional notes

  • The e2-micro machine type is eligible for the GCP Free Tier. This means that you can run your Ghost blog for free for up to 750 hours per month.
  • To prevent out-of-memory errors try adding a swap space to your server.
  • For more information on installing Ghost, please refer to the Ghost documentation and the following links 👇

References

How to install & setup Ghost on Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04 or 22.04
A full production install guide for how to install the Ghost professional publishing platform on a production server running Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04 or 22.04.
Ghost - The Professional Publishing Platform

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