Ghost - Getting Started Guide

Step 1 - Verify Ghost Works

Your server's IP address and root password are shown on the Server Details page in your client panel. Your blog is already accessible by IP address:

• Blog: http://your.server.ip
• Admin panel: http://your.server.ip/ghost/

Log in to the admin panel with the email and password you entered during the order. If the page loads and you can sign in, Ghost is working correctly.

If you placed the server behind a VyOS router on a private network, set up port forwarding for ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS). Ghost is a public-facing blog that must be reachable from the internet.

Step 2 - Configure Domain and SSL (Recommended)

If you provided a domain during the order, it is already configured in Ghost. Point your domain's DNS A record to the server IP, then SSH in and enable SSL:

ssh root@your.server.ip

/opt/setup/get-ssl.sh your-domain.com

The script will obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate, configure Nginx for HTTPS and update the Ghost URL automatically. After completion:

https://your-domain.com          (blog)
https://your-domain.com/ghost/   (admin panel)

Changing the domain later

If you need to change the domain after setup:

cd /var/www/ghost
sudo -u ghost ghost config url http://new-domain.com
sudo -u ghost ghost restart
sed -i "s/server_name .*/server_name new-domain.com;/" /etc/nginx/sites-available/ghost
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

Then run /opt/setup/get-ssl.sh new-domain.com to get an SSL certificate for the new domain.

Fail2Ban - Brute-Force Protection

Your server comes with Fail2Ban pre-configured to protect SSH from brute-force attacks.

Rule	Max Attempts	Ban Duration
SSH	5 failed logins	10 minutes

Useful commands:

# Check banned IPs
fail2ban-client status sshd

# Unban an IP
fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip 1.2.3.4

If you accidentally lock yourself out, connect via VNC console in your client panel and unban your IP.

Content Management

In the admin panel you can:

• Posts - create blog articles with the rich editor (Markdown, images, embeds, cards)
• Pages - create static pages (About, Contact, etc.)
• Tags - organize content with tags and internal tags
• Members - manage subscribers and paid memberships
• Newsletters - send email newsletters to subscribers

Theme Customization

Ghost comes with the Casper theme by default. To change or customize themes:

• Settings > Design - customize colors, fonts and branding
• Settings > Design > Change theme - install a new theme from the Ghost Marketplace or upload a ZIP file

Theme files are stored in /var/www/ghost/content/themes/.

Backups

Ghost has a built-in export in Settings > Labs > Export (JSON backup of posts and settings). For a full backup including images and database:

# Content and themes
tar czf /root/ghost-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /var/www/ghost/content

# MySQL database
mysqldump ghost > /root/ghost-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Service Management

# Check Ghost status
cd /var/www/ghost && sudo -u ghost ghost status

# Restart Ghost
cd /var/www/ghost && sudo -u ghost ghost restart

# View Ghost logs
cd /var/www/ghost && sudo -u ghost ghost log

# Stack services (managed by systemd)
systemctl status mysql nginx

Updates

# Update Ghost
cd /var/www/ghost
sudo -u ghost ghost update

# Update OS packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y

Software Included

Component	Version
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS
Ghost	5.x
Node.js	22.x LTS
MySQL	8.x
Nginx	1.24
Certbot	Latest
Fail2Ban	1.0.2

• Ghost Documentation: ghost.org/docs
• Ghost-CLI Reference: ghost.org/docs/ghost-cli
• Ghost Themes: ghost.org/themes
• Ghost Content API: ghost.org/docs/content-api