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Ghost (stack) Ghost (stack)

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Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Services

ghost

Configuration

Image
ghost:latest
Ports
8080:2368
Volumes
/var/lib/ghost/content : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/ghost
Env vars
database__client=mysqldatabase__connection__host=ghost-dbdatabase__connection__user=rootdatabase__connection__password=exampledatabase__connection__database=ghosturl=http://localhost:8080
Restart
always

Image details

Pulls: 378.5M
User: stackbrew
Created: Feb 23, 2015
Updated: 4 days ago
Status: active

ghost-db

Configuration

Image
mysql:8.0
Env vars
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=example
Restart
always

Image details

Pulls: 5.1B
User: stackbrew
Created: Jun 05, 2014
Updated: 19 days ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Ghost (stack)

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Ghost (stack), fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:

  ghost:
    image: ghost:latest
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - ghost-db
    ports:
      - 8080:2368
    environment:
      # see https://ghost.org/docs/config/#configuration-options
      database__client: mysql
      database__connection__host: ghost-db
      database__connection__user: root
      database__connection__password: example
      database__connection__database: ghost
      # this url value is just an example, and is likely wrong for your environment!
      url: http://localhost:8080
      #NODE_ENV: development
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/ghost:/var/lib/ghost/content

  ghost-db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/ghost.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Container Documentation

ghost Documentation

Publish by web and email newsletter, with member signups and subscription payments.

ghost-db Documentation

MySQL is a widely used, open-source relational database management system (RDBMS).

Serve Ghost (stack) on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying ghost-stack.example.com to http://ghost:2368

Add this to your Caddyfile

ghost-stack.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://ghost:2368
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:8080 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :8080
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 8080:2368 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:8080. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, ghost can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 8080

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

  • Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/ghost

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull ghost:latest

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The always restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

Ghost (stack) is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • ghost runs ghost:latest, starts after ghost-db
  • ghost-db runs mysql:8.0

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 8080:2368 means it's reachable on port 8080 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. It opens:

  • 8080:2368

Volumes

A volume is where Ghost (stack) keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /var/lib/ghost/content from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/ghost on the host

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Ghost (stack) takes 7 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • database__client, defaults to mysql
  • database__connection__host, defaults to ghost-db
  • database__connection__user, defaults to root
  • database__connection__password, defaults to example
  • database__connection__database, defaults to ghost
  • url, defaults to http://localhost:8080
  • MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD, defaults to example

Restart policy

The restart policy here is always, so Docker brings Ghost (stack) back up after a crash and again when the server reboots. Good for anything you want running around the clock. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like ghost) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Ghost (stack) up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Ghost (stack) is a click rather than a wall of config.