Ghost Open Source Publishing Platform - Support

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## Ghost Publishing Platform - Supported by cloudimg

Ghost is a modern open source publishing platform for blogs, newsletters, magazines, and membership websites. This AMI delivers Ghost fully installed and production-configured on AWS, so you have a complete publishing platform running within minutes of launching your instance. The current release available is Ghost 6.

## Application Stack

• Ghost6 served by Node.js 22 LTS
• nginx web server reverse-proxying the Ghost process on port 80
• MySQL 8 database tier on a dedicated EBS volume, enabling independent snapshots and backups without downtime
• Ghost-CLI installed for one-command upgrades, backups, and configuration changes

## Minimum Requirements

• Instance type: t3.small or larger (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM minimum)
• Storage: 20 GB root volume; MySQL data resides on a separate EBS volume (10 GB minimum, gp3 recommended)
• Architecture: x86_64 (AMD/Intel)
• Security group: Open TCP port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS) for web traffic; port 22 (SSH) for administration
• Networking: Public subnet with an Elastic IP or load balancer for production use; private subnet recommended for the database volume

## Security and Encryption

Secure First Boot: On first launch, a one-shot service generates cryptographically random MySQL and Ghost administrator passwords unique to that instance and writes them to a root-only file(/root/.ghost-credentials). No shared or default credentials ship in the image.

Encryption at rest: The dedicated MySQL EBS volume supports AWS EBS encryption. Enable encryption when launching the instance to protect all stored content and member data at rest using AWS-managed or customer-managed KMS keys.

Encryption in transit: The nginx configuration is ready for TLS termination. We recommend configuring HTTPS using Let's Encrypt (via Ghost-CLI) or attaching an AWS Certificate Manager certificate through an Application Load Balancer to encrypt all traffic between readers and your site.

Network recommendations: Restrict SSH access to known IP ranges. Place the instance behind an ALB for production workloads. Use AWS security groups as a firewall to limit inbound traffic to ports 80, 443, and 22 only.

## Getting Started

1. Launch the AMI from AWS Marketplace, selecting at least a t3.small instance with EBS encryption enabled.

2. Configure your security group to allow ports 80, 443, and 22.

3. SSH into the instance and retrieve your credentials: sudo cat /root/.ghost-credentials

4. Browse to http://your-instance-ip/ghost and sign in with the generated administrator password.

5. Configure your custom domain and enable HTTPS: ghost-cli setup ssl (uses Let's Encrypt).

6. Begin publishing - create posts, manage members, configure themes, and connect newsletters.

## Use Cases

Editorial team publishing daily content with paid memberships: A small editorial team (3-10 writers) running a subscription newsletter with Stripe-connected membership billing, serving tens of thousands of monthly readers on a single instance.

Corporate publications and internal newsletters: Marketing departments publishing branded content without relying on third-party hosted platforms, maintaining full data ownership on AWS infrastructure.

Independent creators and personal blogs: Solo creators launching a professional publishing presence with built-in membership, email newsletter delivery, and theme customization.

## Why This AMI

Unlike a manual Ghost installation that requires provisioning Node.js, configuring nginx, setting up MySQL, and hardening credentials - a process that can take hours - this image completes all setup automatically. The dedicated MySQL EBS volume enables independent database snapshots for point-in-time recovery without affecting the application volume. Ghost-CLI integration means major version upgrades are a single command rather than a multi-step manual process.

## cloudimg Support

24/7 technical support by email and live chat covers Ghost-specific expertise including deployment, major version upgrades, performance tuning, theme development, membership and payment troubleshooting, and database administration. Critical issues receive a one-hour average response.

## Next Step

Subscribe and launch your instance to have Ghost running in minutes, or contact support@cloudimg.co.uk to discuss your deployment requirements before purchasing.

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