Installing Ghost on a new Linode server

Hi there! I am trying to install ghost onto a Linode server, but I’m not the most savvy web dev in the world, so I’m not quite sure what steps I need to take to finish the job.

My end goal is to host a blog on ghost, running from my linode server, and addressed at the naked domain mnchrm.co, which I own.

I followed the installation guide on the ghost documentation via the ghost CLI, which seemed to complete successfully. Then, I went to my registrar (namecheap) and addressed the DNS to my linode sever’s IP (139.162.102.225). I added my domain name to the linode domain manager.

So, there’s two issues here: Loading the IP address of my server doesn’t resolve to the default ghost blog for me to configure. It just loads the default welcome page for nginx. Did I make a mistake here, or need to do something else to initialize it?

The second problem is my domain. What else do I need to do to link the domain to the IP address? And how can I run it as a naked domain (without “www”)?

Thanks again everyone, and hopefully I can get this up and running as soon as possible.

Hi, Ghost sets up Nginx such that site can be accessed only with the domain name and not by the IP address. Also, you should set DNS records before installation (for Let’s Encrypt verification) and then do a propagation check.
Please follow this guide:

Step #8 is very important.
And to check DNS propagation use whatsmydns.net.
When everything is setup, login to your server and go to ghost install directory, (like: /var/www/ghost)
Uninstall existing Ghost— ghost uninstall
and install it again:

  • ghost install

  • Blog URL : https://mnchrm.co

  • Follow rest of the steps, do not forget to add Let’s Encrypt SSL.

Thanks for this. Do I need to go through all the steps here, or just the ones related to DNS? I.E., should I be installing Apache and PHP or just double checking the DNS before reinstalling Ghost? My DNS propagation looks correct at this point, so do I need to do more than just reinstall Ghost?

Hi, I see your blog is up and running. Apache and PHP are not required for ghost. Everything is fine and you don’t have to install anything else.

Yes, I got it set up last night. Thanks again for all your help!

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