How To Install Ghost Using Docker, On Windows Azure Platform

In my previous article, we learned what Ghost is and How to install Ghost on Microsoft Azure Portal. In this article, you will learn how to build Ghost using Docker on Microsoft Azure Portal.

If you’re new to Azure, I recommend reading Introduction to Microsoft Azure, to learn from this article.

If you don’t have an Azure account, click here to get an account free of cost.

Requirements

Only one thing is required to create Ghost using Azure.

• Azure Account

Let’s get started

Now, it’s time to create and configure Ghost using Docker, on Azure Portal.

Login to Microsoft Azure Account, click “+” (New), and search for "Ghost" from the Azure marketplace.



You will be navigated to the marketplace. Here, select Ghost, whose publisher must be Docker.



Carefully, read the Ghost description and click “Create”.



You will land on Ghost Creation wizard. So, we need to create Ghost via Virtual Machine creation wizard.

Configuring basic settings

The following are the attributes that should be filled to create Ghost Virtual Machine.

• Provide the name for your Ghost VM.
• Select “VM disk type” as “SSD”.
• Enter username for your Virtual Machine.
• Select Authentication type as Password.
• Set Password and retype password.

Select your subscription. Some of the subscription levels are Azure Pass, Free Trial, DreamSpark, Visual Studio Enterprise, and so on.

Create or select your existing resource group in which your Virtual Machine is deployed. Select your location.

Finally, click OK to process the basic configuration settings.



Choose Virtual Machine Size

Based on your needs, select VM size. Here, my Virtual Machine size is “DS2 standard”. My VM configuration is “2 core, 7GB RAM, load balancing”. Click "Select".



Configuring optional features

This module mainly deals with storage and network. This level automatically creates whatever things are needed to run this Virtual Machine. So, just click “OK”.



Summary

Summary module is used for reviewing changes. It displays information about basic configuration and optional features. Once validation is passed, click OK.



Everything was done! So, Azure Management portal starts creating Virtual Machine and configuring Node.js. Usually, this process may take up to 5 Minutes. So, don’t go anywhere; stick to the Azure portal for deployment status.

Once our Ghost template is provisioned in a Virtual Machine, now, we will be able to see an overview of VM which is created. Then, click "Connect" option that is available on your Azure Management portal.



The Connect Popup appears. In that, copy IP address that is available in the popup and paste that in the web browser and hit Enter.



Congrats! You have successfully configured Ghost in Azure portal.

“You are now running Ghost using Docker in the Microsoft cloud”.



Setup Ghost Administration

Now, our Ghost web app is working as expected. It’s time to setup administrator of Ghost Web app.

To setup admin rights to our web app for uploading blog posts, just type "/admin" at the end of ....azurewebsites.net and press Enter.

The actual path is https://<<your appname>>.azurewebsites.net/admin You will land on the Ghost account setup page. Once there, click “Create your account” to create the Ghost account.



Provide your valid email ID, full name, blog name, and password. Then, click “Last step: Invite your team”.



If you are interested in creating a team, enter your partner's mail id and click one by one and click “Invite some users” to invite users. If you don’t, just click “I will do it later. Take me to my blog” link to navigate to your blog.



Congratulations! Everything is completed.

Creating a New Post

Now, on Admin page, click “New Post” to create a new post in Ghost Blogger.



Provide Post Title and Post content. Preview window is cascaded to display final appearance of your post once it is published.

The post content is updated. Now, it’s time to publish the post globally.

So, click the dropdown next to “Save Draft”. Just change “Save Draft” to “Publish Post”.



Finally, click "Publish Now" button to publish your created post.



Once your post is published, you will be able to find “Update Post” option.



Then, navigate to your Web app URL. Now, you will be able to find published post.



Summary

Ghost is the platform that provides Azure cloud support like Ghost using Azure web app, Ghost using Azure Deploy button, and Ghost using Docker. Of course, Ghost supports APIs, such as slacks, Disque and so on. Compared to Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumbler, the performance of Ghost and Ghost pro is high and scalable.