6 ms·

Run your ghost blog on Raspberry Pi for free

65 points by vira28 5y ago

vira28 5y ago
author here: I tried port forwarding (because I never did in the past) and couldn't figure how to do it. capture here https://viggy28.dev/article/pain-of-setting-up-port-forwarding-in-xfinity/ https://viggy28.dev/article/pain-of-setting-up-port-forwardi... I guess Alex's inlets (https://github.com/inlets https://github.com/inlets) might do it too. I would love to hear other alternatives.
- jpillora 5y ago
  Port forwarding is fairly simple. All routers should support it. Forward port 443 to local-rpi-ip-address:443. Setup caddy/traefik. Create A record to public ip. Enable tls. Enable file hosting. Done: you now have TLS static website without any 3rd parties. That said, cloudflare is super handy for dns, and for proxying specific domains, where you don't want to expose your public ip.
  - vira28 5y ago
    Thanks. Xfinity (my ISP) supports only TCP and UDP for Xfi Gateway and not HTTP/HTTPS. The thing which I don't know is how to remove Xfi Gateway and use my own gateway/router.
    - Thorrez 5y ago
      HTTP and HTTPS are layer 7 protocols that both go inside the layer 4 protocol TCP. So port forward TCP and you'll be good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model
      - vira28 5y ago
        Perfect. Thanks. That was my doubt. Will try it out.
        WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
        Yeah, most routers have a predefined list of "Applications" but you can add a custom application with custom port. Back in the day, DynDNS actually allowed the IP to DNS as a free service.
        Thorrez 5y ago
        Oh, I forgot to mention HTTP uses TCP port 80, and HTTPS uses TCP port 443.
  - sodality2 5y ago
    Unfortunately residential networks usually don't have static IP's so the IP changes on reboots. Updating the DNS record every time would probably be a PITA.
    - 27100974 5y ago
      Couple of notes: You can use a DNS updater like this one: https://github.com/timothymiller/cloudflare-ddns https://github.com/timothymiller/cloudflare-ddns The bigger problem would be if your ISP implemented CGNAT.
    - ekianjo 5y ago
      Easily taken care of by duckdns for example
      - skeletonjelly 5y ago
        And then you have to hope your ISP doesn't use CGNAT
      - sodality2 5y ago
        Then I can't hook it up to a real domain like google.com, just a subdomain of whatever site is running it.
- anaganisk 5y ago
  If you are going to use inlets, which needs a bastion host. I would rather just suggest to jump in and use wireguard VPN instead on a $3.5 vps on linode or lightsail. You get more control over your connection and firewall capabilities than inlets, which locks down premium capabilities. Also Cloudflared tunnel will timeout and turn off your endpoint after a network disconnection. If you notice the systemd default file that comes with it, you will notice it restarts after a day. So you will have significant downtime, if your home network or power goes down.
spraveenitpro 5y ago
What about WordPress?
jhunter1016 5y ago
Ghost has some of the best self-hosting documentation out there. I self-hosted for a while but decided I didn’t want to deal with upgrades and wanted to support them as a company. So I’m paying for a manager solution.
- vira28 5y ago
  Agree. Very good point. I am looking at their GH sponsor page. Will do it. BTW, I checked Ghosting pricing https://ghost.org/pricing/ https://ghost.org/pricing/ and I see Basic for $29. What is manager solution?
  - vira28 5y ago
    Done sponsoring https://github.com/viggy28?tab=sponsoring https://github.com/viggy28?tab=sponsoring. Thanks for reminding. I can see how challenging it will be for Ghost to generate revenue.
  - Hello71 5y ago
    i assume they mean "Managed install & setup"
    - vira28 5y ago
      I see. Makes sense.
sarangab 5y ago
Nice work! How does this compare with a self-hosted wordpress?
- vira28 5y ago
  Honestly, I have never used Wordpress and I think there is not much difference. Both are CMS. Things which I liked with Ghost: 1. Easy to write, publish (that's one of the biggest challenge for at least me to write more) 2. Lot of good add-ons (I guess Wordpress also will have same)
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  Node JS based instead of running a full LAMP stack. I believe ghost supports sqlite for low traffic.
  - vira28 5y ago
    Can confirm. Currently it does use Sqlite. Of course, one can replace it with mysql or mariadb.
anaganisk 5y ago
I've got to add that if your raspberry pI doesn't have power backup or for some reason your network does down, cloudflared tunnel (as used in the post) shuts off after sometime and will not reconnect again till a day(default timeout for cloudflared tunnel to restart). If this is unmonitored you might end up showing an error page for a long time.
- lukevp 5y ago
  Is this info current? In the post announcing free CloudFlare tunnel for all users [1], named tunnels and enhanced reconnection capabilities were also introduced. They seem to be specifically addressing the issue you mentioned, but I haven’t tested them yet. [1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/
  - vira28 5y ago
    Good point. Yes, a lot of reliability improvements for Tunnels announced during Developer week. I will certainly test this problem sometime and post here. Thread on the community seems relevant: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/getting-cloudflared-to-run-my-tunnel-as-a-service/226876/13 https://community.cloudflare.com/t/getting-cloudflared-to-ru...
- skybrian 5y ago
  Hmm, I'm wondering if it makes sense to push static pages to Cloudflare Pages and take the Raspberry Pi out of the serving path entirely?
- graton 5y ago
  The have a pretty good blog post about improvements made and de-coupling they have done: https://blog.cloudflare.com/argo-tunnels-that-live-forever/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/argo-tunnels-that-live-forever/
cstrat 5y ago
Maybe I don't understand docker as well as I'd like - but why do you create the named volume instead of simply mapping to a local folder on the host? In my experience mapping to a local dir is nice because you can browse the files on the host machine and can implement backups etc... quite easily. When you do a named volume like that, where are the actual files on the host?
- galenguyer 5y ago
  On Debian they end up under /var/lib/docker/volumes/
  - cstrat 5y ago
    Ah ok cool, I guess it isn't hard to find then. I usually have my docker-compose.yml file in a dir along with the mapped volume directories. Allows me to just rsync that one folder to capture all config & data. Are names volumes just a way to not have to worry about the files and leave them handled by docker?
    - kcb 5y ago
      Yea a use case would be to to persist application data when updating by pulling a newer container. Mapping to the host introduces the possibility of conflicts between the host and/or other containers.
  - vorpalhex 5y ago
    You can move them as well.
killingtime74 5y ago
Is Argo free? I only see paid options
- killingtime74 5y ago
  They haven’t updated their docs yet https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/
- vira28 5y ago
  AFAIK, Cloudflare Tunnel (used to be called as Argo Tunnel) is free. Argo (smart routing) is usage based. PS: From https://www.cloudflare.com/products/argo-tunnel/ https://www.cloudflare.com/products/argo-tunnel/, I do see "To start using Argo Tunnel, you'll need a Cloudflare plan and an Argo subscription." - I haven't enabled Argo subscription and I am able to use Tunnel. So there is some confusion.
orliesaurus 5y ago
Is this better than running a static site/blog locally generated and hosted on github/gitlab/cloudflare pages?
- whoisjuan 5y ago
  He said the blog is for his dad. Clearly he just wants to setup something simple with a GUI and that is self-hosted. What you’re suggesting doesn’t accomplish any of those things.
  - yawnxyz 5y ago
    would it possible to create something w/ a GUI like Ghost but hosted on Cloudflare pages/workers? It's hard for me to understand why something as simple as a blog needs a server
    - conradludgate 5y ago
      If you want to write one for the rest of us, that would be awesome! But ghost is well known, well tested and has plenty of customisation options
      - orliesaurus 5y ago
        isn't that just a headless CMS set up? I hacked something like that for my wife so she can blog...It uses Hexo [1] and a web-ui and a bash script that opens up the localhost/admin url into a fresh browser and then when she closes the script it kills it and frees resources back :) [1] https://hexo.io/ https://hexo.io/
odyslam 5y ago
Hey OP, I have made a similar setup. One question that I have not yet answered and thus I am changing setup is how secure is to "give" your IP to everyone on the internet. My assumption is that your home-router has security vuln that we don't know about and could be bypassed by hackers who are willing to mess with you. Even though you may have taken precautions, such as opening only very specific ports, etc.
- vira28 5y ago
  Those are something I just randomly created.
dang 5y ago
This is not a valid Show HN. Please read the rules: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.
- vira28 5y ago
  Sorry, wasn't aware of that.
- torstenvl 5y ago
  Sorry, what rule does this post violate? Maybe I'm under-caffeinated but I'm not seeing it.
  - dang 5y ago
    Off topic: blog posts [...] and other reading material https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html It's a fine HN submission, just not a Show HN.

65 points by vira28 5y ago

author here: I tried port forwarding (because I never did in the past) and couldn't figure how to do it. capture here https://viggy28.dev/article/pain-of-setting-up-port-forwarding-in-xfinity/ https://viggy28.dev/article/pain-of-setting-up-port-forwardi... I guess Alex's inlets (https://github.com/inlets https://github.com/inlets) might do it too. I would love to hear other alternatives.

jpillora 5y ago
Port forwarding is fairly simple. All routers should support it. Forward port 443 to local-rpi-ip-address:443. Setup caddy/traefik. Create A record to public ip. Enable tls. Enable file hosting. Done: you now have TLS static website without any 3rd parties. That said, cloudflare is super handy for dns, and for proxying specific domains, where you don't want to expose your public ip.
- vira28 5y ago
  Thanks. Xfinity (my ISP) supports only TCP and UDP for Xfi Gateway and not HTTP/HTTPS. The thing which I don't know is how to remove Xfi Gateway and use my own gateway/router.
  - Thorrez 5y ago
    HTTP and HTTPS are layer 7 protocols that both go inside the layer 4 protocol TCP. So port forward TCP and you'll be good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model
    - vira28 5y ago
      Perfect. Thanks. That was my doubt. Will try it out.
      - WrtCdEvrydy 5y ago
        Yeah, most routers have a predefined list of "Applications" but you can add a custom application with custom port. Back in the day, DynDNS actually allowed the IP to DNS as a free service.
      - Thorrez 5y ago
        Oh, I forgot to mention HTTP uses TCP port 80, and HTTPS uses TCP port 443.
- sodality2 5y ago
  Unfortunately residential networks usually don't have static IP's so the IP changes on reboots. Updating the DNS record every time would probably be a PITA.
  - 27100974 5y ago
    Couple of notes: You can use a DNS updater like this one: https://github.com/timothymiller/cloudflare-ddns https://github.com/timothymiller/cloudflare-ddns The bigger problem would be if your ISP implemented CGNAT.
  - ekianjo 5y ago
    Easily taken care of by duckdns for example
    - skeletonjelly 5y ago
      And then you have to hope your ISP doesn't use CGNAT
    - sodality2 5y ago
      Then I can't hook it up to a real domain like google.com, just a subdomain of whatever site is running it.
anaganisk 5y ago
If you are going to use inlets, which needs a bastion host. I would rather just suggest to jump in and use wireguard VPN instead on a $3.5 vps on linode or lightsail. You get more control over your connection and firewall capabilities than inlets, which locks down premium capabilities. Also Cloudflared tunnel will timeout and turn off your endpoint after a network disconnection. If you notice the systemd default file that comes with it, you will notice it restarts after a day. So you will have significant downtime, if your home network or power goes down.

spraveenitpro 5y ago

What about WordPress?

jhunter1016 5y ago

Ghost has some of the best self-hosting documentation out there. I self-hosted for a while but decided I didn’t want to deal with upgrades and wanted to support them as a company. So I’m paying for a manager solution.

vira28 5y ago
Agree. Very good point. I am looking at their GH sponsor page. Will do it. BTW, I checked Ghosting pricing https://ghost.org/pricing/ https://ghost.org/pricing/ and I see Basic for $29. What is manager solution?
- vira28 5y ago
  Done sponsoring https://github.com/viggy28?tab=sponsoring https://github.com/viggy28?tab=sponsoring. Thanks for reminding. I can see how challenging it will be for Ghost to generate revenue.
- Hello71 5y ago
  i assume they mean "Managed install & setup"
  - vira28 5y ago
    I see. Makes sense.

sarangab 5y ago

Nice work! How does this compare with a self-hosted wordpress?

vira28 5y ago
Honestly, I have never used Wordpress and I think there is not much difference. Both are CMS. Things which I liked with Ghost: 1. Easy to write, publish (that's one of the biggest challenge for at least me to write more) 2. Lot of good add-ons (I guess Wordpress also will have same)
vorpalhex 5y ago
Node JS based instead of running a full LAMP stack. I believe ghost supports sqlite for low traffic.
- vira28 5y ago
  Can confirm. Currently it does use Sqlite. Of course, one can replace it with mysql or mariadb.

anaganisk 5y ago

I've got to add that if your raspberry pI doesn't have power backup or for some reason your network does down, cloudflared tunnel (as used in the post) shuts off after sometime and will not reconnect again till a day(default timeout for cloudflared tunnel to restart). If this is unmonitored you might end up showing an error page for a long time.

lukevp 5y ago
Is this info current? In the post announcing free CloudFlare tunnel for all users [1], named tunnels and enhanced reconnection capabilities were also introduced. They seem to be specifically addressing the issue you mentioned, but I haven’t tested them yet. [1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/
- vira28 5y ago
  Good point. Yes, a lot of reliability improvements for Tunnels announced during Developer week. I will certainly test this problem sometime and post here. Thread on the community seems relevant: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/getting-cloudflared-to-run-my-tunnel-as-a-service/226876/13 https://community.cloudflare.com/t/getting-cloudflared-to-ru...
skybrian 5y ago
Hmm, I'm wondering if it makes sense to push static pages to Cloudflare Pages and take the Raspberry Pi out of the serving path entirely?
graton 5y ago
The have a pretty good blog post about improvements made and de-coupling they have done: https://blog.cloudflare.com/argo-tunnels-that-live-forever/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/argo-tunnels-that-live-forever/

cstrat 5y ago

Maybe I don't understand docker as well as I'd like - but why do you create the named volume instead of simply mapping to a local folder on the host? In my experience mapping to a local dir is nice because you can browse the files on the host machine and can implement backups etc... quite easily. When you do a named volume like that, where are the actual files on the host?

galenguyer 5y ago
On Debian they end up under /var/lib/docker/volumes/
- cstrat 5y ago
  Ah ok cool, I guess it isn't hard to find then. I usually have my docker-compose.yml file in a dir along with the mapped volume directories. Allows me to just rsync that one folder to capture all config & data. Are names volumes just a way to not have to worry about the files and leave them handled by docker?
  - kcb 5y ago
    Yea a use case would be to to persist application data when updating by pulling a newer container. Mapping to the host introduces the possibility of conflicts between the host and/or other containers.
- vorpalhex 5y ago
  You can move them as well.

killingtime74 5y ago

Is Argo free? I only see paid options

killingtime74 5y ago
They haven’t updated their docs yet https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/tunnel-for-everyone/
vira28 5y ago
AFAIK, Cloudflare Tunnel (used to be called as Argo Tunnel) is free. Argo (smart routing) is usage based. PS: From https://www.cloudflare.com/products/argo-tunnel/ https://www.cloudflare.com/products/argo-tunnel/, I do see "To start using Argo Tunnel, you'll need a Cloudflare plan and an Argo subscription." - I haven't enabled Argo subscription and I am able to use Tunnel. So there is some confusion.

orliesaurus 5y ago

Is this better than running a static site/blog locally generated and hosted on github/gitlab/cloudflare pages?

whoisjuan 5y ago
He said the blog is for his dad. Clearly he just wants to setup something simple with a GUI and that is self-hosted. What you’re suggesting doesn’t accomplish any of those things.
- yawnxyz 5y ago
  would it possible to create something w/ a GUI like Ghost but hosted on Cloudflare pages/workers? It's hard for me to understand why something as simple as a blog needs a server
  - conradludgate 5y ago
    If you want to write one for the rest of us, that would be awesome! But ghost is well known, well tested and has plenty of customisation options
    - orliesaurus 5y ago
      isn't that just a headless CMS set up? I hacked something like that for my wife so she can blog...It uses Hexo [1] and a web-ui and a bash script that opens up the localhost/admin url into a fresh browser and then when she closes the script it kills it and frees resources back :) [1] https://hexo.io/ https://hexo.io/

odyslam 5y ago

Hey OP, I have made a similar setup. One question that I have not yet answered and thus I am changing setup is how secure is to "give" your IP to everyone on the internet. My assumption is that your home-router has security vuln that we don't know about and could be bypassed by hackers who are willing to mess with you. Even though you may have taken precautions, such as opening only very specific ports, etc.

vira28 5y ago
Those are something I just randomly created.

dang 5y ago

This is not a valid Show HN. Please read the rules: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

vira28 5y ago
Sorry, wasn't aware of that.
torstenvl 5y ago
Sorry, what rule does this post violate? Maybe I'm under-caffeinated but I'm not seeing it.
- dang 5y ago
  Off topic: blog posts [...] and other reading material https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html It's a fine HN submission, just not a Show HN.