How this website was (originally) created

This website has been created using Ghost. The site is hosted on an AWS t2.micro EC2 instance. More details are below.


AWS Configuration:

  • Use Bitnami Ghost AMI (free) from AWS Marketplace while creating your EC2 instance.
  • Set up Elastic IP to get a public IP and point your IP to your domain using Route 53 as described here. (the domain registrar for HoopedOnData is GoDaddy)
  • Login to your EC2 instance via ssh and obtain initial account password for Ghost admin user ([email protected])
sudo cat /home/bitnami/bitnami_credentials
  • Next update the site for https access as described here:
sudo /opt/bitnami/configure_app_domain --domain hoopedondata.com
sudo /opt/bitnami/bncert-tool
# At the prompt, enter: hoopedondata.com www.hoopedondata.com 

Ghost Configuration:

  • Refer to the latest Ghost docs.
  • Login to https://www.hoopedondata.com/ghost/ using the initial set of credentials
  • Configure Ghost settings (General) and replace the default admin user with your profile.
  • Remove profile for "Ghost" user. This also removes the default posts.
  • Remove the banner by running the following command from the shell:
sudo /opt/bitnami/apps/ghost/bnconfig.disabled --disable_banner 1

Finally, thanks to this blog for the inspiration to set up a blog using Ghost.