Hosting Ghost CMS on AWS Lambda might not be a straightforward task because Ghost is a Node.js application designed to be run as a long-lived process, while Lambda is designed to execute short-lived functions.
However, with some adjustments, it’s possible to use AWS services to achieve this. Instead of Lambda, the more appropriate AWS service to consider might be Elastic Beanstalk or EC2, but I’ll guide you through a Lambda-like serverless setup using AWS Fargate.
Hosting Ghost CMS using AWS Fargate:
1. Create a Docker Container for Ghost:
Ghost official provides a Docker image. If the default configuration isn’t suitable, you can create a custom Dockerfile, extending the Ghost official image.
2. Push Docker Container to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR):
- Install and configure the AWS CLI.
- Create a repository in ECR.
- Authenticate Docker to the ECR registry:
aws ecr get-login-password --region region | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin your-account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com
- Tag the Ghost Docker image for ECR:
docker tag ghost:latest your-account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/your-repo-name:latest
- Push the Docker image to ECR:
docker push your-account-id.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/your-repo-name:latest
3. Setup Ghost on AWS Fargate:
- Navigate to the ECS (Elastic Container Service) dashboard in AWS Console.
- Create a new Task Definition and select Fargate.
- Specify the container image, CPU, and memory.
- Create a new Cluster in ECS and select the Networking only (powered by AWS Fargate).
- Finally, create a new service inside the cluster, select the task definition, and configure the VPC, security groups, and other networking settings.
4. Database & Storage:
Ghost uses a SQLite database by default, but for production, it’s recommended to use MySQL. You can set up a MySQL database using Amazon RDS.
Additionally, for storing images and themes, consider integrating Ghost with Amazon S3 by using storage adapters.
Costs:
The monthly cost will depend on:
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Fargate: Charges are based on vCPU and memory resources that are defined for your task. If you run it continuously, it may get pricey. Monitor your usage and optimize accordingly.
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ECR: You pay only for the amount of data you store in your repositories and data transferred to the Internet.
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RDS (MySQL): Charges are based on the instance type and additional features like backups, storage, and data transfer.
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S3: You pay for the storage and any requests (like GET, PUT).
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Data Transfer: AWS has data transfer charges for data going out of their networks to the Internet.
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Additional Services: If you add other services, such as CloudFront, Route 53, etc., these will have their own costs.
Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate the costs based on your expected usage.
In conclusion, while AWS provides the necessary services to host and run Ghost CMS, Lambda isn’t ideal for this scenario. AWS Fargate offers a more serverless-like experience appropriate for Ghost. Always monitor costs and adjust resources as needed.