Installing Node.js on CentOS 5.x & 6.x 64-bit and running Ghost

First off, this this "how-to" is intended to guide you through installing node.js on CentOS using a simple script, and then correctly configuring your server to run Ghost alongside your other sites in Plesk v11.5.3.

You will need root access and the ability to connect to your server via SSH.


1. Connect to your server via SSH as the root user.

2. Go to https://github.com/barajasfab/installframework, right-click the button for "download zip".

3. Head back over to your terminal and type in:

> wget -O master.zip https://github.com/barajasfab/installframework/archive/master.zip

4. Time to unzip the contents, make the contents executable, then run the installer.

> unzip master.zip
> cd installframework-master/
> chmod 700 installframework.sh
> ./installframework.sh

At this point you can run through the prompt on the script and install node.js. But remember, at this point the script was intended to be ran on a bare bones CentOS 5.x and 6.x 64-bit server, so DO NOT opt to install Ghost.

Let's install Ghost

5. Okay, so not just yet. First, you need to set up the domain in Plesk, just like you would any other domain or subdomain. For more info on how to add a domain in Plesk, check out the following link: Add a (sub)domain in Plesk

6. Once the domain has been added, let check some settings. You need to go to the server tab or go to "Tools and Settings". From there you can go to "Apache Web Server" to make sure that some settings are in place. 6a. Make sure that the following modules are checked off: proxy, proxy_http, and rewrite

7. Time to head back to the shell. Let change directories and configure the new domain.

> cat << _EOF_ > /var/www/vhosts/system//conf/vhost.conf
ProxyPass / http://localhost:8000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8000/
_EOF_

8. Now let change directories and actually install Ghost.

> cd /var/www/vhosts//httpdocs/
> curl -L https://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip -o latest.zip && unzip latest.zip
> rm -f $_
> cp config.example.js config.js;
> vim config.js

8a. Now at this point you need to set up your configuration file (config.js). You will need to alter the url, host, and port. The url should look something like this...
url: 'http://',

8b. Your host should be set to 127.0.0.1

8c. Set the port number to 8000, and save the file.

9. Set the ownership of the files and directories to the correct setting. The file owner should be the main user on that subscription in Plesk. You can also check by running "ls -al" and viewing the owner of the current directory you are in. And just to be safe, run the command to change your file ownership like this:

> chown -R :psacln /var/www/vhosts//httpdocs/*

10. Now you should be able to install a couple more things needed to run Ghost.

> npm install --production;
> npm -g install forever;

11. Now lets make it easier on ourselves to start and stop ghost whenever we please. Run the following commands:
11a. Create the script to start Ghost.

> cat << _EOF_ > ghostStart.sh
#!/bin/bash
NODE_ENV=production forever start index.js
_EOF_

11.b Create the script to stop Ghost.

> cat << _EOF_ > ghostStop.sh
#!/bin/bash
forever stop index.js
_EOF_

11c. Make the scripts executable for yourself.

> chmod 750 ghostSt*

11d. Execute the script to start Ghost.

> ./ghostStart.sh

12. Now just reconfigure Apache by running the web command. This should reconfigure as well as restart it, but we'll manually restart just in case.

> web
> /etc/init.d/httpd restart

If you don't have the alias 'web' set up, run the following:

> /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/httpdmng --reconfigure-domain
> /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Congratulations!!! You have just set up Ghost on your server. Now visit your site (http://example.com/ghost) and set up your admin credentials and start blogging away.

A big thanks to papaya-fiction.com for some solid steps on getting Ghost to run alongside Plesk.