Deploy your first app with the get-started wizard

The wizard lives at /get-started on the console. You normally reach it from a Deploy button on the template catalogue, which opens it with that app already chosen. Everything it needs to remember is kept in the page address, so you can reload, go through payment or confirm your email and land back where you were.

What you can do

• Deploy any app from the template catalogue in three steps, without writing any configuration.
• Run it on a Server you already added, a server you buy from Cloudgate (Hosted only), or a server you rent elsewhere, such as a VPS.
• Get a working web address at once, with passwords and keys the app needs made for you.

Deploy an app

1. Pick an app and sign in

   On the template catalogue website, open the app and press its Deploy button. If you are not signed in, the console asks you to. Create an account keeps the app you picked: on the Hosted instance, following the link in the confirmation email signs you in and brings you back to the wizard.

2. Choose where it should run

   The wizard asks Where should Ghost run? (with your app’s name). It offers what fits best first:

   • If your Organization already has a Server that is ready, Use fra-1 (with your Server’s name) puts the app there.
   • Get a server from Cloudgate, marked Recommended, buys a server for you. This is on the Hosted instance only; see Buy a Server from Cloudgate.
   • Use my own server is for a server you already rent. You need its address and SSH access to it.

   cloudgate.octabyte.app/get-started?template=ghost

   

3. Connect your own server (if you chose it)

   Fill in Your server: the address, SSH port, SSH user, and a name. If your Organization has no SSH key yet, press Make a key. The wizard then shows one line to run on your server, which adds Cloudgate’s public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys:

   mkdir -p ~/.ssh && echo "ssh-ed25519 AAAA... cloudgate" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

   Copy the exact line from the wizard (it holds your real key), run it on the server, then press Save and continue and Connect my server. Progress shows Signed in to your server, then Installing what apps need, then Ready.

4. Or wait for your bought server

   If you chose to buy one, pay at checkout. The wizard then shows Payment, Creating your server, Setting it up and Ready to use. Nothing deploys until the server is ready. Reloading the page is safe: the wizard picks up where it was.

5. Fill in the details and deploy

   The last step asks only for the values the app needs. Passwords and keys it needs are made for you. A summary, What Deploy makes, lists the Server, a New Project named after the app and the Web address (Made for you). Press Deploy Ghost (with your app’s name).

6. Open your app

   When the app is running, the wizard shows its address, a button to open it, Open the Project, and What next. Open the address to finish the app’s own first-run setup.

What you get: a new Project named after the app, with a production Environment on your Server, and the app’s Services deployed in it. From here it is an ordinary Project: see Projects and Environments.

Add HTTPS with your own domain

The address the wizard makes is a free sslip.io host, served over plain HTTP. To serve the app over HTTPS, add your own domain to its Service, for example shop.northwind.example, and point its DNS at the Server. See Domains and HTTPS.

If you have no plan yet

On the Hosted instance, an Organization without a plan starts the Starter free trial on the way:

• Use my own server sends you to checkout first (Start your 30-day free trial). A card is needed.
• Get a server from Cloudgate starts the trial as part of the purchase. The server itself is charged at once; it has no trial. See Billing and plans.

What you cannot do

• Buying a server is offered only on the Hosted instance, and only where buying is set up.
• The wizard always makes a new Project. To add a template to an existing Project, use Templates in the console instead.
• Cloudgate cannot apply the setup by itself for a Project whose config is kept in a repository; you paste the template’s part into your cloudgate.yaml instead.
• An app installed from a template gets no updates from the catalogue afterwards.

Related pages

• Template catalogue in the console: set an app up inside a Project you already have.
• Add a Server over SSH: what the setup installs on your own server.
• Buy a Server from Cloudgate: sizes, locations and billing.
• Quickstart: deploy your own code instead of a template.
• Pricing for the Hosted plans and the free trial.

Questions

Do I need my own domain name to start?

No. Cloudgate makes a free sslip.io address that works straight away over plain HTTP. Add your own domain later to get HTTPS.

Can I use a server I already rent?

Yes. Choose Use my own server, enter its address and SSH details, and run the one command the wizard shows on that server. You need SSH access to it.

Why did my app not start by itself?

Cloudgate applies the setup on its own only when the Plan holds nothing but what the wizard asked for. If anything else is in it, the Plan waits for you to review and Apply it, and the wizard says why.

Does the wizard work for every template?

It works for any app in the catalogue that the Server can take. If the app is not in the catalogue the console you use offers, the wizard says so.