Recently, I encountered a frustrating issue where my Ghost CMS wouldn't start automatically after a server reboot. The manual start worked fine, but every time the server restarted, Ghost refused to launch. After extensive troubleshooting, I found the root cause and a reliable solution. In this guide, I'll walk you through the problem, why it happens, and how to fix it.

The Problem ❌

After setting up Ghost CMS on my Ubuntu server, I expected it to start automatically on reboot. However, after restarting, I ran the following command to check the service status:

sudo systemctl status ghostxxxxxxxx

And I was greeted with an error message:

Job for ghostxxxxxx.service failed because the control process exited with error code.

Despite running ghost start manually and seeing it work, it just wouldn't start after reboot.

Understanding the Cause 🔍

After investigating, I discovered that Ghost depends on the database (MariaDB/MySQL) to start properly. However, when the server rebooted, Ghost was attempting to start before the database service was fully ready, causing it to fail.

The Solution That Worked ✅

Step 1: Enable the Database Service

Since Ghost relies on MySQL, I had to make sure it was starting before Ghost:

sudo systemctl enable mysql  # For MySQL
sudo systemctl enable mariadb  # For MariaDB
sudo systemctl start mysql    # Start MySQL manually
sudo systemctl start mariadb  # Start MariaDB manually

Step 2: Modify the Systemd Service File

Next, I needed to tell systemd to start Ghost only after the database was fully running. To do this, I edited the service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/ghostxxxxxxxcom.service

I added these lines to ensure Ghost waits for the database before starting:

[Unit]
Description=Ghost blogxxxxxxxx-com
After=network.target mysql.service
Requires=mysql.service

Then, I ensured Ghost restarted if it failed:

[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

Finally, I saved the file and reloaded systemd:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ghostxxxxxxxx-com
sudo systemctl restart ghost_xxxxxxxcom

Step 3: Reboot and Verify

After making these changes, I rebooted the server:

sudo reboot

Once the server restarted, I checked if Ghost was running:

systemctl status ghostxxxxxxxxcom

And it was running! 🎉

Conclusion 🎯

If you're facing the same issue where Ghost CMS won't start after a reboot, chances are it's due to the database not being ready in time. By ensuring MySQL/MariaDB starts first and modifying the systemd service file, you can fix this issue permanently.

Hopefully, this guide helps you save time and frustration. If you find this useful, check out more tips on My Blog and try out My Tool for useful web services! 🚀