Deploying this Blog: Hugo + Traefik + Letsencrypt + Ubuntu

How This Blog Was Deployed with Hugo & Traefik

Here’s how I deployed this very blog in production using Hugo for static site generation, Traefik as a reverse proxy, and GoDaddy for DNS management.

Prerequisites

• A server (VPS or cloud instance) with a public IP address
• Domain name managed via GoDaddy

1. Installing Hugo on the Server

I installed Hugo on my server to build the static site for production:

sudo apt install hugo   # Ubuntu/Debian
# or for other systems, use the official Hugo release binaries




### 2. Building the Hugo Site for Production
 type: "posts"
To generate the static site, I ran:
```sh
hugo --minify

This created the production-ready files in the public/ directory.

3. Setting Up Traefik and Let’s Encrypt

I installed Traefik (using the official binary) and configured it to serve the public/ directory. For HTTPS, I enabled Let’s Encrypt so certificates are managed automatically. Here’s a sample of the Traefik static config I used:

entryPoints:
  web:
    address: ":80"
  websecure:
    address: ":443"
certificatesResolvers:
  letsencrypt:
    acme:
      email: <your-email>
      storage: acme.json
      httpChallenge:
        entryPoint: web

4. GoDaddy DNS Settings

On GoDaddy, I updated my domain’s DNS settings:

• Added or edited A records for @ and www to point to my server’s public IP address.
• Added any needed subdomain A records.
• Waited for DNS propagation.

5. Serving the Blog in Production

To go live, I started Traefik and made sure it was serving the public/ directory. Then I visited my domain to confirm everything was working and HTTPS was active.

Tip: I use scripts to rebuild and redeploy this blog after content changes, making updates quick and reliable.

Useful Commands & Troubleshooting (Production)

Starting and Stopping Services

Start Traefik (systemd example)

sudo systemctl start traefik

Stop Traefik

sudo systemctl stop traefik

Deploy Hugo static site (build and serve)

hugo --minify
sudo cp -r public/* /var/www/html/

Troubleshooting Commands

• View Traefik logs:

  sudo journalctl -u traefik
  

• Check Hugo build output:

  hugo --minify
  

• Test if ports are open (replace 80/443 with your port):

  sudo lsof -i :80
  sudo lsof -i :443
  

• Check DNS resolution:

  nslookup yourdomain.com
  dig yourdomain.com
  

😄 Hey, now that you know how this blog works behind the scenes, don’t get any funny ideas!