Static hosting with Cellar

When creating a static website, it’s possible to host it using a runtime. You can also use Cellar, a S3-compatible object storage. This hosting method saves time on configuration and application management, and is fast.

To do so, you need:

• a Clever Cloud account
• Hugo on your machine
• to have created your website files with Hugo
• a Cellar add-on; if you have never created an add-on, you can follow this guide

Bucket creation and management

To create a bucket:

• Follow the bucket creation instructions,
• or use third party software like s3cmd.

To use a custom domain, for example cdn.example.com, you need to create a bucket named exactly like your domain:

s3cmd --host-bucket=cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com mb s3://cdn.example.com

Then, create a CNAME record on your domain pointing to cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com..

Public access policy

By default, your bucket is only visible and manageable an authenticated user. To make your bucket publicly accessible, you have to apply a policy to the bucket

To set your bucket as public, you have to apply the following policy which you can save in a file named policy.json:

{
  "Id": "Policy1587216857769",
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "Stmt1587216727444",
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject"
      ],
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::<bucket-name>/*",
      "Principal": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Replace the <bucket-name> with your bucket name in the policy file. Don’t change the Version field to the current date, keep it as is.

Now, you can set the policy to your bucket using s3cmd:

s3cmd setpolicy ./policy.json s3://<bucket-name>

If you encounter errors, you might need to specify the configuration file path:

s3cmd setpolicy ./policy.json -c path/to/s3cfg.txt s3://<bucket-name>

All of your objects should now be publicly accessible. If needed, you can delete this policy by using:

s3cmd delpolicy s3://<bucket-name>

The original ACL should apply to all of your objects after that.

Hugo configuration for Cellar

Hugo doesn’t know by default the path to your bucket in your Cellar. You have to add a few things to guide the deployment process.

In the folder of your website, you’ll find Hugo’s configuration file:

• hugo.toml
• hugo.yaml
• hugo.json

Open it, then add the following (according to the programing language):

{
  "deployment": {
    "targets": [
      {
        "name": "(a name for your own reference)",
        "URL": "s3://<BUCKET_NAME>?endpoint=https://<CELLAR_HOST>&region=fr-par"
      }
    ]
  }
}

deployment:
targets:
  - name: "(a name for your own reference)"
  - URL: "s3://<BUCKET_NAME>?endpoint=https://<CELLAR_HOST>&region=fr-par"

[deployment]
[[deployment.targets]]
name: "(a name for your own reference)"
URL: "s3://<BUCKET_NAME>?endpoint=https://<CELLAR_HOST>&region=fr-par"

• The deployment name is arbitrary and for your own reference: “production”, “test”, anything you’d like.
• The cellar host address can found on your Clever Cloud console: select your Cellar and you’ll have the “Host” field. The address looks like: cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com

Save your configuration file: Hugo now knows where to send file when deploying.

To deploy, proceed as usual: hugo to build the website locally, then hugo deploy to push files through Cellar. If all the steps have been correctly completed, you are now able to access your website with: https://<BUCKET_NAME>.<CELLAR_HOST>

Is’s possible to encounter an error where the website warns the user with a “not secure” message. This happens when the SSL certificate was not properly generated. You can manually generate one certificate by creating an application, then adding the domain name from the “domain” tab. The certification propagation takes about 10-15mn.

If you still encounter an issue at this point, please contact our support team.