# blog-hugo This is probably the hundredth rendition of this site xD Previously to using HUGO my blog was built using GHOST CMS which is a great platform and is feature rich. However my problem came with the base design philosophy of a CMS, relying on a Database. HUGO is a static site generator meaning it takes a readable file format like markdown and then compiles all that down into HTML (Static Files) This removes the need for a database and in turn improves performance of the site ten fold. ## Pros of static sites * Security * Reliability * Speed * Scalability * Low Resource requirement ## Cons of a static site * Less user friendly ## Why The reasons above all fit within my goal of trying to containerise services running in my home lab. The plan is to move the services I use to a cluster of Raspberry Pis. As long as the services have an ARM image or I can build an ARM image then this is a viable solution ## How The deployment method of this site relies on the Gitlab CI/CD pipeline. * Clone the repository * Push changes to Gitlab * Gitlab runners create the docker image * Image is pushed to my private docker repository * Pi cluster uses that image to host the site locally ## When Pulling / Cloning Be sure to add `--recurse-submodules` as the theme used is a submodule ``` bash git clone --recurse-submodules git@gitlab.com:AHMZA/blog.git ``` ## Update the theme As the theme is a submodule it will need to be update with the following ``` bash git submodule update --remote --merge ```