Node.js Deployment

Steps to deploy a Node.js app to DigitalOcean using PM2, NGINX as a reverse proxy and an SSL from LetsEncrypt

1.Sign Up In the AWS account and launch a EC2 instance

2. Assign a elastic Ip to the instance and log in via ssh

3. Install Node/NPM

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

node --version

4. Clone your project from Github

There are a few ways to get your files on to the server, I would suggest using Git

git clone yourproject.git

5. Install dependencies and test app

cd yourproject
npm install 
npm run dev (or whatever your start command)
# stop app
ctrl+C

6. Setup forever process manager to keep your app running

npm install forever -g --f && sudo forever start -c "npm run dev" .

You should now be able to access your app using your IP and port. Now we want to setup a firewall blocking that port and setup NGINX as a reverse proxy so we can access it directly using port 80 (http)

7. Setup ufw firewall

sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status
sudo ufw allow ssh (Port 22)
sudo ufw allow http (Port 80)
sudo ufw allow https (Port 443)

8. Install NGINX and configure

sudo apt install nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Add the following to the location part of the server block

    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5000; #whatever port your app runs on
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }

# Check NGINX config
sudo nginx -t

# Restart NGINX
sudo service nginx restart

You should now be able to visit your IP with no port (port 80) and see your app. Now let's add a domain

9. Add the Ip of the ec2 instance in DNS in the godaddy

10. Add SSL with LetsEncrypt

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install python-certbot-nginx sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Only valid for 90 days, test the renewal process with

certbot renew --dry-run

Now visit https://yourdomain.com and you should see your Node app