avoid rebuilding node_modules in elastic beanstalk

Question

We have a fairly simple node.js app, but due to AWS Elastic Beanstalk deployment mechanism, it takes about 5 minutes to roll-out a new version (via git aws.push

Answer 1

Thanks Kirill, it was really helpful !

I'm just sharing my config file for people who just look the simple solution to the npm install. This file needs to be placed in the .ebextensions folder of the project, it is lighter since it doesn't include last version of node installation, and ready to use.

It also dynamically checks the node version installed, so no need for it to be included in the env.vars file.

.ebextensions/00_deploy_npm.config

files:
  "/opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars" :
    mode: "000775"
    owner: root
    group: users
    content: |
      export NPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error
      export NODE_PATH=`ls -td /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-* | head -1`/bin
  "/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
    mode: "000775"
    owner: root
    group: users
    content: |
      #!/bin/bash
      . /opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars
      function error_exit
      {
        eventHelper.py --msg "$1" --severity ERROR
        exit $2
      }

      #install not-installed yet app node_modules
      if [ ! -d "/var/node_modules" ]; then
        mkdir /var/node_modules ;
      fi
      if [ -d /tmp/deployment/application ]; then
        ln -s /var/node_modules /tmp/deployment/application/
      fi

      OUT=$([ -d "/tmp/deployment/application" ] && cd /tmp/deployment/application && $NODE_PATH/npm install 2>&1) || error_exit "Failed to run npm install.  $OUT" $?
      echo $OUT
  "/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/configdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
    mode: "000666"
    owner: root
    group: users
    content: |
       #no need to run npm install during configdeploy