How do I leave Node.js server on EC2 running forever?

Question

As you can tell by my question, I\'m new to this...

I built my first website, I set up my first Node.js server to serve it and then pushed everything live on EC2.

Answer 1

I am very late to join the thread and seems its basic problem with every newbie. Follow the below to setup properly your first server.

follow the step on the ec2 instance(before doing this make sure you have a start script for pm2 in your package.json file):

npm install pm2 -g

pm2 startup systemd

See the output and at the last line it must be like..

You have to run this command as root. Execute the following command: sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd -u sammy --hp /home/sammy

Take the last line command and run again with root privilege.

(before running the next command, Provide a new start script for pm2 in your package.json file e.g: "pm2-start": "pm2 start ./bin/www")

npm run pm2-start

for more info follow the link.

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-node-js-application-for-production-on-ubuntu-16-04

Answer 2

Or use tmux Just Enter a tmux screen run node server Ctrl+b Hit D and you're done.

Answer 3

I worked with the valid answer for a while but some times the screen just end with no reason also screen has no balance loader and others features that in a production enviroment you should care , Currently I use a npm component to do this job.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/pm2

This is so easy to use.

$ npm install pm2 -g

then just start your app with pm2 like this

$ pm2 start app.js

In the above link you can find diferents tasks to perform if you need.

Hope this help the newbies like me.

Answer 4

Before you invoke Node.js, run the command:

screen

This will create a persistent environment which will allow your process to keep running after you disconnect.

When you reconnect, you can use this command to reconnect to that environment:

screen -r

Here's a random link to learn more about screen:

http://www.rackaid.com/blog/linux-screen-tutorial-and-how-to/

However, this won't help you if your EC2 instance restarts. There are many different ways to do that. Adding your startup command to /etc/rc.local is one way. Here's a link to an Amazon guide which includes adding something to /etc/rc.local.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/building-shared-amis.html

Hope this helps,

James

Answer 5

There's a better way. Use forever.js.

See it here: https://github.com/foreverjs/forever

This is a nice tutorial for how to use chkconfig with forever on CENTOS.

http://aronduby.com/starting-node-forever-scripts-at-boot-w-centos/