I recently needed to deploy a web application on a cloud server. Here are my documented notes for anyone with similar requirements.
Deployment Environment
- Server OS:
CentOS release 6.8 (Final) - Network:
Connected to Internet - Development Machine:
Windows(or macOS)
1. Terminal Connection
Use a terminal emulator like PuTTY (Windows) or iTerm2 (macOS) to establish an SSH connection to your target server.
2. Setting Up Node.js with NVM
While you can install Node.js directly, using NVM (Node Version Manager) is highly recommended for easy version management.
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash
Note: After installation, you may need to restart your terminal session for the nvm command to be recognized.
# Install the Node.js LTS version (e.g., version 6 in this example)
nvm install 6
Optimizing NPM with NRM
NRM helps manage npm registries. Switching to a local mirror (like Taobao for developers in China) can significantly speed up package downloads.
npm i nrm -g
nrm use taobao
3. Preparing the Project Directory
According to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, /var is a good place for variable data like web applications.
mkdir /var/www/my-project
Uploading Files
Upload your Frontend dist folder, Backend source code, and optionally node_modules (though running npm install on the server is usually cleaner) using tools like WinSCP (Windows) or Cyberduck/SCP (macOS).
4. Process Management with PM2
PM2 is a production-grade process manager for Node.js applications. It ensures your app stays alive and restarts if it crashes.
npm i pm2 -g
Configuring Environment Variables
To distinguish between development and production configurations in your Express app:
vi /etc/profile
# Add the following line at the end:
export NODE_ENV="production"
# Apply the changes immediately:
source /etc/profile
Starting the Application
cd /var/www/my-project
pm2 start app.js --name='my-app'
# Ensure the app restarts if the server reboots:
pm2 save
pm2 startup
5. Web Server Setup: Nginx
Nginx will act as a reverse proxy, sitting in front of our Node.js application.
yum -y install nginx
Reverse Proxy Configuration
Edit the configuration file at /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf. We want Nginx to listen on port 80 and forward traffic to our app (running on port 3001 in this example).
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com; # Replace with your domain
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3001;
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;
}
}
Managing Nginx
service nginx start # Start service
chkconfig nginx on # Enable auto-start on boot
nginx -s reload # Reload config after changes
6. Firewall Configuration
Ensure port 80 is open to external traffic:
/sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
/etc/rc.d/init.d/iptables save
Final Thoughts
Deployment complete! You can now access your application via the server’s IP address or domain name. While this guide was written based on a Windows environment, the server-side steps are identical for macOS users.
