NodeJS Backend Deployment on AWS

instructions.md

1. Create an AWS EC2 Instance with Ubuntu AMI.
2. SSH into the EC2 instance.
3. Install fnm : curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash
4. Select a Node version to install. For example : fnm use 20 (Will install Node v20)
5. Install pnpm: npm i -g pnpm and setup : pnpm setup
6. Clone your backend into EC2.
7. Install pm2 : pnpm i -g pm2.
8. Install project depedencies: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
9. Put Environment Variables in .env.
10. If you have a domain for the API, go to manage DNS records and create an A record with value as the EC2 Public IP.
11. Install Nginx to use as a Reverse Proxy: sudo apt install nginx. Ensure it is running : sudo systemctl status nginx.
12. Now, cd into etc/nginx/sites-available. Create a nginx configuration file which routes incoming HTTP traffic for server {YOUR_API_DOMAIN} to our express app running at localhost:{PORT}. Example Nginx Config:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name {YOUR_API_DOMAIN};
  location / {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:{PORT};
  }
}

13. You can name the config file as anything but it is good practice to name it same as your domain. For ex, the config file could be named api.guidancegrid.gdscnits.in. Create a symlink for this file in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled. (Only configs in sites-enabled will be used by nginx).

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/{YOUR_CONFIG_FILE_NAME} /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

14. Test if the nginx config is valid sudo nginx -t. If there are no errors, restart nginx : sudo systemctl restart nginx.
15. Check if the endpoint works without specifying a PORT now: http://{YOUR_API_DOMAIN}/api/v1.
16. To set up SSL certificates, we will use letsencrypt. Install certbot and python3-certbot-nginx.

sudo apt install certbot
sudo apt install python3-certbot-nginx

17. Request an SSL certificate for your registered domain. The certbot-nginx plugin will automatically configure the certificate for your domain. sudo certbot --nginx -d {YOUR_API_DOMAIN} It will ask for email. Enter it and accept all terms and conditions.

18. If there were no errors, you should see a message that tells you that SSL certificate has been installed successfully on your domain.

19. Go to https://{YOUR_API_DOMAIN}/api/v1 to check if the endpoint is working.