How to deploy meteor app with nginx and passenger (current test with meteor 1.4.1 and ubuntu server 14.04)

Step 1: Setup server enviroment

Install nginx and passenger

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 561F9B9CAC40B2F7
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates

--- Add our APT repository

sudo sh -c 'echo deb https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger trusty main > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list'
sudo apt-get update

--- Install Passenger + Nginx

sudo apt-get install -y nginx-extras passenger

--- Check install

sudo /usr/bin/passenger-config validate-install

Install node js

Because meteor 1.4.1 is using node v4.5.0 and npm 3.10.6, server need to installed version exactly to work property

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

sudo npm cache clean -f
sudo npm install -g n
sudo n 4.5.0

sudo npm -g install npm@latest

with meteor 1.2.1 using node 0.10.40 and npm 1.4.28

// node 0.10.40 persisted any more on nodesource
sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_0.10 | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

--check

npm -v
node -v

Install node mongodb

Please see https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/installation/ for more detail

Step 2: Config nginx and passenger

--- Enable config passenger in nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
-> Enable passenger config
include /etc/nginx/passenger.conf;

--- Check and config passenger

sudo nano /etc/nginx/passenger.conf

-- It should be:

passenger_root /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini;
passenger_ruby /usr/bin/passenger_free_ruby;
passenger_nodejs /usr/local/bin/node;

Step 3: Configure nginx to run meteor app

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/[app_name].conf

---Edit

  server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <domain_name or public_ip>;

    # Tell Nginx and Passenger where your app's 'public' directory is
    root <path_to_app>/bundle/public;

    # Turn on Passenger
    passenger_enabled on;
    # Tell Passenger that your app is a Meteor app
    passenger_app_type node;
    passenger_startup_file main.js;

    # Tell your app where MongoDB is
    passenger_env_var MONGO_URL mongodb://localhost:27017/<app_name>;
    # Tell your app what its root URL is
    passenger_env_var ROOT_URL http://<domain_name or public_ip>;
    passenger_env_var METEOR_SETTINGS '{"private": {"key": "ABCDF"}}';
    passenger_app_env production;

  }

Check config and restart

sudo nginx -t
sudo service nginx restart

Note: <domain_name or public_ip> is doamin or public ip of your app, app_name is your app name, path_to_app is path to your app (that is in next step)

Step 4: Build app and deploy

In development app folder Create a bundle first and upload it to your production server:

ROOT_URL=http://<domain_name or public_ip> MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/<app_name> meteor build ../build_result/tmp --architecture os.linux.x86_64 --server http://<domain_name or public_ip> --mobile-settings settings.json

# This will need to create a directory <path_to_app> ex: /webapps/example
scp <app_name>.tar.gz someserver:<path_to_app>

On your production server, extract the bundle and install NPM modules:

cd <path_to_app>
tar xzvf <app_name>.tar.gz
cd bundle/programs/server && npm install --production
cd <path_to_app>/bundle
mkdir -p tmp public
cd <path_to_app> && bundle/tmp/restart.txt

Restart nginx to sure all thing work

Check log app

tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Step 5: Create a auto deploy script

In development folder create a deploy.sh

touch deploy.sh
chmod +x deploy.sh

Edit content of deploy.sh (example with app_name abc and remote server to amazon

 #!/bin/bash

NAME=abc
USER=ubuntu
TARGZ_NAME=$NAME.tar.gz
DIR=/home/ubuntu/$NAME

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo 'Usage: deploy HOSTNAME'
  exit 0
else
  HOSTNAME=$1
fi

URL=http://$HOSTNAME
MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/$NAME
REMOTE=$USER@$HOSTNAME
KEYFILE=~/.ssh/abc.pem

if [[ "$KEYFILE" != "" ]]; then
  KEYARG="-i $KEYFILE"
else
  KEYARG=
fi

ROOT_URL=$URL MONGO_URL=$MONGO_URL meteor build ../build_result/tmp --architecture os.linux.x86_64 --server $URL --mobile-settings settings.json

ssh $KEYARG $REMOTE "mkdir -p $DIR"

scp $KEYARG ../build_result/tmp/$TARGZ_NAME $REMOTE:$DIR

CMD="
cd $DIR && tar xfz $TARGZ_NAME
cd $DIR/bundle/programs/server && npm install --production
mkdir -p $DIR/bundle/tmp $DIR/bundle/public
cd $DIR && touch bundle/tmp/restart.txt
"

ssh $KEYARG $REMOTE "$CMD"

run "./deploy.sh <host_name>" to deploy ex ./deploy.sh 123.23.14.5

Step 6: Deploy with capistrano

COMING SOON....

Good luck!!!

phund/Deploy meteor app with nginx and passenger.markdown