Node js Nginx - What now

Question

I ve set up Node js and Nginx on my server  Now I want to use it  but  before I start there are 2 questions    How should they work together  How should I handle the requests  There are 2 concepts for a Node js server  which one is better      a  Create a separate HTTP server for each website that needs it  Then load all JavaScript code at the start of the program  so the code is interpreted once   b  Create one single Node js server which handles all Node js requests  This reads the requested files and evals their contents  So the files are interpreted on each request  but the server logic is much simpler    It s not clear for me how to use Node js correctly

User · Answer

I proxy independent Node Express applications through Nginx.

Thus new applications can be easily mounted and I can also run other stuff on the same server at different locations.

Here are more details on my setup with Nginx configuration example:

Deploy multiple Node applications on one web server in subfolders with Nginx

Things get tricky with Node when you need to move your application from from localhost to the internet.

There is no common approach for Node deployment.

Google can find tons of articles on this topic, but I was struggling to find the proper solution for the setup I need.

Basically, I have a web server and I want Node applications to be mounted to subfolders (i.e. http://myhost/demo/pet-project/) without introducing any configuration dependency to the application code.

At the same time I want other stuff like blog to run on the same web server.

Sounds simple huh? Apparently not.

In many examples on the web Node applications either run on port 80 or proxied by Nginx to the root.

Even though both approaches are valid for certain use cases, they do not meet my simple yet a little bit exotic criteria.

That is why I created my own Nginx configuration and here is an extract:
upstream pet_project {
  server localhost:3000;
}

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  server_name frontend;

  location /demo/pet-project {
    alias /opt/demo/pet-project/public/;
    try_files $uri $uri/ @pet-project;
  }

  location @pet-project {
    rewrite /demo/pet-project(.*) $1 break;

    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header Host $proxy_host;
    proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;

    proxy_pass http://pet_project;
    proxy_redirect http://pet_project/ /demo/pet-project/;
  }
}
From this example you can notice that I mount my Pet Project Node application running on port 3000 to http://myhost/demo/pet-project.

First Nginx checks if whether the requested resource is a static file available at /opt/demo/pet-project/public/ and if so it serves it as is that is highly efficient, so we do not need to have a redundant layer like Connect static middleware.

Then all other requests are overwritten and proxied to Pet Project Node application, so the Node application does not need to know where it is actually mounted and thus can be moved anywhere purely by configuration.

proxy_redirect is a must to handle Location header properly. This is extremely important if you use res.redirect() in your Node application.

You can easily replicate this setup for multiple Node applications running on different ports and add more location handlers for other purposes.

From: http://skovalyov.blogspot.dk/2012/07/deploy-multiple-node-applications-on.html

User · Answer

You can also setup multiple domain with nginx  forwarding to multiple node js processes   For example to achieve these    domain1 com -  to Node js process running locally http   127 0 0 1 4000 domain2 com -  to Node js process running locally http   127 0 0 1 5000   These ports  4000 and 5000  should be used to listen the app requests in your app code    etc nginx sites-enabled domain1  server       listen 80      listen      80      server name domain1 com      access log  var log nginx domain1 access log      location             proxy pass    http   127 0 0 1 4000             In  etc nginx sites-enabled domain2  server       listen 80      listen      80      server name domain2 com      access log  var log nginx domain2 access log      location             proxy pass    http   127 0 0 1 5000

User · Answer

You could also use node js to generate static files into a directory served by nginx  Of course  some dynamic parts of your site could be served by node  and some by nginx  static    Having some of them served by nginx increases your performance

User · Answer

You can run nodejs using pm2 if you want to manage each microservice means and run it  Node will be running in a port right just configure that port in nginx  etc nginx sites-enabled domain com    server      listen 80      server name domain com www domain com     location          return 403          location  url           proxy pass http   localhost 51967 info            Check whether localhost is running or not by using ping   And   Create one single Node js server which handles all Node js requests  This reads the requested files and evals their contents  So the files are interpreted on each request  but the server logic is much simpler    This is best and as you said easier too

User · Answer

Nginx can act as a reverse proxy server which works just like a project manager  When it gets a request it analyses it and forwards the request to upstream project members  or handles itself  Nginx has two ways of handling a request based on how its configured    serve the request forward the request to another server  server   server name mydomain com sub mydomain com    location       proxy pass http   127 0 0 1 8000      proxy set header Host  host    proxy pass request headers on         location  static      alias  my static files path           Server the request     With this configuration  when the request url is   mydomain com static myjs js it returns the myjs js file in     my static files path folder  When you configure nginx to serve   static files  it handles the request itself    forward the request to another server     When the request url is  mydomain com dothis nginx will forwards the   request to  http   127 0 0 1 8000  The service which is running on the   localhost 8000 port will receive the request and returns the response   to nginx and nginx returns the response to the client    When you run node js server on the port 8000 nginx will forward the request to node js  Write node js logic and handle the request  That s it you have your nodejs server running behind the nginx server   If you wish to run any other services other than nodejs just run another service  like Django  flask  php on different ports and config it in nginx

User · Answer

answering your question 2   I would use option b simply because it consumes much less resources  with option  a   every client will cause the server to consume a lot of memory  loading all the files you need  even though i like php  this is one of the problems with it   With option  b  you can load your libraries  reusable code  and share them among all client requests   But be ware that if you have multiple cores you should tweak node js to use all of them

User · Answer

Node js with Nginx configuration     sudo nano  etc nginx sites-available subdomain your domain com   add the following configuration so that Nginx acting as a proxy redirect to port 3000 traffic from the server when we come from    subdomain your domain com     upstream subdomain your domain com     server 127 0 0 1 3000    server     listen 80    listen      80    server name subdomain your domain com    access log  var log nginx subdomain your domain access log    error log  var log nginx subdomain your domain error log debug    location         proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr      proxy set header X-Forwarder-For  proxy add x forwarded for      proxy set header Host  http host      proxy set header X-NginX-Proxy true      proxy pass http   subdomain your domain com      proxy redirect off

User · Answer

The best and simpler setup with Nginx and Nodejs is to use Nginx as an HTTP and TCP load balancer with proxy protocol enabled  In this context  Nginx will be able to proxy incoming requests to nodejs  and also terminate SSL connections to the backend Nginx server s   and not to the proxy server itself   SSL-PassThrough  In my opinion  there is no point in giving non-SSL examples  since all web apps are  or should be  using secure environments  Example config for the proxy server  in  etc nginx nginx conf user  nginx  worker processes  1  error log   var log nginx error log warn  pid         var run nginx pid  events       worker connections  1024    http     upstream webserver-http       server 192 168 1 4   use a host port instead if using docker     server 192 168 1 5   use a host port instead if using docker       upstream nodejs-http       server 192 168 1 4 8080   nodejs listening port     server 192 168 1 5 8080   nodejs listening port       server       server name example com      location           proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr        proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for        proxy set header X-Forwarded-Proto  scheme        proxy set header Host  http host        proxy set header X-Forwarded-Host  server name        proxy set header Connection  quot  quot         add header       X-Upstream  upstream addr        proxy redirect     off        proxy connect timeout  300        proxy http version 1 1        proxy buffers 16 16k        proxy buffer size 16k        proxy cache background update on        proxy pass http   webserver-http request uri              server       server name node example com      location           proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr        proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for        proxy set header X-Forwarded-Proto  scheme        proxy set header Host  http host        proxy set header X-Forwarded-Host  server name        proxy set header Upgrade  http upgrade        proxy set header Connection  quot Upgrade quot         add header       X-Upstream  upstream addr        proxy redirect     off        proxy connect timeout  300        proxy http version 1 1        proxy buffers 16 16k        proxy buffer size 16k        proxy cache background update on        proxy pass http   nodejs-http request uri              stream     upstream webserver-https       server 192 168 1 4 443   use a host port instead if using docker     server 192 168 1 5 443   use a host port instead if using docker        server       proxy protocol on      tcp nodelay on      listen 443      proxy pass webserver-https        log format proxy  Protocol   protocol -  status  bytes sent  bytes received  session time     access log   var log nginx access log proxy    error log  var log nginx error log debug     Now  let s handle the backend webserver   etc nginx nginx conf  user  nginx  worker processes  1  error log   var log nginx error log warn  pid         var run nginx pid  load module  etc nginx modules ngx http geoip2 module so    GeoIP2 events       worker connections  1024    http       variables hash bucket size 64      variables hash max size 2048      server tokens off      sendfile    on      tcp nopush  on      tcp nodelay on      autoindex off      keepalive timeout  30      types hash bucket size 256      client max body size 100m      server names hash bucket size 256      include         mime types      default type    application octet-stream      index  index php index html index htm        GeoIP2     log format  main     Proxy Protocol Address    proxy protocol addr                              quot  request quot   remote addr -  remote user   time local   quot  request quot                              status  body bytes sent  quot  http referer quot                              quot  http user agent quot   quot  http x forwarded for quot           GeoIP2     log format  main geo     Original Client Address    realip remote addr - Proxy Protocol Address    proxy protocol addr                                 Proxy Protocol Server Address  proxy protocol server addr -                                 quot  request quot   remote addr -  remote user   time local   quot  request quot                                  status  body bytes sent  quot  http referer quot                                  geoip2 data country iso  geoip2 data country name        access log   var log nginx access log  main geo    GeoIP2                        GEOIP2                            geoip2  usr share geoip GeoLite2-Country mmdb            geoip2 metadata country build  metadata build epoch           geoip2 data country geonameid  country geoname id           geoip2 data country iso        country iso code           geoip2 data country name       country names en           geoip2 data country is eu      country is in european union             geoip2  usr share geoip GeoLite2-City mmdb            geoip2 data city name city names en           geoip2 data city geonameid city geoname id           geoip2 data continent code continent code           geoip2 data continent geonameid continent geoname id           geoip2 data continent name continent names en           geoip2 data location accuracyradius location accuracy radius           geoip2 data location latitude location latitude           geoip2 data location longitude location longitude           geoip2 data location metrocode location metro code           geoip2 data location timezone location time zone           geoip2 data postal code postal code           geoip2 data rcountry geonameid registered country geoname id           geoip2 data rcountry iso registered country iso code           geoip2 data rcountry name registered country names en           geoip2 data rcountry is eu registered country is in european union           geoip2 data region geonameid subdivisions 0 geoname id           geoip2 data region iso subdivisions 0 iso code           geoip2 data region name subdivisions 0 names en                           Basic Compression                       gzip on      gzip disable  quot msie6 quot       gzip vary on      gzip proxied any      gzip comp level 6      gzip buffers 16 8k      gzip http version 1 1      gzip types text css text xml text plain application javascript image jpeg image png image gif image x-icon image svg xml image webp application font-woff application json application vnd ms-fontobject application vnd ms-powerpoint      gzip static on           include  etc nginx sites-enabled example com-https conf     Now  let s configure the virtual host with this SSL and proxy protocol enabled config at  etc nginx sites-available example com-https conf  server       real ip header proxy protocol      set real ip from 192 168 1 1   proxy server ip address      set real ip from proxy   proxy container hostname if you are using docker     server name 192 168 1 4   Your current server ip address  It will redirect to the domain name      listen 80      listen 443 ssl http2      listen      80      listen      443 ssl http2      ssl certificate      etc nginx certs example com crt      ssl certificate key  etc nginx certs example com key      ssl dhparam  etc nginx ssl dhparam pem      return 301 https   example com request uri    server       real ip header proxy protocol      set real ip from 192 168 1 1   proxy server ip address      set real ip from proxy   proxy container hostname if you are using docker     server name  example com      listen         80      return 301   https   example com request uri    server       real ip header proxy protocol      set real ip from 192 168 1 1   proxy server ip address      set real ip from proxy   proxy container hostname if you are using docker     server name www example com      listen 80      listen 443 http2      listen      80      listen      443 ssl http2       ssl certificate      etc nginx certs example com crt      ssl certificate key  etc nginx certs example com key      ssl dhparam  etc nginx ssl dhparam pem      return 301 https   example com request uri    server       real ip header proxy protocol      set real ip from 192 168 1 1   proxy server ip address      set real ip from proxy   proxy container hostname if you are using docker     server name example com      listen 443 proxy protocol ssl http2      listen      443 proxy protocol ssl http2      root  var www html      charset UTF-8      add header Strict-Transport-Security  max-age 31536000  includeSubDomains  preload       add header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN      add header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff      add header X-XSS-Protection  quot 1  mode block quot       add header Referrer-Policy no-referrer      ssl prefer server ciphers on      ssl ciphers  quot EECDH AESGCM EDH AESGCM AES256 EECDH AES256 EDH quot       ssl protocols TLSv1 2 TLSv1 1 TLSv1      ssl session cache   shared SSL 10m      ssl session timeout 10m      keepalive timeout   70      ssl buffer size 1400      ssl dhparam  etc nginx ssl dhparam pem      ssl stapling on      ssl stapling verify on      resolver 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 valid 86400      resolver timeout 10      ssl certificate      etc nginx certs example com crt      ssl certificate key  etc nginx certs example com key      ssl trusted certificate  etc nginx certs example com crt  location       jpg jpe g gif png ico cur gz svgz mp4 ogg ogv webm htc css js otf eot svg ttf woff woff2    ver  0-9             expires modified 1M      add header Access-Control-Allow-Origin          add header Pragma public      add header Cache-Control  quot public  must-revalidate  proxy-revalidate quot       access log off            location     well-known    For issuing LetsEncrypt Certificates         allow all        location         index index php      try files  uri  uri   index php  args        error page  404     404 php   location     php        try files        uri  404      fastcgi index   index php      fastcgi pass    unix  tmp php7-fpm sock       fastcgi pass    php-container-hostname 9000   if using docker      fastcgi pass request headers on      fastcgi split path info       php             fastcgi param   SCRIPT FILENAME   document root fastcgi script name      fastcgi intercept errors on      fastcgi ignore client abort off      fastcgi connect timeout 60      fastcgi send timeout 180      fastcgi read timeout 180      fastcgi request buffering on      fastcgi buffer size 128k      fastcgi buffers 4 256k      fastcgi busy buffers size 256k      fastcgi temp file write size 256k      include fastcgi params    location    robots txt       access log off      log not found off        location             deny  all      access log off      log not found off           And lastly  a sample of 2 nodejs webservers  First server  var http   require  http     http createServer function  req  res        res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain         res end  Hello From Nodejs n       listen 8080   quot 192 168 1 4 quot    console log  Server running at http   192 168 1 4 8080      Second server  var http   require  http     http createServer function  req  res        res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain         res end  Hello From Nodejs n       listen 8080   quot 192 168 1 5 quot    console log  Server running at http   192 168 1 5 8080      Now everything should be perfectly working and load-balanced  A while back i wrote about How to set up Nginx as a TCP load balancer in Docker  Check it out if you are using Docker

User · Answer

We can easily setup a Nodejs app by Nginx acting as a reverse proxy  The following configuration assumes the NodeJS application is running on 127 0 0 1 8080     server       server name domain com sub domain com    multiple domains       location           proxy pass http   127 0 0 1 8080          proxy set header Host  host        proxy pass request headers on                 location  static          alias  absolute path to static files    nginx will handle js css                in above setup your Nodejs app will      get HTTP HOST header where you can apply domain specific logic to serve the response     Your Application must be managed by a process manager like pm2 or supervisor for handling situations reusing sockets or resources etc  Setup an error reporting service for getting production errors like sentry or rollbar   NOTE  you can setup logic for handing domain specific request routes  create a middleware for expressjs application

User · Answer

You can also have different urls for apps in one server configuration    yourdomain com app1   -  to Node js process running locally http   127 0 0 1 3000 yourdomain com app2   -  to Node js process running locally http   127 0 0 1 4000   In  etc nginx sites-enabled yourdomain   server       listen 80      listen      80      server name yourdomain com       location     app1           proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr          proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for          proxy set header Host  http host          proxy set header X-NginX-Proxy true          proxy pass    http   127 0 0 1 3000              location     app2           proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr          proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for          proxy set header Host  http host          proxy set header X-NginX-Proxy true          proxy pass    http   127 0 0 1 4000             Restart nginx   sudo service nginx restart   Starting applications   node app1 js  var http   require  http    http createServer function  req  res        res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain         res end  Hello from app1  n       listen 3000   127 0 0 1    console log  Server running at http   127 0 0 1 3000       node app2 js  var http   require  http    http createServer function  req  res        res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain         res end  Hello from app2  n       listen 4000   127 0 0 1    console log  Server running at http   127 0 0 1 4000

User · Answer

I made a repository in Github which you can clone  vagrant-node-nginx-boilerplate  basically the node js app at  var www nodeapp is   var http   require  http    http createServer function  req  res      res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain       res end  Hello World n       listen 4570   127 0 0 1     console log  Node Server running at 127 0 0 1 4570       and the nginx config at  etc nginx sites-available  is  server           listen 80 default server          listen      80 default server           root  var www nodeapp          index index html index htm           server name localhost           location               proxy pass http   127 0 0 1 4570            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

User · Answer

Nginx works as a front end server  which in this case proxies the requests to a node js server  Therefore you need to setup an nginx config file for node   This is what I have done in my Ubuntu box   Create the file yourdomain com at  etc nginx sites-available    vim  etc nginx sites-available yourdomain com   In it you should have something like      the IP s  on which your node server is running  I chose port 3000  upstream app yourdomain       server 127 0 0 1 3000      keepalive 8       the nginx server instance server       listen 80      listen      80      server name yourdomain com www yourdomain com      access log  var log nginx yourdomain com log         pass the request to the node js server with the correct headers       and much more can be added  see nginx config options     location           proxy set header X-Real-IP  remote addr        proxy set header X-Forwarded-For  proxy add x forwarded for        proxy set header Host  http host        proxy set header X-NginX-Proxy true         proxy pass http   app yourdomain         proxy redirect off             If you want nginx     1 3 13  to handle websocket requests as well  add the following lines in the location   section   proxy http version 1 1  proxy set header Upgrade  http upgrade  proxy set header Connection  upgrade     Once you have this setup you must enable the site defined in the config file above   cd  etc nginx sites-enabled   ln -s  etc nginx sites-available yourdomain com yourdomain com   Create your node server app at  var www yourdomain app js and run it at localhost 3000  var http   require  http     http createServer function  req  res        res writeHead 200    Content-Type    text plain         res end  Hello World n       listen 3000   127 0 0 1    console log  Server running at http   127 0 0 1 3000       Test for syntax mistakes   nginx -t   Restart nginx   sudo  etc init d nginx restart   Lastly start the node server   cd  var www yourdomain   amp  amp  node app js   Now you should see  Hello World  at yourdomain com  One last note with regards to starting the node server  you should use some kind of monitoring system for the node daemon  There is an awesome tutorial on node with upstart and monit

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