Host NodeJs REST APIs on AWS EC2

Host NodeJS API's on AWS EC2 instance using these simple steps.

Commands

After connecting to your EC2 instance via a SSH client :

Run these four commands to install all the required packages in your machine : NodeJS , NPM , Nginx

  sudo apt update

  sudo apt install nodejs

  sudo apt install npm

  sudo apt install nginx

  sudo apt update

Clone your project's github repository into the EC2 machine in a folder (ex : api-folder)

  git clone "https://github.com/your-repo-link"

Move to the api-folder directory

  cd api-folder

Navigate to the .env file to paste your environment variables

  nano .env

Install NVM (Node Version Manager)

  curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash

  export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"

  [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

  nvm install v18

Install NPM packages of your project

  npm i

Run any of these as per your project's package.json

  npm run dev    /   npm start

Create the server code file for your domain (ex : testapi.com)

  sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/testapi.com

Once you run the command above, you will enter an environment where you have to paste this code, MAKE SURE to change server_name and root folder directory

  server {
        listen 80;
        listen 443;
        server_name testapi.com;
        root /home/ubuntu/api-folder;
        index index.html index.htm;

        location / {
                proxy_pass             http://127.0.0.1:3000;
                proxy_read_timeout     60;
                proxy_connect_timeout  60;
                proxy_redirect         off;

                # Allow the use of websockets
                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;
        }
         location /as {
        access_log off;
        add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain';
    }

}

After pasting this code save and exit it using :

  Ctrl + S  --> Ctrl + C  --> Ctrl + X

Paste these commands as it is (change your domain name)

  sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/testapi.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/testapi.com

  sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Restart your nginx service after changing server code :

  sudo service nginx restart

  systemctl status nginx.service

  sudo service nginx restart

Check if your nginx is completely healthy :

  sudo service nginx status

Install pm2 (Process Manager) globally in this machine

  sudo npm i -g pm2

Start your server : (must have in package.json --> "start": "nodemon index)

  pm2 start npm -- start

Get the logs of your running server to know what's happening

  pm2 logs 0

Stop the server

  pm2 stop 0

Get SSL Certificate for https protocol

Run these commands and change the nginx server configuration to accept 443 ssl requests.

Update and install certbot

sudo apt update
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Run the certbot

sudo certbot --nginx -d testapi.com

Nano server configuration

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/testapi.com

Update Server configuration

  
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name testapi.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/testapi.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/testapi.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000;
        proxy_read_timeout 60;
        proxy_connect_timeout 60;
        proxy_redirect off;

        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;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name testapi.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Check Server

sudo nginx -t

Restart nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Auto renew certificate after 90 days

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

The above commands will allow https request and route http to https in browser but if you want to accept http requests then update the server configuration to this

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name testapi.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        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;
    }
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name testapi.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/testapi.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/testapi.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        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;
    }
}