Setting up a node js website on aws ec2 instance

Download node version manager

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash

Activate node version manager, nvm

. ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

Install node version 6.10.3 or any other version of your choice

nvm install 6.10.3

Add these two lines at the end of /home/ec2-user/.bash_profile and /home/ec2-user/.bashrc to initialize node commands on login

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin:/home/ec2-user/.nvm/versions/node/v6.10.3/bin
export PATH

Check node is installed and running correctly

node -e "console.log('Running Node.js ' + process.version)"

Let’s create a simple node server, create a file called hello.js and put the following in it.

// Load the http module to create an http server.
var http = require('http');
 
// Configure the HTTP server to print Hello World! to all requests.
var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
  response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
  response.end("Hello World!\n");
});
 
// Listen on port 8080
server.listen(8080);
 
console.log('Server available at http://localhost:8080/');

Install pm2 for running your node server

npm install -g pm2

Redirect port 80 to 8080, so your node server can be reached from the browser.

sudo iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 8080 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 8080

Start the node server hello.js

pm2 start hello.js

Now open a browser and type the ip address of your ec2 server and you should see Hello World! delivered from your ec2 instance.