🛠Deploying a Simple Node.js v18 Application to an EC2 Instance

2024-06-10

This guide will walk you through the steps to manually deploy a simple Node.js v18 application to an AWS EC2 instance.

Prerequisites

AWS Account: You need an AWS account.
EC2 Instance: An Amazon Linux 2 EC2 instance.
SSH Key: Access to the .pem file for SSH access to your EC2 instance.
Node.js Application: A simple Node.js application to deploy.

Step 1: Connect to Your EC2 Instance

Open your terminal.
Change the permissions of your .pem file:
```
chmod 400 your-key.pem
```

Connect to your EC2 instance (Ubuntu or Amazon Linux):

ssh -i your-key.pem ubuntu@ec2-your-ec2-public-dns

ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-ec2-public-dns

Step 2: Update the System and Install Node.js

Update the package list:
```
sudo yum update -y
```

Install nvm (Node Version Manager):

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.3/install.sh | bash

Load nvm:

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

Install Node.js v18:
```
nvm install 18
nvm use 18
```
Verify the installation:
```
node -v
npm -v
```

Step 3: Transfer Your Node.js Application to the EC2 Instance

On your local machine, compress your Node.js application folder:
```
tar -czf myapp.tar.gz ~/Downloads
```

Transfer the compressed file to your EC2 instance:

scp -i your-key.pem myapp.tar.gz ubuntu@ec2-your-ec2-public-dns:~

Connect to your EC2 instance and extract the application:

ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-ec2-public-dns
tar -xzf myapp.tar.gz
cd your-app-directory

Or transfer folder directly to EC2 instance (should remove .git and node_modules folder before transfering):
```
scp -i your-key.pem -r ~/your_local_folder/ ec2-user@your-ec2-public-dns:./your_remote_folder/
```

Step 4: Install Dependencies and Start the Application

Install the application dependencies:
```
npm install
```
Start your application:
```
node app.js
```
or
```
node app.mjs
```
Replace app.js or app.mjs with the entry point of your application.

Step 5: Setup PM2 to Keep the Application Running

Install PM2 globally:
```
npm install -g pm2
```
Start your application with PM2:
```
pm2 start app.js
```
or
```
pm2 start app.mjs
```
Save the PM2 process list and configure PM2 to start on boot:
```
pm2 save
pm2 startup
```
Run the command output by pm2 startup to complete the setup.

Step 6: Fix error puppeteer in Amazon Linux 2023

Error: Failed to launch the browser process!

in Amazon server

sudo yum install  libXcomposite libXdamage libXrandr libxkbcommon pango alsa-lib atk at-spi2-atk cups-libs libdrm mesa-libgbm

In Ubutun

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
sudo apt-get install gconf-service libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libc6 libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgcc1 libgconf-2-4 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libglib2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 ca-certificates fonts-liberation libappindicator1 libnss3 lsb-release xdg-utils wget
sudo apt-get install -y libgbm-dev

Updated 2025/3/31

sudo apt install --reinstall libxfixes3=1:6.0.0-1

Conclusion

You have now manually deployed a simple Node.js v18 application to an AWS EC2 instance. You can manage your application using PM2 and ensure it runs continuously.