Deploying Dockerized Node.JS Express API to AWS - node.js

Question

I've been using the Firebase suite all my development experience (I'm a student) and using Firebase Functions to deploy my express apps as callable endpoints.
Recently, I've wanted to explore AWS more and also learn about Docker containers, as well as SQL databases as opposed to Firebase's NoSQL solution. I've created a Dockerized Node.JS Express API with some endpoints (attached below), but have absolutely no idea how to deploy to AWS because I'm overwhelmed by the amount of services, and would like to stay within the free tier for the project I'm building. What's the solution here? AWS Lambda? Gateway? EC2? What's the equivalent of Firebase Functions in AWS that would work with Docker? Very lost in the weeds.
I've successfully setup my PostgreSQL db with AWS RDS so I've managed that. My issue now is with actually deploying the Docker container somewhere and actually having endpoints that I can hit.
I have followed this specific guide: Deploying Docker Containers on ECS and actually managed to have endpoints to hit and successfully work, but it has been expensive. This method uses a service called AWS Fargate, and it seems that it isn't even in AWS's free tier and based on some experimentation was costing me around $0.01/API call. Obviously not attractive since Firebase Functions gave me up to 1M calls/mo for free and was much cheaper after that.
Mind you, I didn't know what a Docker container really was up until a week ago, nor am I at all familiar with all of these different AWS services. I would love to be pointed in the right direction. AWS Free Tier has services that say "1M calls/mo" such as AWS API Gateway, but I can't figure out how to get any of these to work with a Docker Image or how to connect them. I've read about every article out there about "Deploy Node.JS to AWS", so please don't just direct me to any of those search results, I'd love an explanation about how this all works. Here are examples of some of my files.
Dockerfile
# Dockerfile
FROM node:16-alpine
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm install
COPY . .
EXPOSE 5001
CMD [ "npm", "run", "docker:start" ]
Docker-Compose (I have three files. One for local, staging, prod)
# docker-compose.yml
version: "3.7"
services:
cwarehouse-prod:
image: zyade7/cwarehouse-prod:latest
container_name: cwarehouse-prod
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile
env_file:
- ./src/config/.prod.env
ports:
- '5001:5001'
Sample endpoint (I have a few following this same format)
import express, { Request, Response } from "express";
import { createTerm, getTerm } from "./utils";
import { createGradeDistribution } from "../GradeDistribution/utils";
import { GradeDistributionObject } from "../GradeDistribution/types";
import { TermRelations } from "./Term.entity";
import { TermErrorCodes } from "./types";
import { db } from "../../db";
const termApi = express();
termApi.use(express.json());
// Creates a term in the db
termApi.post("/create", async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
try {
const {
gradeDistribution,
schoolId,
averageGPA,
totalSections,
totalStudents,
title,
}: {
gradeDistribution: GradeDistributionObject;
schoolId: string;
averageGPA: number;
totalSections: number;
totalStudents: number;
title: string;
} = req.body;
const gradeDistributionEntity = await createGradeDistribution(
db,
gradeDistribution,
averageGPA,
totalStudents
);
const term = await createTerm(
db,
gradeDistributionEntity,
schoolId,
averageGPA,
totalSections,
totalStudents,
title
);
res.status(200).send(term);
} catch (error) {
res.status(500).send(TermErrorCodes.TERM_CREATION_ERROR);
}
});

Answer 1

This is not a question, but rather looking for a guide on how to use AWS. You should go about reading the documentation, or try to understand the global scope of a backend solution.
In this specific case you are asking how to set up a serverless application. There are a number of guides online that you can follow. But I would rather advise you to look at the Serverless Framework. The framework works very well with a lot of the popular cloud providers (e.g. Google, Azure, AWS etc.) streamlining and automating the deployment process. You just need to think about which service you want to use and how to set it up. Then write the instructions that the framework needs to follow when deploying your application.
In your specific case I think you are looking for AWS Lambda. Lambda is a serverless function service that executes and scales on demand. This service is the equivalent to Firebase Functions, where the usual way to execute it is to determine the events that will trigger the function itself (be it API endpoints using AWS API-Gateway requests, AWS Event-Bridge time dependent executions, or AWS S3 Uploads).
In the case of Docker on AWS, Docker containers are usually deployed on AWS ECR. And from there AWS Lambda functions can run depending on the set-up. The idea here is that a docker container can run on lambda, and perform whatever tasks you need it to with whatever packages/libraries you want your docker to include. Keep in mind that Lambda functions have a specific time and disk size limit when its executing. E.g. after 30 seconds the function will automatically stop. But the Docker functionality is preferable to bypass the size limit.
Here is a good guide I followed earlier on Deploying AWS Lambda with Docker Containers.
In more borader terms, setting up a server is done with AWS EC2, which creates a computing resource running all the time.
As an end-point you can set up and control all of these services with the Serverless Framework, which is supposed to glue them together with the custom functionality you have to develop.
I hope this gives you an idea on where to find your information.