I uploaded nodejs project using nestjs and typeform to awsec2 and used pm2 startnpm -- start command.
My server is working well now.
Since then, however, the pm2 command has not been heard at all and the pm2 input speed has been very slow.
Why did this happen?
Related
I want to set up ApplicationStart hook for node.js project where pm2 is used as a process manager in aws ec2 server.
I checked some tutorials and the shell script for ApplicationStart hook contains commands for running the project by using:
node/npm
pm2
for example in this tutorial, the shell script contains:
npm start
pm2 start npm --name "covidapp" -- start
in this tutorial, the shell script contains:
pm2 start npm --name "myApp"
node app.js > app.out.log 2> app.err.log < /dev/null &
Why we are running the project two times? Why we just don't use pm2?
I've deployed several apps on EC2 using PM2 and in my experience there should be no need (or benefit) to use node app.js, npm start or similar.
As you are probably already guessing, the whole point of PM2 is to run the process(es).
My recommendation would be to create a PM2 ecosystem configuration with all needed configurations, number of processes, ENV vars etc. I personally prefer this way even when running only one single node application on the server.
https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/application-declaration/
And start the process(es) using the configuration, eg.:
pm2 start ecosystem.config.js
I also recommend using PM2 startup generator to make sure PM2 is started on server reboot: pm2 startup
https://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/startup/
Once you have the startup script generated. Start your processes using pm2 manually or by using a configuration file (see example above). Verify with pm2 status that all processes are running as expected and execute pm2 save to "snapshot" the current state. The saved state will now automatically respawn on reboot.
I need to know what to use from root side of cPanel based server to restart NodeJS app, for example, if process terminated now for some reasons NodeJS app will not start until I manually start it, same if server restart I need manually to restart it.
Also, this is case for several accounts on server, command should allow more apps to be restarted/started.
Any help would be great
Here is an automated way to do the it:
- Find if node server [eq. server.js] is running or not.
- If server is not running, restart by "nodemon server.js".
- Else if server is running, do nothing.
You can code this in bash script [sample code below] and set up a CRON job in your cpanel to run it after a particular time.
#!/bin/bash
NAME="server.js" # nodejs script's name here
RUN=`pgrep -f $NAME`
if [ "$RUN" == "" ]; then
nodemon server.js
else
echo "Script is running"
fi
I'd recommend running your node app using PM2.
npm install pm2 -g
pm2 start app.js
pm2 restart app
If you are using node or nodemon on Linux machine I'd recommend using PM2 to manage the service. It is a lot more stable that nodemon and offers other production level features like console.log to console.error file and
https://pm2.io/doc/en/runtime/features/commands-cheatsheet/
I just used a crone job to run the following command once every 5mins
~/bin/node ~/backends/api/app.js
I was having problems with nodemon, it was saying it's not a command blah blah so I thought of just directing straight to node and directly to my app.
This is working for my use case coz the app bails if the addr is being used. So if it crashed then it will restart it since it won't occupy the addr.
I have a sailsjs app on AWS EC2, which I have been running till now using forever. I have two adantages using forever:
1) Perpetuality: I can use the CLI forever start app.js or forever restart app.js and then app starts running and keeps on running till I stop it with the command forever stop app.js. So, the app does not stop even when I close my terminal. The process keeps on running.
2) Runtime Log: I have a .forever directory that has a log file, while on real time records the server logs, and when I check the log using tail -f file_name.log, I get to see run time logs.
However there is a disadvantage: Every time I upload a new/modified server file, I have to restart the app manually. To get rid of this, I am switching from forever to nodemon.
From the documentation provided by Nodemon, I cant figure out how can I replicate the two advantages, as mentioned above, from Nodemon too. Will be a great help if anyone can guide me on how to start my nodejs app using nodemon so that it can keep running even after closing the terminal on my side, and how to watch runtime log of server.
Just my two cents.
I use nodemon daily while developing and I dont think its something you want to use in place of something like forever. Nodemon is used when developing, the software will detect when there has been a file change and restart the server but for deployment it should not be considered.
There is no need to change either because forever has this use case handled with the --w or --watchDirectory comand that will watch for file changes(It can be found here on their readme).
As you can tell by my question, I'm new to this...
I built my first website, I set up my first Node.js server to serve it and then pushed everything live on EC2.
I tested everything on my EC2 IP address and everything seems to be working.
Now up until now, I've been testing my app locally so it makes sense that whenever I closed the terminal, app.js would stop running so nothing would be served on localhost.
Now that my server is on EC2, the same thing happens ("obviously" one could say..) whenever I close my terminal.
So my question is how do I keep my Node.js server running on EC2 for like... forever..so that my site stays live.. forever :)
I read something about a node module called "forever" but I'm wondering (being new and all..) why isn't this "forever" functionality a default setting of the Node.js-EC2 system ?
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of setting up a web server and pushing it live to have it stay live forever? Isn't that what servers are supposed to do anyway (infinitely listening for requests) ? And if that's the case why do we need extra modules/settings to achieve that ?
Thanks for your help.. As you can tell I'm not only looking for a solution but an explanation as well because I got really confused.. :-)
EDIT (a few details you might need) - After installing my app on EC2 these are the steps that I follow on the terminal (The app is running on Amazon Linux by the way) :
I type ssh -i xxxxxxxxxxx.pem ec2-user#ec2-xx-xx-xx-x.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com on the
terminal
After logging onto the Amazon machine I then go to the relevant folder and execute node app.js
There are 3 folders in the machine : node, node_modules and *name of my app*
app.js resides in *name of my app*
After that, the site goes live on my EC2 IP
Once I close the terminal, everything is switched off
Before you invoke Node.js, run the command:
screen
This will create a persistent environment which will allow your process to keep running after you disconnect.
When you reconnect, you can use this command to reconnect to that environment:
screen -r
Here's a random link to learn more about screen:
http://www.rackaid.com/blog/linux-screen-tutorial-and-how-to/
However, this won't help you if your EC2 instance restarts. There are many different ways to do that. Adding your startup command to /etc/rc.local is one way. Here's a link to an Amazon guide which includes adding something to /etc/rc.local.
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/building-shared-amis.html
I worked with the valid answer for a while but some times the screen just end with no reason also screen has no balance loader and others features that in a production enviroment you should care , Currently I use a npm component to do this job.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/pm2
This is so easy to use.
$ npm install pm2 -g
then just start your app with pm2 like this
$ pm2 start app.js
In the above link you can find diferents tasks to perform if you need.
Hope this help the newbies like me.
There's a better way. Use forever.js.
See it here: https://github.com/foreverjs/forever
This is a nice tutorial for how to use chkconfig with forever on CENTOS.
http://aronduby.com/starting-node-forever-scripts-at-boot-w-centos/
Or use tmux
Just Enter a tmux screen run node server
Ctrl+b Hit D and you're done.
I am very late to join the thread and seems its basic problem with every newbie. Follow the below to setup properly your first server.
follow the step on the ec2 instance(before doing this make sure you have a start script for pm2 in your package.json file):
npm install pm2 -g
pm2 startup systemd
See the output and at the last line it must be like..
You have to run this command as root. Execute the following command:
sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup
systemd -u sammy --hp /home/sammy
Take the last line command and run again with root privilege.
(before running the next command, Provide a new start script for pm2 in your package.json file e.g: "pm2-start": "pm2 start ./bin/www")
npm run pm2-start
for more info follow the link.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-node-js-application-for-production-on-ubuntu-16-04
If you are using a Ubuntu EC2, better to use the following we have been using this for the past 6 years and have had no issues with this.
sudo npm i -g forever
Now start your main, example
forever start index.js
forever start src/server.js
To stop the server use the following command
forever stop index.js
To list multiple servers running forever
forever listall
I have just gotten a VPS to bring my first node.js project online, but I am wondering where do I place the node files like app.js if I want it to be accessible at http://www.mywebsite.com:3000?
Right now, to host a website, I am using WHM to create a cPanel account, which creates /home/cpanelusername and my HTML/PHP files all go into /home/cpanelusername/public_html. Where does node.js files go to? Or did I get this step wrong as well?
On my Mac where I developed the node app, I simply cd into the directory containing the node file and run node app.js
You have to execute app.js file using the node binary, just like you do in local development. That means that you should probably make that execution a service call, the details of which depend on your linux distro. If it's not a service call, then executing it in ssh will mean that the app stops working once you log out of ssh.
For example, in Ubuntu server (which I use) I have an Upstart script which automatically runs my node.js app automatically on system start and log to /var/log. An example of the file, named /etc/init/myapp.js.conf is:
description "myapp server"
author "Me"
# used to be: start on startup
# until we found some mounts weren't ready yet while booting:
start on started mountall
stop on shutdown
script
# We found $HOME is needed. Without it we ran into problems
export HOME="/root"
exec node /home/me/myapp/myapp.js 2>&1 >> /var/log/myapp.log
end script
Replace names, etc. as necessary.
Edit to add: You can then start and stop your service by running:
sudo start myapp.js or sudo stop myapp.js