PM2 fails to start NodeJS Express Webapps, no errors though - node.js

I have a web app written in NodeJS/Express that runs fine when I run it from the command line. I am trying to get it to run under pm2 so that it runs continuously, restarting when necessary.
It worked fine for a while, but then stopped working for some reason. Now, when I try to restart it in pm2, it seems to start fine (it gets to the "online" state), but then errors out (changing to the "errored" state). But there are no errors in any of the log files.
I've added a function to the Express app that should log any error stack traces (app.use(function(err, req, res, next) { console.error(err.stack)... ), but that doesn't even show up in the pm2 log files.
I've tried reinstalling pm2, deleting various things in the .pm2 directory, and a few other things, but nothing seems to work at all.
pm2 version 2.1.5

Related

Make nodemon auto-restart a program on crash without waiting for file changes at custom error?

I'm building an E-commerce site, where there's an Authentication system.
I noticed that if the client login with a wrong user or password, the backend/server that works with nodemon will crach and hang in there crashed till i restart manually nodemon. This is example output error of the nodemon crash:
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...
node:internal/errors:464
ErrorCaptureStackTrace(err);
^
Error [ERR_HTTP_HEADERS_SENT]: Cannot set headers after they are sent
to the client
Ofcourse, when server crashes, client can no more access or do login again till server restarts.
After some googling, i found this question and this repository that fix my problem but particulary and not as expected precisely, i dont want nodemon to restart forever on any error that occure ofcourse, but only with specifics errors that i set them -like Authentication errors as i mentionned above-.
So, my idea/question is: is there anyway to get nodemon restarts by itself in some cases of failures or errors (NOT ALL)?
Seems like you a referring to a production situation, and nodemon is a development node server, which is not intended for use in production, as the intro states:
nodemon is a tool that helps develop Node.js based applications by
automatically restarting the node application when file changes in the
directory are detected.
You should use node.js in production, instead of nodemon.
For managing your node server in production, you could use a process manager like PM2..
That said, an authentication server that crashes every time a user uses a wrong password seams very ineffective in handling a common use case. So I would advise to start with fixing the root cause, which is the buggy server, and then for recovery from incidental crashes use something like PM2.
PS:
The error you are getting looks like an express error you get when you send a response (in this case an error response) without exiting the function e.g. by using return. Because you are not returning, another res.send is called, which causes the 'ERR_HTTP_HEADERS_SENT' error. See this answer.
This is really bad since it can send your program into a loop of restarting, but if you really want it, replace app.js with your file's name and try this:
nodemon -x 'node app.js || copy /b app.js +,,'
Linux version:
nodemon -x 'node app.js || touch app.js'
Next time try a little googleing before you ask since it is most likely faster.

Express JS code doesnt work with pm2, but when started manually ("node ."/"node index.js")

I got a Discord JS project running which works fine, now I wanted to also run a simple express script to receive a post request. When I do "node ." the code works and successfully logs the requests, if I do "pm2 start index.js --name xyz" the code also starts, logs its boot up message, doesn't shut down, but also doesn't react to any requests. There is simply no response at the set port by express.
Running on an Ubuntu VPS.
Works if I do "pm2 start index.js --name xyz -- --port XXXX" I don't know why and would like to know how these extra arguments work if anyone could explain.
You can read about arguments on the official docs
It's likely you have a runtime error. Please read your own logger files and ~/.pm2/logs/*.log and see if you can find anything. Had it been a syntax error, it would have shut down immediately. Yet, always pm2 statusafter start to double check it.

NodeJS app (Keystone JS) runs fine when started manually, restarts over and over when started with pm2

I am using Ubuntu 16.04 x 64 and I'm running into an issue -
When I run my Keystone JS app manually by typing in "node keystone", the app runs fine and I can view it in my browser like normal.
However, when I start the app using pm2, the app fails immediately and restarts consecutively.
I think it is because keystonejs has a known "error" that is not a real error, but just a warning when it starts.
From the "keystone-out-0.log" file -
Error ...node_modules/bson/build/Release/bson.node: invalid ELF header
However, in the "keystone-error-0.log" file, it gives me a different error that does not occur when I run it manually -
Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '.env'
Any one faced anything similar?
Thanks

How to correct a Bluemix Node.js app that can't accept connections

I created a new Node.js app on Bluemix this morning and downloaded the boilerplate code. I worked on it locally and then pushed it up. On Bluemix, it refuses to start. The error according to the logs is:
Instance (index 0) failed to start accepting connections
So I Googled for that, in every case where I found the result, the answer was that my application was trying to use a specific port instead of letting Bluemix set it.
Ok, but I'm setting the host/port with the exact code the boilerplate uses:
var appEnv = cfenv.getAppEnv();
// start server on the specified port and binding host
app.listen(appEnv.port, function() {
// print a message when the server starts listening
console.log("server starting on " + appEnv.url);
});
So if this is incorrect, it means the code Bluemix told me to download itself is incorrect as well, and I can't imagine that is the issue.
To identify whether cfenv is at fault, I've tested that piece of code with a number of more complex Node.js apps I have, and they work perfectly on Bluemix.
That message can also come when an application you've deployed to Bluemix fails to start at all. Here's a few things you can do to troubleshoot your Node.js application on Bluemix.
Tail logs in another terminal while pushing with "cf logs
". Inspect logs after the failure to see if something
failed during the staging process.
Check that your start command in one of two recommended places, scripts.start in package.json or in a Procfile with web: node <start-script>.
Check that your application works locally. First (optional), create a .cfignore file with "/node_modules" in it, so that when you push the app to Bluemix, CF CLI doesn't push your entire folder of node_modules (as they will be installed dynamically). Next, wipe out your node_modules directory and do an npm install --production followed by npm start (or your custom start command). This is what Bluemix does when trying to start your application, so you should double check that it works locally.
Finally, try bumping up your memory, although this is very unlikely that this is why your application fails to start.

Safely restart nodemon after unhandled exception

I'm using gulp and running nodemon from a task. Everytime it detects changes it
restarts the server
runs "build" task
Yup in that order. Couldn't figure out how to kick "build" task before nodemon's restart happens (setting delay param didn't help).
nodemon = require "gulp-nodemon"
runSequence = require 'run-sequence' # couldn't figure out how to run gulp task
# from another task, so ended up using this
nodemon(
script:'server.js'
watch: 'src/**/*.*'
).on "restart" (files)->
runSequence "build"
Now, my problem is - when something happens during build, something that I apparently can't really control (let's say Jade files fail to compile), process throws uncaughtException and crashes. What I need though, to restart nodemon, and keep trying building until failing jade file fixed.
I've tried running "build", followed with nodemon in process.on 'uncaughtException', it kinda works, but then nodemon stops watching files and can't recognize changes anymore.
Can you guys advise.

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