NodeJS multiple websites - node.js

Question

I have been searching the Internet for a week now trying to find a good solution for this. First I read about http-master but I have been having issues installing it. Then I saw a few others that didn't have the features and ease of configurations. Or the answers were all outdated
We want to develop website in NodeJS, currently have three, two for test/dev and one for production. Each of these are hosted on the same server, currently an Apache server with the same domain name but different ports. We have another website we are working on as well with a different domain name.
Question is, what is the best way to use NodeJS to serve all the sites and more? Going forward we want to develop all applications in NodeJS.
Server Specs:
Windows Server 2012 R2
Two Cores
4 GB RAM

Answer 1

You want to use a reverse proxy. nginx is a good choice because configuration is so simple. But the same can also be achieved with apache.
Basically you just run each application under a different port, and based on domain name proxy over requests. Here's an example setup using nginx.
## Upstream www.example.com ##
upstream examplelive {
server 8081; # nodejs server running on port 8081
}
## Upstream dev.example.com ##
upstream exampledev {
server 8082; # nodejs server running on port 8082
}
## www.example.com ##
server {
listen 80;
server_name www.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/log/www.example.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/log/www.example.error.log;
## send request back to examplelive ##
location / {
proxy_pass http://examplelive;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
## dev.example.com ##
server {
listen 80;
server_name dev.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/log/dev.example.com.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/log/dev.example.com.error.log;
location / {
proxy_pass http://exampledev;
proxy_set_header Host static.example.com;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
}
The below apache example should work.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin#example.com
ServerName www.example.com
ProxyRequests off
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
<Location />
ProxyPass http://localhost:8081/
ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:8081/
</Location>
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin#dev.example.com
ServerName dev.example.com
ProxyRequests off
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
<Location />
ProxyPass http://localhost:8082/
ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:8082/
</Location>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 2

My preferred way of hosting multiple domains has always been to use vhost with Express, which allows you to match different domain names.
var mailapp = connect()
var staticapp = connect()
// create main app
var app = connect()
// add vhost routing to main app for mail
app.use(vhost('mail.example.com', mailapp))
app.use(vhost('assets-*.example.com', staticapp))
If you don't want to go through the hassle of getting multiple domains pointing to this server, I find that using multiple sub domains on one primary name (e.g. foo1.bar.com, foo2.bar.com and using a CNAME record with your DNS to point to those subdomains is very effective.