The big picture

Running your Node/Express app with PostgreSQL on your AWS EC2 server involves installing and configuring the following:

A custom domain, purchased from a service like namecheap.com
Ports 80 and 443 open on your EC2 instance's firewall
An SSL certificate that encrypts the traffic between your app and the client (browser)
The nginx http server that can route traffic to different express apps or static sites based on the domain name
node and npm so that you can install dependencies and run your Node.js code
pm2, which runs your express app automatically when the server boots (so you don't have to be logged in to run it manually)
The PostgreSQL database engine

Finally, you'll need an ssh key so that you can securely git clone your project from GitHub.

The short(er) version

Purchase and configure a domain

You can register a domain for less than $4/year.

If using namecheap.com, go to your list of domains and click the "manage" button for your domain.

Click the tab labeled "Advanced DNS"

In another browser tab, log into the AWS control panel, go to the details page for your EC2 instance, and locate the "IPv4 Public address"

Copy this address.

On the namecheap Advanced DNS page for your domain:

click the trash can icon for the two placeholder entries
click "Add new record"
choose "A record" for the "Type"
Put the "@" symbol in the "Host" field
Paste the IPv4 public address into the "Value" field
Choose "5 min" for the TTL
Click the green check mark

Open ports 80 and 443

Go to your instance details and click the "Security" tab.

Click any of the links in the "Security groups" section

Click "Edit inbound rules"

Click "Add rule"

Choose "HTTP" from the dropdown for the "Type" and "Anywhere" from the dropdown for the "Source"

Click "Add rule" again

Choose "HTTPS" from the dropdown for the "Type" and "Anywhere" from the dropdown for the "Source"

Click "Save rules"

Update the system software and reboot

ssh into your EC2 server and then run this command to update the system.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

After a few minutes, the system will be updated.

Reboot with:

sudo reboot

You'll be disconnected from the server while it reboots (which should take less than 60 seconds)

Install `nginx`

ssh into the server again and run the following command to install nginx:

sudo apt install nginx

Configure `nginx`

Download the example config and copy it to the nginx configuration directory:

curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radishmouse/deployment-guide/master/nginx-config.txt"
sudo cp nginx-config.txt /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Edit the file with nano and replace:

the server name
the port that your express app normally listens at (if not port 3000)

In nano, press the following keyboard shortcuts to save and exit:

Ctrl X
Y
Enter

Test the configuration

sudo ngninx -t

If it says that everything's OK, then run:

sudo service nginx restart

Run the PostgreSQL installation script

curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/radishmouse/deployment-guide/master/setup-psql.sh"
chmod +x setup-psql.sh
./setup-psql.sh

Create the database that you'll use with your live express app

createdb name-of-your-db

Clone your Express app

Generate an SSH key

Generate an ssh key pair so your server can identify itself to GitHub. (Skip this step if you already generated keys previously. Check with ls -la .ssh to see if there are any files like "id_somethingsomething.pub")

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Press enter through all of the prompts.

Then print the public key to the terminal:

cat .ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy this line.

Add the SSH key to your GitHub profile

Go to GitHub.com in your browser.

Click your profile in the upper right and click "Settings" from the menu.

On the left hand menu, choose "SSH and GPG keys"

In the upper right, click "New SSH key"

Provide a Title (e.g., "AWS EC2 instance")
Paste into the "Key" field
Click "Add SSH key"

Clone the code to the AWS server

Go to your project page and click the "Code" button.

Make sure to choose "SSH" for the kind of clone address

Copy the clone address

In the terminal (logged into AWS), git clone your project

Install dependencies

npm install

Create a .env file

fill out the DB_NAME (using the database name you created with createdb after installing PostgreSQL)
add a SESSION_SECRET (if your app uses sessions) - this can be random letters and numbers

Run any migrations or seeders for your app

npx sequelize db:migrate
npx sequelize db:seed:all

Try running your application

npm run dev

(Or node index.js if you're not using nodemon)

In your browser, go to your IPv4 Public Address.

You should see your Express app running!

Run your app with `pm2`

Make sure you have pm2 by running which pm2.

If you don't have it, run npm install -g pm2 (to install it globally).

Start your app with pm2:

pm2 start index.js --name MyAwesomeProject

(Customize the --name so that you can tell which app is which when you run multiple Express apps on this server)

Tell pm2 that you want to run this app when the server starts:

pm2 startup

This will print a very long line that begins with sudo. Copy this line and paste it into the terminal.

Tell pm2 to save its current configuration:

pm2 save

Install and run certbot

sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
sudo certbot --nginx

You will be prompted for:

your email (so that you can receive alerts)
terms of service (say "Y" for yes)
if you want to receive emails from them ("N" for no)
what domains to install a certificate for (press "Enter" to accept any/all)

After it finishes, you should be able to visit your domain in the browser and it should be protected by an SSL certificate. (Look for the lock icon in the URL bar.)

Celebrate

🎉 You're awesome 🎉

radishmouse/deployment-guide