Deploying an ExpressJS Web Application with MySQL

Creating an EC2 Instance

1. OS Ubuntu (t2.micro, or any that is eligible for free tier)
2. Create a new key for SSH (.pem)
3. Set up the memory space for the volume
4. Create instance

Get an Elastic IP

1. Head to Elastic IPs under the Network & Security Group
2. Associate an Elastic IP with the newly created EC2 instance

Checkpoint (SSH into EC2 Instance)

1. Run the following commands:
2. chmod 400 <path-to-pem-file>/<file-name>.pem
3. ssh -i <path-to-pem-file>/<file-name>.pem ubuntu@<elastic-ip>
4. Trust the fingerprint and add the EC2 Instance into the list of known hosts

Installing Node in the EC2 Instance

1. Run the following commands:
2. sudo apt update
3. sudo apt upgrade
4. sudo apt install -y git htop
5. curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
6. export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
7. [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
8. [ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"
9. Verify that nvm has been installed: nvm --version
10. nvm install --lts
11. Verify that node has been installed: node --version
12. Verify that npm has been installed: npm -v

Cloning Git Repositories from EC2 Instance

1. Create a public key (within EC2 Instance)
2. ssh-keygen #Press enter thrice
3. Retrieve public key (within EC2 Instance)
4. cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub # Please becareful to not share this with anyone
5. Navigate to GitHub
6. Click on your profile photo -> Settings -> SSH and GPG keys (Under Access)
7. Click on "NEW SSH key"
8. Choose a title as the identifier for the connection between Git and the EC2 Instance
9. Paste the key from 4 under "Key"
10. Click on "Add SSH Key" (Complete MFA if needed)
11. You should be able to clone the repository!
12. git clone [email protected]:syongkheng/expressjs-ec2-guide.git

Accessing the web application

1. Build the typescript files into javscript files
2. npm run build
3. The web application can be deployed with npm run dev
4. The application should now be accessible at http://:3000
5. This simulates a "dev" envrionment and the terminal running the process has to be kept alive.
6. Persisting the application with pm2: npm install pm2
7. pm2 start dist/src/index.js --name=expressjs-server
8. pm2 save
9. pm2 startup # Execute the command as prompted
10. The web application should still be accessible even after exiting the terminal
11. Optional: You can run npm run migration which will create a dev account username: dev, password: secret

Optional steps: SSL Certificate with Nginx Reverse Proxy

Configuring Nginx

1. sudo apt install nginx
2. sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
3. Add the following to the location {} and server_name
4. server_name <subdomain>.<domain>.<tld>

location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }

6. Ensure that you change the default path of /var/www/html to /home/ubuntu/expressjs-ec2-guide
7. Check the config sudo nginx -t
8. Restart nginx sudo service nginx restart

Add domain in your domain provider

1. Add a "A" record that points to the EC2 Instance Public IPV4, the same IP that you use to ssh.

Configuring SSL Certification with Certbot

1. sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
2. sudo apt remove certbot
3. sudo snap install --classic certbot
4. Adding certbot to path: sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
5. sudo certbot --nginx -d <subdomain>.<domain>.<tld>
6. sudo systemctl status snap.certbot.renew.service
7. sudo certbot renew --dry-run
8. The server should be accessible with HTTPS now!