Set up nginx reverse proxying for node apps

Typically, you would never want to use port 80 to host a node.js application. You can, but you will need to run it as root. If someone were to hijack your application, they could do all sorts of damage as root.. so it’s advised to run a server like nginx to front-end node apps. Let’s set up nginx to proxy port 80 to node apps running on higher, unreserved ports such as 3000. Note: this is aimed at Ubuntu, but should work for other debian-based OS’s.

Install zlib

One of the nginx dependencies is zlib, so we’ll need to install it first. Go to zlib.net and find a link to the latest source code

wget http://zlib.net/zlib-1.2.7.tar.gz
tar -xvf zlib-1.2.7.tar.gz
cd zlib-1.2.7.tar.gz
./configure
make
sudo make install

Install nginx

Go to http://nginx.org/en/download.html and find the latest stable version (or dev, if you are bleeding edge).

wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.3.16.tar.gz
tar -xvf nginx-1.3.16.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.3.16.tar.gz
./configure
make
sudo make install

Configure nginx for node

On Ubuntu, the nginx configuration file is located at /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

Let’s make the following changes to enable the server

sudo vi /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

Add another server { } block within http { }. Replace myapp with your desired domain.

server {
    listen       0.0.0.0:80;
    server_name  myapp.com www.myapp.com;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/myapp.log;


    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;

        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

Start nginx

sudo /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx

Stopping nginx

To stop nginx, we’ll need to kill the running process.

$ ps -ax
$   PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 ?        Ss     0:00 init
      2 ?        S      0:00 [kthreadd/112]
   7790 ?        Ss     0:00 nginx: master process /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx
   7791 ?        S      0:00 nginx: worker process
   7818 pts/0    R+     0:00 ps -ax
  12840 ?        Ss     0:00 cron

Take note of the master nginx process PID (process identifier) then kill it

$ sudo kill 7790

Simply restart nginx and kick off your node app. I use forever for managing node daemons.

// Install forever
npm install -g forever
// Navigate to your project and start
forever start app.js

Then browse to your domain!