Mern Deployment in AWS!

how to deploy a MERN environment that is composed of Ubuntu 22.04 servers providing users access to the application through an Nginx reverse proxy to the application server in aws ec2.

Instance creation in aws

1. Log in to the AWS console
2. Go to instances
3. Click Launch Instances
4. Add your instance name
5. Select ubuntu server
6. Select instance type t2.micro
7. In network settings add following security group rules

Type	Port range	Source type	Source
SSH	22	Anywhere	0.0.0.0/0
HTTP	80	Anywhere	0.0.0.0/0 and ::0
HTTPS	443	Anywhere	0.0.0.0/0
Custom TCP	5000 (Node server port)	Anywhere	0.0.0.0/0

8. Create new keypair with .pem and save it on your computer
9. Launch your instance

Log in to your server

1. Go to the .pem file location and open terminal

2. Replace your Public IPv4 DNS

   ssh -i visAct.pem ubuntu@Public_IPv4_DNS
   

Install Nodejs

1. Run system update

   sudo apt-get update
   

2. install curl

   sudo apt install curl -y
   

3. Check available Node.js Version

   sudo apt policy nodejs
   

4. Add Nodejs latest repo on Ec2 Ubuntu

   curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_lts.x | sudo -E bash -
   

5. Install Nodejs & NPM

   sudo apt-get install nodejs
   

6. Check the installed version of node

   node -v
   

7. Check the installed version of npm

   npm -v
   

Install Nginx

1. Install nginx

   sudo apt-get install nginx
   

2. Start nginx

   sudo service nginx start
   

3. Check nginx status

   sudo service nginx status
   

4. Exit nginx status

   q
   

5. Ensure every time you restart your system Nginx starts up automatically.

   sudo systemctl enable nginx
   

Install nano text editor

1. Run system update

   sudo apt-get update
   

2. Install the editor

   sudo apt-get install nano
   

Install pm2

1. Run system update

   sudo apt-get update
   

2. install pm2

   sudo npm install pm2 -g
   

3. Configure PM2 to start Express application at startup.

   sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin pm2 startup -u ubuntu
   

Clone MERN app

1. Run system update

   sudo apt-get update
   

2. Clone from git hub

   git clone <url>
   

3. Input your github account name

4. Input your password

Build the react app

1. Navigate to client folder

   cd client_folder_path
   

2. Install depencies

   sudo npm install
   

3. Build the app

   sudo npm run build
   

Run the node server

1. Navigate to server folder

   cd server_folder_path
   

2. Install depencies

   sudo npm install
   

3. Create .env file ,add credentials and save it

   sudo nano .env
   

4. Run the app with pm2

   pm2 start app.js
   

5. Freeze a process list on reboot

   pm2 save
   

6. Display all processes logs in streaming

   pm2 logs
   

Setting up Nginx as a reverse proxy for Nodejs application

1. Remove default file to sites-available path

   sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
   

2. Add default file to sites-available path

       sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
   

3. Add the code for server block

   listen 80 default_server;
   server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
   
   location / {
        proxy_pass http://private_ip_of_server:5000;
        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;
   } 
   
   

4. Test configuration

    sudo nginx -t
   

5. Reload Nginx

   sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload