node-host

nodehost

Quick Node.js hosting on ubuntu:

• Multiple Node apps, served with nginx (as virtual hosts)
• Service based (systemd)
• Can be set to separate user per service
• Restarts automatically on file update using nodemon
• SSL support with letsencrypt/certbot
• Alpha version

Install for using

As the user that should be the administrator of the hosting:

# Install Node.js if needed
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

npm install -g node-host
nodehost setup /hosting/dir --install-dependencies

Where /hosting/dir is where you want the hosts to reside on the server, for example /var/www.

(If you cannot use install -g with a non-root user, check out how to fix the npm permissions.)

Running

nodehost help
nodehost <command> [options...]

Use nodehost create <yourdomain.com> to create hosts, point the domain to the server, and you have a Node application up and running in less than a minute!

Useful files and dirs

After creating a host, example.com will have some points of interest:

• Base dir: /hosting/dir/example.com
• Service execution file: /hosting/dir/example.com/example.com
• www dir: /hosting/dir/example.com/www
• static files dir: /hosting/dir/example.com/www/public

Default behavior for the service execution file is to start nodemon for an app.js file in the www dir. Change the content as suited, but don't change the filename, since systemd depends on it.

Other useful locations for nodehost itself:

• /etc/nginx/nodehost.conf.json - configuration file, created during setup
• /etc/nginx/sites-available/nodehost*.conf - nginx files for each host
• /etc/systemd/system/nodehost*.service - systemd files for each host

SSL/TLS/HTTPS

nodehost edit-nginx <yourdomain.com> to see details for generating either a self-signed certificate, or a real one with certbot. Note that only nginx is using the cert, the proxied connection between nginx and the Node app is http only (because they're on the same server).

How to uninstall

Until an uninstall command is in place:

1. nodehost remove <hostname> for all hosts
2. Delete /etc/nginx/nodehost.conf.json
3. Delete /hosting/dir

Install for building/development

As the user that should be the administrator of the hosting:

# Install Node.js if needed
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Install Haxe if needed
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:haxe/releases -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install haxe -y
mkdir ~/haxelib && haxelib setup ~/haxelib

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/ciscoheat/nodehost.git && cd nodehost

# First time build
npm install
haxelib install nodehost.hxml
npm run build && npm link

# Setup
nodehost setup /hosting/dir --install-dependencies

Or if you have vagrant installed, do all of the above automatically with vagrant up. :)

Building

npm run build