Question

502 error when running Node app with PM2

I have followed the instructions laid out in this tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-node-js-application-for-production-on-ubuntu-18-04.

I can successfully run my application using

$ sudo node app.js

and access it in my browser.

However, when I run the app using

$ pm2 start app.js

it says the app is running but when I access it in the browser I get a 502 Bad Gateway error. Any ideas?


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Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
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March 19, 2020
Accepted Answer

Hi there @digitaloceanjd,

It sounds like that the application might not be starting, what happens if you try to get information for your application with:

  1. pm2 info app_name

And also try to use the pm2 monit command to check the status of the application.

I would also recommend checking your Nginx error logs:

tail -100 /var/log/nginx/error.log

Another thing that I could suggest is making sure that your application is listening on the correct port:

sudo netstat -plant

Also, as a side note here is also a quick video on how to deploy Node.js with PM2, Nginx as a reverse proxy, and Cloudflare for SSL termination:

Let me know how it goes! Regards, Bobby

$pm2 kill

$pm2 start app.js

working fine and issue solved

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