How do I deploy a Node.js app to a DigitalOcean Droplet and keep it running?

Question

I’ve built a Node.js app (Express) and it runs fine locally on localhost:3000. I created an Ubuntu 24.04 Droplet and managed to get my code onto it with git, but I’m stuck on the rest.

When I run node app.js it works, but as soon as I close my SSH session the app stops. And even while it’s running, I can only reach it at :3000, not on my domain. How do people actually run a Node app in production on a Droplet so it stays up and works on port 80/443?

Any pointers appreciated. Fairly new to servers.

KFSys · Accepted Answer

Heya, 1. Keep the app running with PM2 Right now node app.js dies when your SSH session ends because it’s tied to that terminal. PM2 runs it as a managed background service: sudo npm install -g pm2 pm2 start app.js --name myapp pm2 save pm2 startup That last command prints a line to copy-paste — run it, and PM2 will relaunch your app automatically after a reboot. pm2 logs shows output, pm2 restart myapp after deploys. 2. Put Nginx in front (port 80 → your app) You don’t want to expose :3000 to the world or run Node as root on port 80. Instead let Nginx listen on 80 and proxy back to your app: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nginx Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp: server { listen 80; server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com; location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade'; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } } Enable it and reload: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo nginx -t sudo systemctl reload nginx 3. Point your domain at the Droplet In your DNS (or DigitalOcean’s Networking → Domains), add an A record for your domain pointing to the Droplet’s public IP. Give it a few minutes to propagate. 4. Add HTTPS with a free Let’s Encrypt cert Once the domain resolves to the Droplet, Certbot sets up SSL in one shot: sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com It edits your Nginx config, installs the cert, and sets up auto-renewal. 5. Lock down the firewall Finally, only allow SSH and web traffic: sudo ufw allow OpenSSH sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' sudo ufw enable That’s the full production shape: PM2 keeps it alive, Nginx serves 80/443, DNS points the domain, Certbot handles HTTPS. After this, deploys are just git pull && pm2 restart myapp.

alexdo · Answer

Heya, One thing worth tightening in the actual deploy workflow at the end. pm2 restart myapp kills the process and starts a new one, which means a brief gap where incoming requests get connection refused until it’s back up. If you start the app in cluster mode instead of the default single-instance mode: pm2 start app.js -i max --name myapp then pm2 reload myapp instead of restart on every deploy gets you zero-downtime restarts, PM2 restarts the cluster workers one at a time, draining and finishing in-flight requests on each before moving to the next, so the app never actually goes fully down during a deploy. It does mean your app needs to handle SIGTERM cleanly, stop accepting new connections and finish what's in flight rather than dying mid-request, worth checking Express does that gracefully if you haven't set that up. For a small app or single-vCPU Droplet where cluster mode doesn't make sense, plain restart with a brief gap is a reasonable tradeoff, just worth knowing it's a tradeoff rather than the only option. Regards

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How do I deploy a Node.js app to a DigitalOcean Droplet and keep it running?

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How do I deploy a Node.js app to a DigitalOcean Droplet and keep it running?

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