> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.chaicode.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Deploy Node API with Nginx

> Learn how to deploy a Node API with Nginx on Ubuntu server.

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## Prerequisites

Before going forward, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

* A server with root access
* A domain name or IP address
* A web server that can be used to serve static files
* Nginx installed and configured on the machine
* SSL configured for the domain name or IP address

## Create a Small Express App

We will create a small express app to test the deployment. Here are the steps:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install nodejs and npm on ubuntu">
    ```bash theme={null}
    sudo apt install nodejs
    sudo apt install npm
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a project dir and initialize a node app">
    ```bash theme={null}
    mkdir express-app
    cd express-app
    npm init -y
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Install basic dependencies">
    ```bash theme={null}
    npm install express nodemon
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Update the package.json">
    ```json theme={null}
    {
      "name": "express-app",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "description": "",
      "main": "index.js",
      "type": "module",
      "scripts": {
        "dev": "nodemon index.js"
      },
      "keywords": [],
      "author": "",
      "license": "ISC",
      "dependencies": {
        "express": "^4.19.2",
        "nodemon": "^3.1.4"
      }
    }
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create an index.js file and add the following code">
    ```bash theme={null}
    touch index.js
    ```

    ```js theme={null}
    import express from "express";
    const app = express();
    app.get("/api", (req, res) => {
      return res.status(200).json({
        message: "server working",
      });
    });
    app.listen(8080, () => console.log("Server is running on 8080"));
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Install pm2 to run this dummy app in the background">
    ```bash theme={null}
    npm install -g pm2 # if npm is not available use sudo npm install -g pm2
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run the application with the following command">
    ```bash theme={null}
    pm2 start "npm run dev"
    ```

    This will start the application on port `8080`.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Do a reverse proxy with nginx

Nginx can also act as a reverse proxy, forwarding client requests to other servers. Here are the steps to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Edit your server block configuration">
    ```bash theme={null}
    sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Configure the server block to act as a reverse proxy">
    ```nginx theme={null}
    server {
      listen 80;  # Listen on port 80 for incoming HTTP requests
      server_name localhost;  # Server name or domain name this block will respond to

      location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;  # Proxy requests to the backend server running on localhost:8080
        proxy_set_header Host $host;  # Set the Host header to the client's original host
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;  # Set the X-Real-IP header to the client's IP address
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;  # Append client's IP addresses to X-Forwarded-For header
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;  # Set the X-Forwarded-Proto header to the client's protocol (http or https)
      }
    }
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test and reload Nginx">
    ```bash theme={null}
    sudo nginx -t
    sudo systemctl reload nginx
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Verify the configuration">
    Now, when you request `http://<server_ip>/api` it will return the following response:

    ```json theme={null}
    { "message": "server working" }
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Summary

In this guide, we learned how to deploy a Node API with Nginx on Ubuntu server. We also learned how to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy.

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