Part 14 – Production Deployment Strategies

Taking your Node.js application from development to production requires careful planning. This guide covers all major deployment approaches with best practices for each.

1. Deployment Target Options

Traditional Servers

• DigitalOcean/Linode droplets
• AWS EC2 instances
• Bare metal servers
• Full control
• More maintenance

Platform as a Service

• Heroku
• Render
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• Simpler setup
• Less control

Serverless

• AWS Lambda
• Vercel
• Google Cloud Functions
• Auto-scaling
• Cold starts

2. Preparing for Deployment

Environment Configuration

// Use dotenv for local development
require('dotenv').config();

// production.js
module.exports = {
    port: process.env.PORT || 3000,
    db: {
        uri: process.env.DB_URI,
        options: {
            poolSize: 10,
            useNewUrlParser: true
        }
    },
    jwtSecret: process.env.JWT_SECRET
};

// Load config based on NODE_ENV
const config = require(`./${process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'}`);

Production Dependencies

{
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.17.1",
    "mongoose": "^6.0.12"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "nodemon": "^2.0.15",
    "jest": "^27.4.7"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=16.0.0",
    "npm": ">=8.0.0"
  }
}

3. Process Management

PM2 (Recommended)

# Install globally
npm install -g pm2

# Start application
pm2 start app.js --name "my-app"

# Common commands
pm2 list              # View processes
pm2 logs my-app       # View logs
pm2 restart my-app    # Restart
pm2 delete my-app     # Stop and remove

# Cluster mode (utilize all CPUs)
pm2 start app.js -i max

# Save process list
pm2 save
pm2 startup           # Generate startup script

Systemd (Linux)

# /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service
[Unit]
Description=My Node.js App
After=network.target

[Service]
User=nodeuser
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/myapp
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /var/www/myapp/app.js
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# Commands
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start myapp
sudo systemctl enable myapp

4. Deployment to Heroku

Step-by-Step Process

1. Install Heroku CLI
2. Create Procfile: web: node app.js
3. Configure database addons
4. Set environment variables: heroku config:set JWT_SECRET=supersecret
5. Deploy: git push heroku main

Heroku-Specific Tips

• Use process.env.PORT (Heroku assigns port dynamically)
• Add engines to package.json
• Use Heroku Postgres/MongoDB Atlas for databases
• Configure log drains for production logging

5. Deployment to AWS

EC2 Deployment

1. Launch EC2 instance (Ubuntu recommended)
2. Install Node.js, PM2, NGINX
3. Clone your repository
4. Configure NGINX as reverse proxy: server { listen 80; server_name yourdomain.com; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:3000; 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; } }
5. Set up SSL with Let’s Encrypt

Elastic Beanstalk

1. Install EB CLI
2. Initialize EB: eb init -p node.js my-app
3. Create environment: eb create my-app-env
4. Configure .ebextensions: # .ebextensions/nodecommand.config option_settings: aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs: NodeCommand: "npm start"
5. Deploy: eb deploy

6. Serverless Deployment

AWS Lambda with API Gateway

// serverless.yml
service: my-node-app

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs14.x
  region: us-east-1

functions:
  app:
    handler: app.handler
    events:
      - http: ANY /
      - http: ANY /{proxy+}

# Install Serverless Framework
npm install -g serverless

# Deploy
sls deploy

Vercel Deployment

1. Install Vercel CLI
2. Create vercel.json: { "version": 2, "builds": [ { "src": "app.js", "use": "@vercel/node" } ], "routes": [ { "src": "/(.*)", "dest": "app.js" } ] }
3. Deploy: vercel --prod

7. Zero-Downtime Deployments

Blue-Green Deployment

1. Maintain two identical production environments
2. Deploy new version to inactive environment
3. Test new version thoroughly
4. Switch traffic to new environment
5. Keep old environment for rollback

PM2 Graceful Reload

# Install PM2 module for graceful reloads
pm2 install pm2-intercom

# Reload application with zero downtime
pm2 reload app

# Or with cluster mode
pm2 reload app --update-env

Next: Performance Optimization →

Deployment Checklist

• ✅ Environment variables properly set
• ✅ Database connection configured
• ✅ Process manager running
• ✅ Reverse proxy/load balancer configured
• ✅ SSL certificates installed
• ✅ Monitoring and alerts set up
• ✅ Backup strategy in place