How to Configure NGINX on Ubuntu to Run a NodeJS Web Server?

Photo by Gabriel Heinzer on Unsplash

In this tutorial, we will learn how to configure NGINX on Ubuntu to run a NodeJS web server. NGINX is a popular web server that is used to serve web content. It is fast, reliable, and secure. It can also be used as a reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, and other protocols.

You might require the above setup while trying to run a web server on an AWS EC2 instance.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you’ll need the following:

• A Ubuntu server with an SSH access
• NGINX installed
• Node.js installed. Refer to this guide if you want to use NVM for managing Node.JS version on your machine.

Step 1: Create a Node.js Application

First, create a sample Node.js application that will serve as the basis of your Node.js web server.

Create a new file called app.js and add the following code:

const http = require('http');
const port = 3000;

const requestHandler = (request, response) => {
    console.log(request.url);
    response.end('Hello Node.js Server!');
}

const server = http.createServer(requestHandler);

server.listen(port, (err) => {
    if (err) {
        return console.log('something bad…