Run Node.js as a Service on Ubuntu

Cool article Kevin, glad you published this : )!

If you just need something slightly better than \"node ./yourprogram.js &\", because you might just be doing a long running job, you can type in \"screen\" and then execute \"node ./yourprogram.js\" in the new terminal that opens. Screen sessions don\'t die if you log out, and you can even re-attach them using \"screen -r\" when you login the next time.

@ Felix Geisendörfer: Thanks for adding some sugar to the post! While screen won\'t give you healthchecks, or come online when your server recovers from a crash, it\'s definitely another great tool in our arsenal!

@Felix: also, if you want to run a script in background, and not link it to your session (so if you logout it doesnt die), use nohup:

$ nohup script &

@ Mariano Iglesias: Hey. That\'s a trick I didn\'t know yet, thanks a lot Mariano!

Useful stuff, thanx :)

thanks for the writeup!

for some reason, on 8.10 i had to put the conf file in /etc/event.d for initctl to find it...

@ jz: Correct, I actually had to change it from /etc/event.d to /etc/init/ when we upgraded to Karmic. It looked as if they were going to stick with /etc/init in the long run though, so be prepared to change it back at one point ;)

Thanks for this, worked like a charm.

The only thing I had to change was that I change to the directory containing my .js file before launching node. For whatever reason, I otherwise have trouble loading static files into my node.js app.

Cheers!

@ George: Cool thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the write up!

Hey guys did you manage to run a real-world program? Mine requires a library with a relative path so I can\'t call it from anywhere (like, node /path/to/my.js).

I either need to cd /path/to && node my.js , or use chdir - but none has worked for me. Any ideas?

I was being a bit silly, I fixed my program to be executable from an absolute path.

I copy-pasted the example, only replacing /where/yourprogram.js for my program - but after \"sudo start myprogram\" it must crash. Nothing is logged. Using upstart 0.6.3-11 on karmic.

@ Francisco: Did you get it working? As for the real-world program, here it is: http://transloadit.com/

[CODE=\"text\"] node ./yourprogram.js | tee -a node.log & [/CODE]

For whatever reasons I cannot make it work. My program doesn\'t seem to run in the same environment and path.exists returns errors when node is launched via initctl.
I checked the require.paths array and it is exactly the same whether I run directly node app.js or if I do \"start node\".

I also tried to to run \"env\" before (sudo -u myuser env /usr/local/bin/node /path/app.js ...) but doesn\'t help.

I run out of ideas. Thanks for your support.

@ AFire: Read more carefully. The first message your script sends to STDERR, and your terminal is closed, your script is killed. But you\'ve probably figured that out, or resorted to using monit by now.

@ Xavier: The same way that I:
export HOME=\"/root\"

You could export your PATH as well if that\'s required.
so first echo $PATH, and put that in there

Thanks Kevin! This is exactly what I needed.

copy-pasted the example, only replacing /where/yourprogram.js for my program - but after "sudo start myprogram" it must crash. Nothing is logged. Using upstart 0.6.3-11 on karmic.

@ hellcats: well try debugging it a little.
what happens when you just run

/usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js 2>&1 >> /var/log/node.log

what about:

/usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js ?

Awesome tutorial, thank you, works really well!

Clear and to the point :)
As a complement for users who like it the init.d way :
https://gist.github.com/715255

This is what I have been looking for! Thanks for this helpful tutorial!

@ peter host: Thanks for sharing. Keep in mind upstart will replace init.d in the long run though.

Should it be:

exec /usr/local/bin/node /where/yourprogram.js >>/var/log/node.log 2>&1

instead? The original version does not save exceptions to the log file.

Thanks for the init.d version, Peter!

For anyone (like me) running a server on an older distro release, using Upstart is either not possible, impractical, or overkill when you already have init.d.

And for anyone (again, like me) running a server on a new distro, you're at least as likely to have systemd (which will replace Upstart in the long run) available to you as you are Upstart.

I think I'll stick with good ol' init.d (which is available & highly compatible on every distro I've installed) until the distros figure this out ;)

@ Eran Hammer-Lahav: Thanks, changed it.

@ Joey: Sure : ) I just like how small upstart scripts can be and that it can resuscitate crashed programs.

Simply awesome, thanks for the upstart info. Being able to 'restart node-app' is just bloody awesome.

Thanks,
Aaron

Great write-up on getting upstart working. For those who want to have node processes persist after they close the terminal without upstart, you could use nohup:

[CODE="text"]nohup node script.js > /dev/null[/CODE]

i can't seem to get this to work correctly. I have always type in `sudo start myapp` in order for this to start. So when i reboot my server, this script does not fire at all. I actually changed the user:group to my www-data:www-data user/group, and gave the file permissions of 774. but even with that, i still need to run sudo to get the file to start. any clues on what else i may be able to do to get this to start on server reboot?

Thanks a Lot. I was looking for an elegant solution to that problem.

hermanjunge

Just a note that I followed your directions on Ubuntu 11.04 and everything worked except for on reboot.

With some research I ended up modifying this line to get it working:

from: start on started mountall
tp: start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE=eth0)

I guess, the internet wasn't ready when the script was executing.

Cheers,

Mauvis

Works like a charm !

Claude Hussenet

Hi,

First i would like to say that this works really great as is. Thanks a lot!
Now I've tried to use the upstart script with a static file server I've created with node.js
When I run it from the terminal: node main.js everything works fine in the browser. The issue occurs when i start my server as a daemon, start app, nothing appears in the browser.

I'm starting on node.js and i love the platform, so is this a misconception on my end? I would love to get your input on this.

Thanks again!

Do you think this could work on CentOs?

[CODE="Javascript"]
your_code_here();
[/CODE]

100% perfect!

Hi.
I have seen your presentation nodejs-in-production on slideshare.
My question is: Why do you serve only a part of the site on node.js? I would have thought that node.js could handle it all and that the ngix/php bit would go away.

Thanks.

Arcadius.

Won't be a problem to daemonize nodejs like this ? AFAIK a daemon needs two forks. Doing : [CODE="text"] nodejs ./path/code.js & [/CODE]
would only fork it once if memory serves well. The daemon might still take terminal control! no ?

Thanks for sharing your wisdom! I've used your example in combination with 'forever' to keep everything running smoothly, as explained on SO:

http://stackoverflow.com/qu...