Node.js VPS - Getting Started Guide

Software Included

Component	Version
Ubuntu	24.04 LTS
Node.js	22.x LTS
npm	10.x
PM2	6.x
git	2.43
build-essential	gcc 13.3
Fail2Ban	1.0.2

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• An SSH client (Terminal on macOS/Linux, or PuTTY on Windows)

Step 1 - Get Your Server Credentials

Log in to your client panel and open your VPS service details. You will need:

• IP address of your server
• Root password

Step 2 - Connect via SSH

Open your terminal and connect to the server:

ssh root@your.server.ip

Enter the root password from your client panel when prompted.

Step 3 - Verify Installation

Check that Node.js and PM2 are installed:

node --version
npm --version
pm2 --version

Quick Start - Hello World

Create a simple HTTP server to test that everything works:

mkdir ~/myapp && cd ~/myapp

cat > app.js << 'EOF'
const http = require('http');
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  res.end('Hello from Node.js ' + process.version + '\n');
});
server.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server running on port 3000'));
EOF

node app.js

Open http://your.server.ip:3000 in your browser. You should see the greeting message. Press Ctrl+C to stop the server.

Deploy from Git Repository

Clone your project and install dependencies:

cd /root
git clone https://github.com/your-username/your-project.git
cd your-project
npm install

Why PM2?

Running node app.js directly stops the app when you close the terminal or if it crashes. PM2 keeps your application running in the background, restarts it on crash, and auto-starts it after server reboot.

Basic Commands

# Start your application
pm2 start app.js --name myapp

# View running applications
pm2 list

# View logs
pm2 logs myapp

# Restart application
pm2 restart myapp

# Stop application
pm2 stop myapp

# Remove application from PM2
pm2 delete myapp

Auto-Start on Reboot

PM2 is pre-configured to start on boot. After starting your apps, save the process list so they restart automatically after a server reboot:

pm2 save

Run pm2 save again whenever you add or remove applications.

Cluster Mode

PM2 can run multiple instances of your app to use all available CPU cores:

# Start with one instance per CPU core
pm2 start app.js -i max --name myapp

# Or specify the number of instances
pm2 start app.js -i 2 --name myapp

Monitoring

View real-time CPU and memory usage for your applications:

pm2 monit

Press Ctrl+C to exit the monitor.

Installing Packages

build-essential (gcc, g++, make) is pre-installed, so npm packages with native C/C++ addons will compile without issues:

npm install bcrypt
npm install sharp
npm install sqlite3

Setting Up a Reverse Proxy

To serve your app on port 80/443 with a domain name, install Nginx as a reverse proxy:

apt update && apt install -y nginx

cat > /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp << 'EOF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.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_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}
EOF

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

SSL with Let's Encrypt

After setting up Nginx with your domain, enable free HTTPS:

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

Certbot will automatically configure SSL and set up auto-renewal.

Fail2Ban - Brute-Force Protection

Your server comes with Fail2Ban pre-configured to protect SSH from brute-force attacks. After 5 failed login attempts, the IP is banned for 10 minutes.

Updates

To update Node.js to the latest LTS version:

# Update Node.js
apt update && apt install -y nodejs

# Update PM2
npm install -g pm2
pm2 update

# Update OS packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y

• Node.js Documentation: nodejs.org/en/docs
• PM2 Documentation: pm2.keymetrics.io/docs
• npm Documentation: docs.npmjs.com