Setting up Node.js in nginx

Today I decided to test out Node.js (the trend in web tech) on nginx. Of course I googled it and found this link.

I already have nginx running on my server, so I did not have to install nginx again. Only pkgs that I needed were git-core and monit.

In the step 2: Packages at the site, it states:

apt-get install sudo vim-nox nginx ~~~

However, it needs to be this instead:

sudo apt-get install vim-nox nginx ~~~

In Step 3. once you get node.gif, from the current directory you need to cd to *node* directory.

*make* command took about 10 m.

*make install* threw out an error:

Cannot create folder ‘/usr/local/include/node/’ (original error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: ‘/usr/local/include/node/’)
make: *** [install] Error 1

So I had to *sudo make install* instead.

In the Step 4: Configure the Web Server. Since I am using port 80 as my own site, not proxy. So I changed the nginx conf file in a different way although all settings are very similar. I created another server setting that listens to port 8001 instead of 80 just for access to Node.js application from outside. By the way I have a file name as shinstudio.com for my own site nginx conf file. Additional conf settings that I added to shinstudio.com was:

upstream app_cluster_1 {
server 127.0.0.1:8000;
}
server {
listen 8001;
server_name www.shinstudio.com;
access_log /{my_site_directory}/log/node_access.log;
location / {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
proxy_pass http://app_cluster_1/;
proxy_redirect off;
}
}

Obviously I had to open port 8001 for my host.

When I run a node sample application, request from a browser to the app responds. So first step is success.

I will write about how I made the node app as daemon like service soon.

To be continued…

more references:

• http://howtonode.org/deploying-node-upstart-monit