How does Node.js and Nginx work together on server?

Nginx works as a front end server, which in this case proxies the requests to a node.js server. Therefore we need to setup an nginx config file for node.

This is how I have done in Unbuntu:

Create the file yourdomain at /etc/nginx/sites-available/ :

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain

In it you should have somethign like:

# the IP(s) on which your node server is running. I chose port 3000.
upstream app_yourdomain {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
    keepalive 8;
}
 
# the nginx server instance
server {
    listen 0.0.0.0:80;
   server_name yourdomain.com yourdomain;
   access_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain.log;
 
   # pass the request to the node.js server with the correct headers
   # and much more can be added, see nginx config options
   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_yourdomain/;
     proxy_redirect off;
   }
}

If you want nginx (>= 1.3.13) to handle websocket requests as well, add the following lines in the location / section:

proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

Once you have this setup you must enable the site defined in the config file above:

 
cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ 
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain yourdomain

Create your node server app at /var/www/yourdomain/app.js and run it at localhost:3000

var http = require('http');
 
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(3000, "127.0.0.1");
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/');

Restart Nginx:

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Lastly start the node server:

cd /var/www/yourdomain/ && node app.js

Now you should see "Hello World" at yourdomain.com

References & Resources

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