How to keep a server nodejs running permanently?

Question

I want to know how to maintain my server nodejs permanently running on my vps Ubuntu I bought without the need to run Putty and run the command node app.js. I made a REST API that will be consumed by a mobile application so the server should always be running.

Answer 1

You can use the nohup:

$ nohup node server.js > output.log &

This way, you can drop and the server will remain active.

---

To run "forever", I recommend using the Forever.

$ npm install forever
$ forever start server.js

To see the servers running, use the option list

$ forever list

The good thing about Forever is that it automatically restarts your server if, for some reason, it dies.

For more details, see this link (in English).

Answer 2

Redirect the stream to a log file

node app.js > log.txt &

To make it even better, create a service to start the api: http://comofoiquefiz.blogspot.com.br/2011/11/como-adicionar-um-servico-no-ubuntu.html

Answer 3

You can make a cron that runs a python file that will keep your application running at all times. The good thing about using cron is that it will ensure that the Node server boots again.

Example of cron

*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/python /home/cron/vp.py

Example of Vp.py file

import os
import commands
saida = commands.getoutput('ps -A')

# verifica se existe o node nos processos retornados por ps -A
if 'node' in saida:
        pass
        # print "Node em execucao..."
else:
        # se nao existe, entao executa o servidor node em segundo plano...
        os.system('node /usr/bin/server_chat.js &')

If you want, it is interesting to put in this python file to generate logs of when Node is initialized.