Production Setup with Nginx

Nginx as a HTTP proxy

This is a common method to use NGINX as a HTTP proxy front of PM2. NGINX will allow to serve static files rapidly, manage the SSL protocol and redirect the traffic to your Node.js application.

Here is an example for a Node.js application listening on port 3001 and NGINX forwarding the traffic from port 443 (HTTPS) to 3001. This sample will also handle Websocket connections.

nginx.conf:

upstream my_nodejs_upstream { server 127.0.0.1:3001; keepalive 64; } server { listen 443 ssl; server_name www.my-website.com; ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/main.key; ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/main.crt; location / {	proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;	proxy_set_header Host $http_host;	proxy_http_version 1.1;	proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;	proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";	proxy_pass http://my_nodejs_upstream/;	proxy_redirect off;	proxy_read_timeout 240s; } } 

Learn more on these options on the Nginx docs! Once you have this, all you will need is a PM2-linked Node.js server running on the port 3001 and you’ll have a production-ready HTTP server!