node.js on EC2

These are the steps needed to manually setup node.js on an EC2 instance.

After you do the one-time setup on your computer (information below), you can use the provided shell scripts to setup and bundle a new instance.

• ec2-ubuntu - creates an ubuntu server on ec2

  ec2-ubuntu my-project

• ubuntu-node - sets up the server

  ssh my-project ec2-node/ubuntu-node my-project

• ec2-snapshot - snapshot the newly created server

  scp -r ~/.ec2 my-project: ssh my-project "bash ec2-node/ec2-snapshot my-project"

• ec2-node - for the truly lazy. Does the create, clone, setup and the bundle in one glorious command.

  ec2-node my-project

Both ubuntu-node and ec2-snapshot scripts expect you to already have cloned the ec2-node github repository to the server.

> ssh my-project "git clone [email protected]/fortnightlabs/ec2-node"

set up your computer

on your local machine

go to the amazon web interface

click on "Security Credentials" on the left

note your AWS_USER_ID (Account Number) in the upper right hand corner; note your AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY in the middle

edit ~/.ec2/aws-keys

> vi ~/.ec2/aws-keys

and save the information

export AWS_USER_ID=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=xXxXXXxxXXXxXxxxXxxXXXXxXxXXxXxXxxXXxXxX

create a new X.509 certificate, download the private key and certificate files, and then save the files in $HOME/.ec2/

> mv ~/Downloads/*.pem ~/.ec2/

note you must create a new certificate in order to download the private key. if you already have two X.509 certificates, Amazon will not show you the interface to create another one. you will have to delete one of your existing keys

setup permissions on ~/.ec2

chmod 0600 ~/.ec2/*
chmod 0700 ~/.ec2

if needed, install the tools for working with ec2

> brew install ec2-api-tools
> brew install ec2-ami-tools

add the following lines to your .bash_profile

export JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home"
export EC2_PRIVATE_KEY="$(/bin/ls $HOME/.ec2/pk-*.pem)"
export EC2_CERT="$(/bin/ls $HOME/.ec2/cert-*.pem)"
export EC2_AMITOOL_HOME="/usr/local/Cellar/ec2-ami-tools/1.3-45758/jars"
export EC2_HOME="/usr/local/Cellar/ec2-api-tools/1.3-62308/jars"
source $HOME/.ec2/aws-keys

open a new shell, or

> source ~/.bash_profile

if needed, create a new keypair for sever auth

> ec2-add-keypair ec2-node > ec2-node.pem
> chmod 0600 ec2-node.pem

copy that key to ~/.ec2/ as well

> cp ec2-node.pem ~/.ec2/

create the server

start-up a canonical provided ubuntu image (list of latest images available at: http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/release/), here's the choice I made

• us-east-1 - cheaper
• 32-bit - more compatible, small and micro require it
• ebs - simpler storage, micro requires it

note: we're setting up the instance on a small (rather than micro) platform because we need /mnt (not available on micro) to do the bundling. Once we have our new instance handy, we will move it to micro.

> ec2-ubuntu am1.small ami-1234de7b us-east-1

the script will create a new instance and wait until it's running by watching ec2-describe-instances for the string running

then the script will edit your ~/.ssh/config file to make it easy to ssh into the new instance

note: the HostName and HostKeyAlias will change based on the output provided by ec2-describe-instances.

Host my-project
  HostName ec2-67-202-82-82.compute-1.amazonaws.com
  HostKeyAlias ec2-67-202-82-82.compute-1.amazonaws.com
  User ubuntu
  ForwardAgent yes
  StrictHostKeyChecking no
  IdentityFile ~/.ec2/my-project.pem

now you can ssh into your instance

> ssh my-project

set up the server

on your local machine

copy the ubuntu-node script to the server

> scp ubuntu-node my-project:

and then run it

> ssh my-project "./ubuntu-node my-project"

the script will install useful utilities, then create an apps user for the code to be deployed under (the scripts assume a capistrano deployment strategy)

next, the script will set upstart to manage the node server process and setup the sudoer priviledges correctly so the app user can restart it.

finally, the script will install node.js and npm in the the /u/apps/.nodelocal directory

now, we use need to use capistrano to finish deploying the code

> export NODE_PROCESS="my-project"
> cap deploy:setup
> cap deploy:update
> cap deploy:start

you can now visit http://ec2-67-202-82-82.compute-1.amazonaws.com (the domain will be different) to make sure it works

deploying the instance

going forward, you can simply deploy the instance with capistrano

> NODE_PROCESS="my-project" cap deploy

note you really should copy the provided Capfile into your project directory and change #{ENV['NODE_PROCESS']} to your application name ("my-project" in these examples)

bundle the instance

on your local machine

copy your keys to the newly created server

> scp -r ~/.ec2 my-project:

then, copy the ec2-snapshot script to the server

> scp ec2-snapshot my-project:

finally run the snapshot script

> ssh my-project "bash ec2-node/ec2-snapshot my-project"

the snapshot script will run ec2-describe-instances to find out information about the instance

then it will run ec2-describe-volumes to find the volume that the instance is using

next it will create a snapshot of the volume with ec2-create-snapshot

it will wait until the snapshot is completely by periodically checking with ec2-describe-snapshots

when it finishes, the script will register the snapshot as an AMI with amazon

> ec2-register                      \
  --name my-project                 \
  --snapshot snap-1234abcde         \
  --kernel aki-1234abc              \  # from ec2-describe-instances
  --architecture i386               \
  --root-device-name /dev/sda1

after the image is registered, you will see output like ami-1234de7b

create a new instance from the AMI

Just run the ami identified in the output from the above step with ec2-run-instances. It should be all set-up and ready to go.

> ec2-run-instances ami-98c035f1 --instance-type t1.micro --key ec2-node

A list of --instance-type options is available at http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/DeveloperGuide/