How do I make my server application run on an EC2 instance?

Question

I developed a Java server (using Spring) and uploaded the final executable JAR to an EC2 instance using FileZilla. Now I want it to run.

I've connected via SSH and used java -jar server.jar to run my server, and it worked (I've tried accessing it). However once the SSH connection is closed the server obviously stops running as well.

How can I start my application in such a way so it keeps running?

Edit: Using the command screen explained here I was able to run it in background and so it keeps running.

Answer 1

The issue is not cloud dependent its the configuration you have to do to run your jar as a service in your system. If you are using Elastic Bean Stalk change systemctl to initctl in below example.

1. Put the script commands you wish to run in /usr/bin/demoscript.sh
2. Remember to make the script executable with chmod +x.
3. Create the following file:

/usr/lib/systemd/system/demo.service

[Unit]
Description=Demo Script

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/demoscript.sh

4. Reload the systemd service files: systemctl daemon-reload
5. Check that it is working with systemctl start demo

Answer 2

You need to make it run as daemon process in linux.

There are many tutorial / templates available to create a daemon shell script. Quick google search shows github has many templates, so check them out.

Answer 3

You could try using systemd which is a Linux service manager. You can use it to run your service in the background.

To do that you need to first create a unit file that describes how systemd should manage your service (more info here ).

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/your-application.service

Your file might look something like this

[Unit]
Description=Java Application as a Service
[Service]
User=ec2-user
#change this directory into your workspace
#mkdir workspace 
WorkingDirectory=/home/ec2-user/workspace
#path to the executable bash script which executes the jar file
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/ec2-user/workspace/your-script.sh
SuccessExitStatus=143
TimeoutStopSec=10
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then in your home directory /home/ec2-user/workspace you can create the bash script that will run your java application.

sudo nano your-script.sh

Your script might look like this

#!/bin/sh
java -jar your-application.jar

All you need to do then is start the service with the command

sudo systemctl enable your-application.service
sudo systemctl start your-application.service