Do I need a different server to run node.js

Question

sorry if this is a wrong question on this forum but I am simply just stuck and need some advice. I have a shared hosting service and a cloud based hosting server with node.js installed. I want to host my website as normal but I also want to add real time chat and location tracking using node.js I am confused with what I am reading in several places because node.js is itself a server but not designed to host websites? So I have to run 2 different servers? One for the website and one to run node.js? When I setup the cloud one with a node.js script running I can no longer access the webpages.

Whats the best way for me achieve this as I am just going round in circles. Also is there a way I can set up a server on my PC and run and test both of these together before hand so I see what is needed and get it working as it will stop me ordering servers I dont need.

Many thanks for any help or advice.

Answer 1

Node can serve webpages using a framework like Express, but can cause conflicts if run on the same port as another webserver program (Apache, etc). One solution could be to serve your webpages through your webserver on port 80 (or 443 for HTTPS) and run your node server on a different port in order to send information back and forth.

Answer 2

There are a number of ways you can achieve this but here is one popular approach.

You can use NGINX as your front facing web server and proxy the requests to your backend Node service.

In NGINX, for example, you will configure your upstream service as follows:

upstream lucyservice {
  server 127.0.0.1:8000;
  keepalive 64;
}

The 8000 you see above is just an example, you may be running your Node service on a different port.

Further in your config (in the server config section) you will proxy the requests to your service as follows:

location / {
  proxy_pass http://lucyservice;
}

You're Node service can be running in a process manager like forever / pm2 etc. You can have multiple Node services running in a cluster depending on how many processors your machine has etc.

So to recap - your front facing web server will be handling all traffic on port 80 (HTTP) and or 443 (HTTPS) and this will proxy the requests to your Node service running on whatever port(s) you define. All of this can happen on one single server or multiple if you need / desire.