How to deploy NextJS application to Linux Server (CentOS 7) - VPS

Question

I've got a question regarding building applications. I'm using simple VPS with node.js support. Now I do not know how to build my next.js application to production.

I want to deploy my application as static files.

I thought that I should use next build && next export then copy out dir to the server but during this process, I faced some issues - when I change route - everything is okay, but if I refresh the page - the page is not found because the server is looking for this file in directories. So how can I deploy my nextjs application in production mode with VPS server and static files?

I tried one thing which is not working fine probably or I did something wrong. I added nodejs express server with

const express = require('express');
const next = require('next');
const dev = process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production';

const app = next({dev});
const router = express.Router();
const handle = app.getRequestHandler();

app.prepare()
    .then(() => {

        const server = express();

        server.get('*', (req, res) => {
            return handle(req, res);
        });

        server.listen(3000, (err) => {
            if (err) throw err;
            console.log('> Ready on http://localhost:3000');
        });
    });

and start server with forever library NODE_ENV=production node server.js and it's working fine, but seems this is working in a wrong way - seems it's normal server like in dev mode - so it shouldn't be like that. (I see thunder icon on the right-bottom corner and I see all files which are same as in dev mode).

I want to deploy everything as static files.

Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

After you build and export you need to serve those files somehow. The reason the Express server works is because you are starting a HTTP server to serve the files.

So you need to serve those files either by using a static hosting provider (ie Vercel or Amazon S3). Otherwise you should start a server on your linux machine using something like serve to serve it at a port, similar to your Express server serving it as localhost:3000 which is then exposed on your VPS.