Deploying a Node.js Express Project with DeployHQ

This guide will show you how to automate deployments of your Node.js Express project using DeployHQ.

Prerequisites:

A hosted server with Node.js and npm installed.
A Node.js Express project

DeployHQ Setup

Create a Project:

Sign up and log in to DeployHQ. Go to Projects > New Project. Follow the wizard to connect your project repository.

Server Configuration:

Go to Servers > New Server. Choose a name and select SSH as the protocol. Enter your server's IP address and username (usually deployhq). Enable Use SSH key rather than password for authentication?. On your server, run the following commands (replace deployhq with your username if different):

 sudo adduser deployhq
 sudo usermod -a -G www-data deployhq
 su - deployhq
 mkdir ~/.ssh
 chmod 700 ~/.ssh
 nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Paste DeployHQ's public key into the nano editor. Save (Ctrl+X, Y, then Enter). Set permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Set the Deployment Path to your project's directory (e.g., /var/www/your-app). Enable Perform zero-downtime deployments on this server (optional). Set the Environment to production and enable Automatically deploy. Save the server configuration.

Config Files (Optional):

Go to Config Files and add any sensitive files (e.g., .env) that you don't want in your repository.

SSH Commands:

Go to SSH Commands and add new commands:

Install Dependencies: cd %path% && npm install
Start Application: cd %path% && npm start (or your specific start command, maybe should be better to start it using pm2)

Deployment

Click Deploy Project in the header.
Select your server and deployment options.
Click Deploy to start the deployment process.

Congratulations! You've automated deployments for your Node.js Express project with DeployHQ.

If you’ve got any other projects you’d like to automate deployments for, we’ve written lots of guides for deploying the most popular application frameworks and content management systems.