This article describes how to install the Node.js platform on managed hosting accounts (please see the Article Details sidebar to the right for a complete list of supported products). You can use Node.js to host third-party applications like the popular Ghost blogging platform, or you can run your own applications.
There are two prerequisites for running Node.js on a managed hosting account:
echo $SHELL
If your account is using jailshell, please open a support ticket on the Customer Portal at https://berlin.hosting and request normal shell access for your account.
Node.js currently only works on servers running CentOS 6. To determine the CentOS version on your server, log in to your account using SSH, and then type the following command:
uname -r
If the output from this command contains el6 (for example, 2.6.32-531.17.1.lve1.2.60.el6.x86_64), then your server is running CentOS 6. However, if you see el5h (for example, 2.6.32-531.23.3.lve1.2.66.el5h.x86_64), then your server is running CentOS 5 and does not support Node.js. Please open a support ticket on the Customer Portal at https://berlin.hosting to discuss server migration options.
After you determine that your account meets the installation prerequisites, you can download and install Node.js and npm (the Node.js package manager). To do this, follow these steps:
cd ~ wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v4.4.1/node-v4.4.1-linux-x64.tar.xz
To extract the Node.js files, type the following command:
tar xvf node-v4.4.1-linux-x64.tar.xz
To rename the extracted folder to the more convenient nodejs name, type the following command:
mv node-v4.4.1-linux-x64 nodejs
To install the node and npm binaries, type the following commands:
mkdir ~/bin cp nodejs/bin/node ~/bin cd ~/bin ln -s ../nodejs/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js npm
After you run these commands, Node.js and npm are installed on your account. To verify this, type the following commands:
node --version npm --version
After you install Node.js, you are ready to run Node.js applications. However, the exact steps to do this vary depending on the application configuration.
Many third-party and “production-ready” applications (such as Ghost) use the npm program to start the application, as shown by the following command:
nohup npm start --production &
For this method to work, there must be a valid package.json file for the application. The package.json file contains project metadata that the npm program reads to determine how to start the application, manage its dependencies, and more.
For simple applications, or for any application that does not have a package.json file, you can run the node executable directly and specify the application filename. For example:
nohup node my_app.js &
However, you lose the benefits of using npm to manage the application.
To stop a currently running Node.js application, type the following command:
pkill node
This command immediately stops all running Node.js applications.
Depending on the type of Node.js application you are running, you may want to be able to access it using a web browser. To do this, you need to select an unused port for the Node.js application to listen on, and then define server rewrite rules that redirect visitors to the application. The following steps demonstrate how to do this:
RewriteEngine On RewriteRule ^$ http://127.0.0.1:XXXXX/ [P,L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://127.0.0.1:XXXXX/$1 [P,L]
In both RewriteRule lines, replace XXXXX with the port on which your Node.js application listens.
Save the changes to the .htaccess file, and then exit the text editor. Visitors to your web site are redirected to the Node.js application listening on the specified port.
For more information about Node.js, please visit http://nodejs.org.