deployment

initial set up

get node

wget -qO- https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

configure apache to reverse proxy to back and front of tax

see the file conf/etc/apache2/sites-available/tax.example.com.conf for example apache configuration.

configure the back and front together

cd tax/front/
sudo cp \
     conf/etc/apache2/sites-available/tax.example.com.conf \
     /etc/apache2/sites-available/tax.example.com.conf

edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/tax.example.com.conf. make sure to set

SSLCertificateFile /path/to/your/fullchain.pem

and

SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/your/privkey.pem

then enable the site and make apache read the new configuration

sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http
sudo a2ensite tax.example.com
sudo systemctl restart apache2

if you want to test locally, you can temporarily modify your local /etc/hosts to add lines to redirect tax.example.com to apache on your machine

# testing tax.example.com locally before deploying
127.0.0.1 tax.example.com
::1 tax.example.com

install server packages

cd tax/front
sudo npm install -y pm2 -g
npm install
npm run build
pm2 start server.js --name "tax-front"

# browse to tax.example.com to see if it works

# the output of this might tell you to do something different than the
# next command
pm2 startup systemd

# the output of the prior command might give a different command than
# the following command.  if it does, use that instead.
sudo env \
     PATH=$PATH:/home/user/.config/nvm/versions/node/v18.20.5/bin \
     /usr/local/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 \
     startup systemd \
     -u user \
     --hp /home/user
# it might look like this on the server
sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin \
     /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd \
     -u user \
     --hp /home/user

recurring for every deployment update

build the front end

cd tax/front
git pull
npm install
npm run build
pm2 restart tax-front

maintenance

useful pm2 commands

pm2 list           # List applications
pm2 restart tax-app  # Restart application
pm2 logs           # View logs
pm2 monit          # Monitor CPU/Memory

start as a service

could i turn this into a service file with systemd?

should i turn this into a service file with systemd?

is it possible to tell pm2 to start the service on system boot?

is it possible to have the user “do.each.tax” run this using pm2?

“do.each.tax” is the name of a system user i just made for running the back end.

You can definitely turn your Node.js application into a systemd service instead of using PM2, but PM2 already provides its own integration with systemd that you’ve partially configured in your deployment instructions.

To answer your questions:

PM2 startup on system boot: You’re already on the right track with the pm2 startup systemd command. This creates a systemd service that starts PM2 on boot, which in turn starts your application.
Running as user “do.each.tax”: Yes, you can have PM2 run your application as a specific user. Modify your PM2 startup command to:

sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin \
     /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd \
     -u do.each.tax \
     --hp /home/do.each.tax

Then, you’ll need to:

# Switch to the do.each.tax user
sudo su - do.each.tax

# Navigate to your application directory
cd /path/to/tax/front

# Start the application with PM2
pm2 start server.js --name "tax-front"

# Save the PM2 process list
pm2 save

This will ensure that PM2 runs your application as the do.each.tax user when the system boots.

i already did some stuff with pm2. how do i make sure i’m only running this once with pm2? i used the user “ozzloy” to run it before. can i list what stuff pm2 is currently doing?

when i run

pm2 start server.js --name "tax-front"

as the user do.each.tax, does that mean it will start on boot in the future?

To manage your PM2 instances effectively:

List current PM2 processes:
```
pm2 list
    
```
This will show all applications managed by PM2 for the current user.
To avoid running duplicate instances, first check if “tax-front” is already running:
```
pm2 list
    
```
If it’s already running, you can stop it or delete it:
```
pm2 stop tax-front
pm2 delete tax-front
    
```
Regarding running as “do.each.tax” vs “ozzloy”:
- Each user has their own PM2 daemon
- If you want to migrate from ozzloy to do.each.tax:
  1. Stop and delete the process running as ozzloy
  2. Start it as do.each.tax
  3. Configure startup for do.each.tax

Starting on boot: Simply running pm2 start does NOT configure autostart on boot. For that, you need:

# As do.each.tax user
pm2 start server.js --name "tax-front"
pm2 save

# Then as root
sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin \
     /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd \
     -u do.each.tax \
     --hp /home/do.each.tax

The proper sequence to switch to do.each.tax would be:

Login as ozzloy and pm2 delete tax-front
Login as do.each.tax, start the app, save the PM2 config
Configure systemd to start do.each.tax’s PM2 on boot

explain this line

sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin \
     /usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 startup systemd \
     -u do.each.tax \
     --hp /home/do.each.tax

This command configures PM2 to start automatically at system boot through systemd. Here’s a breakdown:

sudo - Runs the command with root privileges, necessary for creating systemd services.
env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin - Sets the environment PATH variable to include /usr/bin (where Node.js and PM2 binaries are typically located).
/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 - The full path to the PM2 executable.
startup systemd - Tells PM2 to generate a systemd startup script.
-u do.each.tax - Specifies that PM2 should run as the user “do.each.tax”.
--hp /home/do.each.tax - Sets the home path of the user, where PM2 configuration files will be stored.

This command generates and installs a systemd service file that will automatically start PM2 (and consequently any apps saved in PM2’s configuration) when the system boots, running as the specified user.

use system user’s path, not my user’s path

i do not want this to use the path for the user ozzloy, i want it to use the path for the user do.each.tax

[PM2] To setup the Startup Script, copy/paste the following command: sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin pm2 startup systemd -u do.each.tax –hp /var/www/tax.each.do do.each.tax@each:~/front$ sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin pm2 startup systemd -u do.each.tax –hp /var/www/tax.each.do [sudo] password for do.each.tax: sudo: a password is required do.each.tax@each:~/front$ ^C do.each.tax@each:~/front$ exit logout ozzloy@each:~$ sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin pm2 startup systemd -u do.each.tax –hp /var/www/tax.each.do [PM2] Init System found: systemd Platform systemd Template [Unit] Description=PM2 process manager Documentation=https://pm2.keymetrics.io/ After=network.target

[Service] Type=forking User=do.each.tax LimitNOFILE=infinity LimitNPROC=infinity LimitCORE=infinity Environment=PATH=/home/ozzloy/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims:/home/ozzloy/.pyenv/shims:/home/ozzloy/.pyenv/bin:/home/ozzloy/.local/bin:/home/ozzloy/.pyenv/plugins/pyenv-virtualenv/shims:/home/ozzloy/.pyenv/bin:/home/ozzloy/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin Environment=PM2_HOME=/var/www/tax.each.do/.pm2 PIDFile=/var/www/tax.each.do/.pm2/pm2.pid Restart=on-failure

ExecStart=/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 resurrect ExecReload=/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 reload all ExecStop=/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/bin/pm2 kill

[Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

Target path /etc/systemd/system/pm2-do.each.tax.service Command list [ ‘systemctl enable pm2-do.each.tax’ ] [PM2] Writing init configuration in /etc/systemd/system/pm2-do.each.tax.service [PM2] Making script booting at startup… [PM2] [-] Executing: systemctl enable pm2-do.each.tax… Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pm2-do.each.tax.service → /etc/systemd/system/pm2-do.each.tax.service. [PM2] [v] Command successfully executed. ~~---------------------------------------~~ [PM2] Freeze a process list on reboot via: $ pm2 save

[PM2] Remove init script via: $ pm2 unstartup systemd

In the provided output, the issue is that when you run the sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin pm2 startup command as the user ozzloy, it’s using ozzloy’s PATH environment variable in the systemd service file configuration instead of do.each.tax’s PATH.

To fix this, you need to explicitly set the PATH for do.each.tax. You can modify the service file directly:

Edit the service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pm2-do.each.tax.service

Change the Environment=PATH= line to use a standard system path or do.each.tax’s path instead of ozzloy’s path:

Environment=PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin

After editing, reload systemd:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

This will ensure the service uses a system path rather than ozzloy’s user-specific path.

is it necessary to update sudoers for pm2?

this is the file /etc/sudoers.d/do-each-tax

do.each.tax ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl restart tax-back do.each.tax ALL=NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl restart tax-front

in order for the service file to work?

The /etc/sudoers.d/do-each-tax file you’ve shown is not necessary for the PM2 systemd service to work properly. These sudoers entries would only be needed if:

You’re using scripts where the do.each.tax user explicitly needs to run sudo systemctl restart tax-back or sudo systemctl restart tax-front without a password prompt.
You have separate systemd services named tax-back and tax-front (different from your PM2 setup).

For your PM2 setup:

The PM2 service itself runs as do.each.tax user through systemd
PM2 manages your Node.js applications directly
The systemd service (pm2-do.each.tax.service) doesn’t require sudo privileges once it’s set up

If you’re planning to use scripts where do.each.tax needs to restart services via sudo, keep the file. Otherwise, it’s not required for the PM2 startup configuration you’ve established.

To restart your applications, do.each.tax would use PM2 commands directly without sudo:

pm2 restart tax-front

can i just skip pm2 and create a systemd service to run server.js

i want to create a systemd service that runs server.js as the user do.tax.each and forget about pm2

Yes, you can absolutely create a direct systemd service for your Node.js application without using PM2. This is a cleaner approach if you don’t need PM2’s additional features like process monitoring or clustering.

Here’s how to create a systemd service for server.js:

Create a new systemd service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/tax-front.service

Add the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Tax Front-end Node.js Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=do.each.tax
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/tax.each.do/front
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /var/www/tax.each.do/front/server.js
Restart=on-failure
# Optional: Environment variables if needed
# Environment=NODE_ENV=production
# Set appropriate node memory limits
Environment=NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=2048

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable tax-front
sudo systemctl start tax-front

Check the status:

sudo systemctl status tax-front

If you were using PM2 before, you can remove it from autostart:

sudo systemctl disable pm2-do.each.tax
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/pm2-do.each.tax.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

This approach is much more straightforward than using PM2 if you don’t need its advanced features. Your application will start automatically on boot and will restart if it crashes.

what’s currently using port 8082 and 3000 and how do i kill it?

To check what’s using ports 8082 and 3000, you can use:

lsof -i :8082
lsof -i :3000

To kill the processes:

# If you know the PID from the lsof output
kill <PID>
# Or more forcefully
kill -9 <PID>

# Or directly using the port
fuser -k 8082/tcp
fuser -k 3000/tcp

here’s what i get for lsof:

ozzloy@each:~$ lsof -i :8082 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME gunicorn 3770287 ozzloy 5u IPv6 7397592 0t0 TCP *:8082 (LISTEN) gunicorn 3770311 ozzloy 5u IPv6 7397592 0t0 TCP *:8082 (LISTEN) ozzloy@each:~$ lsof -i :3000 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME node\x20/ 3772073 ozzloy 19u IPv6 7400658 0t0 TCP *:3000 (LISTEN)

You have two processes to kill:

A gunicorn web server on port 8082 (parent process 3770287)
A Node.js application on port 3000 (process 3772073)

You can kill them using:

# Kill the gunicorn parent process (this should also terminate the child)
kill 3770287
# Or forcefully if needed: kill -9 3770287

# Kill the Node.js process
kill 3772073
# Or forcefully if needed: kill -9 3772073

Then verify they’re gone with lsof -i :8082 and lsof -i :3000 again.

here’s what that got me

ozzloy@each:~$ kill 3770287 ozzloy@each:~$ kill 3772073 ozzloy@each:~$ lsof -i :8082 ozzloy@each:~$ lsof -i :3000 COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME node\x20/ 560320 ozzloy 19u IPv6 8983903 0t0 TCP *:3000 (LISTEN)

It looks like the gunicorn process was successfully killed, but a new Node.js process has started on port 3000. This may indicate that you have some service or auto-restart mechanism launching Node.js applications.

Try killing this new process with:

kill -9 560320

If it keeps coming back, you might need to:

Find what’s restarting it (systemd service, pm2, nodemon, etc.)

Stop the parent service:

# If it's a systemd service
sudo systemctl stop service-name

# If it's pm2
pm2 stop all  # or specific app name

Check running services in your user space that might be responsible for the auto-restart.

oh yeah, i have pm2 running the front

ozzloy@each:~$ pm2 list ┌────┬──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────────┬────────┬──────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐ │ id │ name │ namespace │ version │ mode │ pid │ uptime │ ↺ │ status │ cpu │ mem │ user │ watching │ ├────┼──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────────┼────────┼──────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤ │ 0 │ tax-front │ default │ 0.0.0 │ fork │ 560320 │ 71s │ 1 │ online │ 0% │ 51.8mb │ ozzloy │ disabled │ └────┴──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────┴──────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘ ozzloy@each:~$

Perfect! Now you can stop the Node.js application using pm2:

pm2 stop tax-front

If you want to completely remove it from pm2’s process list (so it won’t restart when pm2 restarts):

pm2 delete tax-front

This should properly stop the application running on port 3000. Verify it’s no longer running with lsof -i :3000 afterward.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 107 Commits
conf/etc/apache2/sites-available		conf/etc/apache2/sites-available
public		public
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
.prettierrc		.prettierrc
deploy.bash		deploy.bash
eslint.config.js		eslint.config.js
index.html		index.html
note.org		note.org
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
readme.org		readme.org
server.js		server.js
vite.config.js		vite.config.js

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Repository files navigation

deployment

initial set up

get node

configure apache to reverse proxy to back and front of tax

configure the back and front together

install server packages

recurring for every deployment update

build the front end

maintenance

useful pm2 commands

start as a service

explain this line

use system user’s path, not my user’s path

is it necessary to update sudoers for pm2?

can i just skip pm2 and create a systemd service to run server.js

what’s currently using port 8082 and 3000 and how do i kill it?

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Repository files navigation

deployment

initial set up

get node

configure apache to reverse proxy to back and front of tax

configure the back and front together

install server packages

recurring for every deployment update

build the front end

maintenance

useful pm2 commands

start as a service

explain this line

use system user’s path, not my user’s path

is it necessary to update sudoers for pm2?

can i just skip pm2 and create a systemd service to run server.js

what’s currently using port 8082 and 3000 and how do i kill it?

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