Run a node.js app with lighttpd

lighttpdnode.js

I'm currently hosting some websites on my server, and I use Lighttpd for this.

Now I'm currently developing a web application using Node.js and I'd like to be able to create vhosts which would point to the Node.js application.

Let's say, I'd like test.com:80 to point out to myserver.org:3000. I don't believe it is possible to directly use Node.js for this since the port 80 is already registered on the machine. So the only way I'm seeing is using some kind of reversed proxy with Lighttpd. But I don't know how and with what I'm going to do so.

Best Answer

Make sure you enable lighttpd's mod_proxy first. To have all of the requests for test.com sent to the Node.js backend (assuming it's on localhost; correct?):

$HTTP["host"] == "test.com" {
  proxy.server  = ( "" => (
    ( "host" => "127.0.0.1", "port" => 3000 )
  ) )
}

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Nginx – Why is Nginx more popular than lighttpd

I'm a current nginx user and previous lighttpd user and I can only echo the stability issue. Furthermore nginx has active development and often sees a new version released every couple of weeks with new features or minor bug fixes. The configuration file is also quite clear and very powerful once you learn the nginx way of doing things.

Vps – Problems with running a node.js application using mongoDB on a VPS running CentOS

Seems like you're starting the mongod as unprivileged user, so it can't open the logfile. You should run the mongod service as a system service and then provide access to users (check db.addUser documentation).

To run Node.js in production it's better suggested to use some facility like https://github.com/nodejitsu/forever and then proxy requests through a proxy. You can do with Apache, so set it to listen your index.html to another port, say 8080 in ports.conf

    Listen 8080

and add a virtual to redirect to your app at 80, something like:

    <VirtualHost you.example.com:80>
        ProxyRequests off

        <Proxy *>
           Order deny,allow
           Allow from all
        </Proxy>
        <Location />
            ProxyPass http://localhost:3000/
            ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:3000/
        </Location>
    </VirtualHost>

Maybe you could lose some pure Node performances as well with this set up, so have a look to https://github.com/nodejitsu/node-http-proxy also.

Best Answer

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