Best practices when running Node.js with port 80 (Ubuntu / Linode)

Give Safe User Permission To Use Port 80

Remember, we do NOT want to run your applications as the root user, but there is a hitch: your safe user does not have permission to use the default HTTP port (80). You goal is to be able to publish a website that visitors can use by navigating to an easy to use URL like http://ip:port/

Unfortunately, unless you sign on as root, you’ll normally have to use a URL like http://ip:port - where port number > 1024.

A lot of people get stuck here, but the solution is easy. There a few options but this is the one I like. Type the following commands:

sudo apt-get install libcap2-bin
sudo setcap cap_net_bind_service=+ep `readlink -f \`which node\``

Now, when you tell a Node application that you want it to run on port 80, it will not complain.

Check this reference link

Port 80

What I do on my cloud instances is I redirect port 80 to port 3000 with this command:

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3000

Then I launch my Node.js on port 3000. Requests to port 80 will get mapped to port 3000.

You should also edit your /etc/rc.local file and add that line minus the sudo. That will add the redirect when the machine boots up. You don't need sudo in /etc/rc.local because the commands there are run as root when the system boots.

Logs

Use the forever module to launch your Node.js with. It will make sure that it restarts if it ever crashes and it will redirect console logs to a file.

Launch on Boot

Add your Node.js start script to the file you edited for port redirection, /etc/rc.local. That will run your Node.js launch script when the system starts.

Digital Ocean & other VPS

This not only applies to Linode, but Digital Ocean, AWS EC2 and other VPS providers as well. However, on RedHat based systems /etc/rc.local is /ect/rc.d/local.