Amazon Web Services (AWS) "Elastic Compute Cloud" provides low cost, instant on VMs that can be used to deploy any kind of service. AWS also provides a full set of APIs that make it possible to programatically allocate servers. Finally, AWS offers the ability to create "template" instances (Amazon Machine Images) that are VM snapshots.
The problem: For small scale nodejs projects, there's a lot of administrative boiler plate work that one must to set up a machine. You must install web server software, set up security policies and network access, copy up your keypair, determine how you'll deploy your software on the new VM, etc.
"Platform as a service" providers like heroku make most of these decisions for
you, providing a demand spun "vm-like" thing that you can deploy code on by
adhering to a couple conventions and git pushing. Where heroku breaks down
is in generativity - you are limited to doing things that heroku has thought
of, and when you want to do something custom (install a new native software
library, run an experimental database for which you cannot find a third party
hosted provider) - you are screwed.
Also, heroku is relatively expensive. The moment you want to run two processes, you're paying 0.05$/hr for that process vs. on aws where you can purchase a "micro" instance for 0.02$/hr for the whole VM. The final area of expense is in "add-ons" - service providers that offer things like hosted databases, email sending, etc. A small scale database can cost another .015$/hr.
But Wait! What about nodejitsu? Well, probably use them: they're awesome, smart, admirably share their work, have a free service for non-commercial deployments, and just work for most apps. But sometimes you might want full control. That you? Read on... (NOTE: awsbox is built on lots of nodejistu stuffs).
So what we maybe want is the convenience of Nodejitsu and Heroku, and the pricing and freedom of a raw amazon image...
The solution: awsbox is a set of nodejs scripts, a command line utility, and a template image (AMI). Together it allows you to deploy a new server from the command line that is pre-configured to run your Node.JS service.
- nodejs focused - While other stacks could be supported in the future, awsbox is laser focused on node.js to start.
- full root access - awsbox just gets you started, after that you can do Whatever You Want.
- magic ssh key config - Your SSH key will be copied up and installed for you.
- git push support - After you provision a vm, it's pre-configured so you can push to deploy
- multi-region support - awsbox base AMIs are published in every region AWS supports, so you can deploy anywhere.
- command line or programmatic usage - type at it, or script it.
- OS level user isolation - all deployed code is run with user permissions under a single account.
- HTTP forwarding with custom 503 page - nginx is pre-configured to forward requests to your nodejs process bound to a local port.
- SSL support - By default your process runs with a self-signed cert. Enabling SSL support is as easy as copying up a private key and certificate in PEM format.
- WebSocket support - AWSBOX fully supports WebSockets, via socket.io or otherwise.
- Route53 support - manage your DNS from the command line, and have DNS set up for your boxes at creation time.
Start by working through the tutorial. Then have a look at the Hello World sample app. And after that, check out the documentation in this repository.