Deploying Full-Stack Apps to AWS: Production Guide

Why AWS?

Vercel and Netlify are amazing. But eventually, you might need:

1. Cost Control: EC2 Spot instances are cheaper at scale.
2. Long-Running Processes: WebSockets, Cron Jobs, Worker Threads.
3. VPC Isolation: Enterprise-grade security.

This guide takes a Next.js/Node.js app and puts it on a dedicated Ubuntu server.

Step 1: Network Setup (VPC)

We need a secure house for our server.

1. Create a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud).
2. Create an Internet Gateway (IGW) so outside traffic can get in.
3. Create a Security Group (Firewall):
   • Allow SSH (Port 22) - Your IP Only.
   • Allow HTTP (Port 80) - Anywhere.
   • Allow HTTPS (Port 443) - Anywhere.

Step 2: The Application Server (EC2)

1. Launch an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS instance (t3.micro is fine for free tier).
2. SSH into the machine: ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@1.2.3.4
3. Install Node.js:

   curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
   sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Step 3: Database Setup (RDS)

Never run a database on the same EC2 instance as your app in production. If the app crashes the server, you lose DB access. Using AWS RDS (Relational Database Service) handles backups and patching for you.

1. Create PostgreSQL database.
2. Set connectivity to Private Subnet (secure).
3. Whitelisting: Only allow connections from your EC2 Security Group.

Step 4: Configuring Nginx Reverse Proxy

We don't want to expose Node (Port 3000) directly to the web. Nginx is faster, handles SSL, and buffers attacks.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;
 
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Restart Nginx: sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 5: Process Management with PM2

If your app crashes, who restarts it? PM2.

sudo npm install pm2 -g
pm2 start npm --name "nextdb-app" -- start
pm2 startup
pm2 save

Now your app survives server reboots.

Step 6: SSL Security (Certbot)

Never ship HTTP. It hurts SEO and is insecure.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d api.yourdomain.com

Certbot will automatically edit your Nginx config to force HTTPS.

Conclusion

You have graduated from PaaS to IaaS. You now own your infrastructure. You can scale vertically (bigger EC2) or horizontally (Auto Scaling Groups) as your SaaS grows.