How to Deploy a NestJS Application to AWS: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Deploying a NestJS application to AWS ensures scalability, reliability, and global availability. AWS offers multiple services that you can leverage for deployment, such as EC2, Elastic Beanstalk, and AWS Lambda. This guide walks you through deploying a NestJS app using an EC2 instance for maximum control over the deployment process.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

A NestJS application ready for deployment.
An AWS account.
Basic knowledge of AWS services like EC2 and Route 53.
Installed AWS CLI on your local machine.

1. Setting Up Your NestJS Application

Build Your NestJS App

Ensure your application is production-ready by building it:

npm run build

Configure the Environment

Create a .env file for environment-specific variables:

PORT=3000
DATABASE_URL=your-database-url

Package Your App

Compress your application for easy transfer:

zip -r nestjs-app.zip .

2. Preparing the AWS Environment

Launching an EC2 Instance

Log in to the AWS Management Console.
Navigate to EC2 and click on Launch Instance.
Configure the following:
- AMI: Choose Amazon Linux 2 or Ubuntu.
- Instance Type: Select t2.micro (free-tier eligible).
- Key Pair: Generate a new key pair or utilize an existing one to securely enable SSH access to your instance.
- Storage: Allocate sufficient storage (e.g., 8GB).

Configuring Security Groups

Modify your instance's security group to allow inbound traffic for necessary services and protocols:
- Add rules to enable HTTP traffic on port 80 and HTTPS traffic on port 443 for public access to your application.
- Configure an inbound rule to permit SSH (port 22) connections exclusively from your current IP address to maintain secure remote access.

3. Deploying the NestJS Application

Installing Dependencies on EC2

SSH into your EC2 instance:

ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-ec2-public-ip

Update the instance and install Node.js:

sudo yum update -y
sudo curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo bash -
sudo yum install -y nodejs

Install pm2 to manage the NestJS application:

sudo npm install -g pm2

Uploading Your Application Code

Use SCP to transfer your zipped application to the EC2 instance:

scp -i your-key.pem nestjs-app.zip ec2-user@your-ec2-public-ip:~

SSH into the instance and extract the code:

unzip nestjs-app.zip
cd nestjs-app

Install the dependencies:

npm install

4. Configuring and Running the Application

Set Up Environment Variables

Create a .env file on the EC2 instance with your variables.

Run the Application with PM2

pm2 start dist/main.js --name "nestjs-app"
pm2 save
pm2 startup

Configure NGINX as a Reverse Proxy

Install and configure NGINX to route traffic to your application:

sudo yum install nginx -y
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Edit the NGINX configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/nestjs.conf

Add the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.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

5. Setting Up a Domain and SSL

Domain Configuration

Use AWS Route 53 or another domain registrar to point your domain to your EC2 instance.

Install SSL Certificates

Use Certbot to obtain free SSL certificates:

sudo yum install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com

Set up automatic certificate renewal:

sudo crontab -e

Add the following line:

0 0 * * * certbot renew --quiet

Congratulations! Your NestJS application is now deployed to AWS and accessible via your domain. This setup ensures scalability, reliability, and security for your application. For further optimizations, consider using AWS services like RDS for databases and CloudWatch for monitoring.