Deployment.. Don’t know about you, but no matter how many times I deployed my apps, I always keep a stash of notes somewhere on stickies to remember what to do, why, and when. So, finally, I decided to put together this practical step-by-step guide for deploying a React + Node app on an EC2 virtual machine using Docker, Docker Compose, and Nginx. Although beginner-friendly, this guide is suitable for production-grade applications. We'll cover setting up SSL and HTTPS, restricting inbound traffic, and using Docker Compose for easier instance management. What We’ll Do in This Guide Create a React frontend app
Create a Node backend app
Create a Dockerfile for the frontend and backend
Create a Docker Compose file
Launch our server / EC2 instance
Copy project files to the server
Configure DNS settings
Configure the server
Configure Nginx
Setup SSL and HTTPS Create a React frontend app Create a Node backend app Create a Dockerfile for the frontend and backend Create a Docker Compose file Launch our server / EC2 instance Copy project files to the server Configure DNS settings Configure the server Configure Nginx Setup SSL and HTTPS Prerequisites AWS Account with necessary permissions
Node.js and npm installed on your machine AWS Account with necessary permissions Node.js and npm installed on your machine 1. Create a React Frontend App Let’s create our boilerplate React app. I’m usually using Vite, since CRA started to give me troubles after the React 19 release. But also, Vite’s server is faster, and it has smaller, better-optimized bundles. Next, we’ll create a root project directory (I called it my-sample-app) and in this directory, create your React app. my-sample-app my-sample-app When prompted, provide: When prompted, provide: The name for your frontend React app (in my case, it’s called client)
Framework → React
Variant → JS or TS as you prefer The name for your frontend React app (in my case, it’s called client) client client Framework → React Variant → JS or TS as you prefer Create a Node Backend App In the root project directory, create a directory for your backend project (I called mine backend). backend backend In the backend folder, initiate npm and install the Express server: npm init -y
npm i express npm init -y
npm i express In the backend folder, create an index.js file with basic server configurations and a sample API endpoint (GET /api): In the backend folder, create an index.js file with basic server configurations and a sample API endpoint (GET /api): This is how your folder structure should look, at this point: This is how your folder structure should look, at this point: Create a Dockerfile for the Frontend and Backend Inside the client folder (where your React app is), create a Dockerfile: Inside the client folder (where your React app is), create a Dockerfile: Create a Dockerfile in your backend folder as well: Create Docker Compose File In the root project directory, create a docker-compose.yml file: Launch Server / EC2 instance Now it’s time to create our server, i.e., launch the EC2 instance. Log in to AWS Console → Search for EC2 in the search bar → Go to EC2 Console: Click on the “Launch instance” button. “Launch instance” Give your instance a name: Give your instance a name: Give your instance a name: Select OS for your server, in my case - Amazon Linux 2023 AMI: Select OS for your server Select OS for your server Select instance type for your server, in my case - t2.micro, which is free tier eligible: Select instance type for your server Select instance type for your server If you don’t already have a .pem key, create one here. Click on “Create new key pair”: “Create new key pair” Provide a name for your key pair, select RSA key pair type, .pem format and click on “Create key pair”: “Create key pair” In the network settings section, select the following options (can be tweaked later to for “tighter” access): Leave the rest as default and finally, click “Launch instance” and wait a few minutes until the instance is in running state and has all checks passed in status check columns: “Launch instance” Copy Project Files to the Server Now that we have created our server, let’s connect to it using SSH and a .pem key pair. First, please note the public IP of the server. Click on the created EC2 instance ID and copy its public IPv4 address: Open the terminal on your local machine, go to the directory where your .pem file is stored, and connect to the server as shown in Picture 15. Enter “yes” when prompted: “yes” If you have an error related to your key having too open permissions, you’ll need to run a chmod command to restrict permissions of the key chmod 400 <path_to_your_key> If you have an error related to your key having too open permissions, you’ll need to run a chmod command to restrict permissions of the key chmod 400 <path_to_your_key> chmod 400 <path_to_your_key> Now that you have ensured a successful SSH connection to the server, exit the server by typing “exit”. “exit” We now have to copy our project files to the server. You can do this in numerous ways. Usually, you would establish an  SSH connection between EC2 and where your code is stored (i.e., BitBucket, GitHub, Azure DevOps, etc.). In our case, we will just copy the project from our local machine directly to the server, and we already have an established SSH connection for this, so in your terminal run: scp -i <path_to_your_key> -r <path_to_your_project_folder> ec2-user@<public_ip_of_your_ec2>:~/ scp -i <path_to_your_key> -r <path_to_your_project_folder> ec2-user@<public_ip_of_your_ec2>:~/ Replace the path to your key, the path to your project, and the public IP of your EC2 instance as required. For example: scp -i my-sample-app-key-pair.pem -r /Users/marinka/Desktop/my-sample-app ec2-user@35.179.151.128:~/ scp -i my-sample-app-key-pair.pem -r /Users/marinka/Desktop/my-sample-app ec2-user@35.179.151.128:~/ The above command will copy your project to the server. Now SSH back to your server (ref. Picture 15) and check that your project files are now available on the server by running ls ls Configure DNS settings To make your app available on a chosen domain or, in our case, subdomain, you need to log into your DNS provider. For the sake of this article, I will deploy my sample app to sampleapp.catbytes.io. Log in to your DNS provider (in my case, IONOS) and find where you can add a new DNS record. add a new DNS record If you want to deploy to a subdomain, add a new “A record” with the following values: A record” Host name: your preferred subdomain name, the part that comes before the domain itself


Points to: the public IP of your EC2 instance


TTL: time to live, i.e., time that specifies how long a DNS record can be cached before it needs to be refreshed, and display your deployed changes Host name: your preferred subdomain name, the part that comes before the domain itself Host name: your preferred subdomain name, the part that comes before the domain itself Points to: the public IP of your EC2 instance Points to: the public IP of your EC2 instance TTL: time to live, i.e., time that specifies how long a DNS record can be cached before it needs to be refreshed, and display your deployed changes TTL: time to live, i.e., time that specifies how long a DNS record can be cached before it needs to be refreshed, and display your deployed changes After you add a new DNS record, it will take some time to propagate. You can use a website like dnschecker.org to check the propagation status. After full propagation, your subdomain/domain should point to the public IP of your EC2 instance: If you want to deploy to a domain and not a subdomain, you will need to provide @ as a value for host name If you want to deploy to a domain and not a subdomain, you will need to provide @ as a value for host name @ Configure the Server Since we’re using Amazon Linux 2023, we will proceed with dnf for installing the required packages. dnf Connect to your server using SSH (ref. Picture 15). Update packages sudo dnf update -y sudo dnf update -y Install Docker sudo dnf install docker -y sudo dnf install docker -y Start and enable Docker sudo systemctl start docker sudo systemctl start docker sudo systemctl enable docker sudo systemctl enable docker Add your user to the Docker group sudo usermod -aG docker ec2-user sudo usermod -aG docker ec2-user After this step, exit the server and connect back to it for the configurations to apply After this step, exit the server and connect back to it for the configurations to apply Download the Docker Compose binary: `sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.24.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose` `sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.24.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose` Run the below command to make it executable: sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose Run the below command to verify Docker Compose installation: docker-compose version docker-compose version Run your project docker-compose up --build docker-compose up --build Result You should now have both frontend and backend containers running: Configure Nginx Now let’s install Nginx. Nginx. Nginx is an open-source software used as a web server, reverse proxy, load balancer, and more. We will use it to serve our static build files from the React frontend, and also to act as a reverse proxy that forwards API requests to our Node backend. This allows us to expose a single, secure HTTPS endpoint for the entire application while keeping our internal services hidden and modular. Install Nginx: sudo dnf install nginx -y sudo dnf install nginx -y Start and enable Nginx: sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx Update the Nginx config file First, open the main Nginx config file: sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf Then you need to update the server section of the nginx.conf file to include: server name (your subdomain name)
proxy configurations for frontend (in our case deployed on http://localhost:3000)
proxy configurations for backend (in our case deployed on http://localhost:4000) server name (your subdomain name) proxy configurations for frontend (in our case deployed on http://localhost:3000) http://localhost:3000 proxy configurations for backend (in our case deployed on http://localhost:4000) http://localhost:4000 See example below: See example below: To save changes in nginx.conf file, press Control + X and Y Control + X Y You can check the nginx.conf syntax for errors by running sudo nginx -t sudo nginx -t After saving the configuration changes, reload Nginx by running sudo systemctl reload nginx sudo systemctl reload nginx Set up SSL and HTTPS Finally, let’s set up SSL certificates and HTTPS. Install Certbot + Nginx plugin sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx Issue the SSL certificate for your domain/subdomain sudo certbot --nginx -d <your_subdomain_or_domain_name> sudo certbot --nginx -d <your_subdomain_or_domain_name> For example,e in our case: sudo certbot --nginx -d sampleapp.catbytes.io sudo certbot --nginx -d sampleapp.catbytes.io Deployment Complete! Ta-daa! Ta-daa! Congratulations, you have successfully deployed your application! Congratulations, you have successfully deployed your application! You should now see your React app available at your domain/subdomain and API available at your domain/subdomain/api, for example: domain/subdomain domain/subdomain/api React is available at https://sampleapp.catbytes.io
Node available at https://sampleapp.catbytes.io/api React is available at https://sampleapp.catbytes.io https://sampleapp.catbytes.io Node available at https://sampleapp.catbytes.io/api https://sampleapp.catbytes.io/api Security Tips Depending on your app and requirements, you might want to consider a few security best practices to make your app and/or API more rigid and secure. Consider the tips below: Restrict SSH access as required, currently, you can SSH from anywhere (0.0.0.0/0). You might want to restrict that to, for example, only your local machine IP or your company VPN. Configure this in AWS EC2 Console → your EC2 instance → Security Group → Inbound rules
Set up a cron task on your server to automatically renew the SSL certificates. This is important, as when they expire (and they do expire in 90 days), your app will be down. You can use certbot for this
In Dockerfile, try not to usethe  root user; better create a non-root user to run the commands
Consider hardening the Nginx configurations to limit the possibility of DoS attacks, e.g. add basic rate limiting and security headers Restrict SSH access as required, currently, you can SSH from anywhere (0.0.0.0/0). You might want to restrict that to, for example, only your local machine IP or your company VPN. Configure this in AWS EC2 Console → your EC2 instance → Security Group → Inbound rules Restrict SSH access Set up a cron task on your server to automatically renew the SSL certificates. This is important, as when they expire (and they do expire in 90 days), your app will be down. You can use certbot for this certbot In Dockerfile, try not to usethe  root user; better create a non-root user to run the commands Consider hardening the Nginx configurations to limit the possibility of DoS attacks, e.g. add basic rate limiting and security headers Conclusion In this guide, we covered the following: Docker basics
AWS EC2 setup and traffic security rules
Nginx reverse proxy setup
HTTPS certificates with Certbot
Full-stack deployment Docker basics AWS EC2 setup and traffic security rules Nginx reverse proxy setup HTTPS certificates with Certbot Full-stack deployment Hope you enjoyed it and found it easy to follow. If you encountered any issues, please reach out. Would also love to hear what you're building and deploying 🚀

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Production Grade Deployment of a Full Stack Web App (React + Node) With Docker and EC2

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