How do you Dockerize a Node.js app?
Create a Dockerfile: FROM node:20-alpine, WORKDIR /app, COPY package*.json, RUN npm ci --production, COPY ., EXPOSE 3000, CMD ['node', 'src/server.js']. Create docker-compose.yml with build, ports, env_file, and restart: unless-stopped. Use .dockerignore to exclude node_modules and .env.
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More FAQs in Node.js Deployment Interview Questions AWS, Docker, CI/CD, and Production
Provision a server (AWS EC2), install Node.js/PM2/Nginx, clone code and npm install, configure .env with production secrets, start with PM2, configure Nginx as reverse proxy, add SSL with Let's Encrypt, and set up CI/CD for automated deployments.
PM2 is a process manager: keeps the app running (survives SSH disconnect), auto-restarts on crash, supports cluster mode (multiple instances per CPU core), captures logs, and starts on system boot. Use pm2 start, pm2 save, and pm2 startup.
Use pm2 reload (not restart) in cluster mode. PM2 reloads workers one at a time old workers finish their current requests while new workers start with the new code. No connections are dropped. For multiple servers, use a load balancer and update one server at a time.
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