How to deploy an Express app to AWS

Have you built an amazing Express.js app and want to deploy it to the cloud? Look no further than AWS Elastic Beanstalk! In this article, we will walk you through how to deploy your Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk using Pulumi. With Pulumi, you can define your infrastructure as code, making it easy to manage and deploy your applications.

Getting Started

Before we dive in, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• An Express.js application bundled into a ZIP file named app.zip
• AWS credentials properly set up on your system with the necessary access rights to create and manage S3 buckets and Elastic Beanstalk applications and environments

Writing the Pulumi Program

First, let’s take a look at the Pulumi program we will be using to deploy our Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as aws from "@pulumi/aws";
import * as fs from "fs";

// Create an AWS S3 bucket
const bucket = new aws.s3.Bucket("s3-bucket");

// Upload the Express.js app bundle to the S3 bucket
const object = new aws.s3.BucketObject("BucketObject", {
   bucket: bucket.bucket,
   source: new pulumi.asset.FileAsset("app.zip"),
});

// Create an Elastic Beanstalk application
const app = new aws.elasticbeanstalk.Application("my-app", {});

// Create an Elastic Beanstalk environment using the Node.js solution stack
const env = new aws.elasticbeanstalk.Environment("dev", {
   application: app.name,
   solutionStackName: "64bit Amazon Linux 2018.03 v2.11.4 running Node.js",
});

// Export the name of the S3 bucket
export const bucketName = bucket.bucket;

Let’s break down what this program does:

1. Create an S3 bucket: We use the aws.s3.Bucket resource to create an AWS S3 bucket to store our Express.js app bundle.
2. Upload the app bundle: We use the aws.s3.BucketObject resource to upload the app.zip file to the S3 bucket we created in the previous step.
3. Create an Elastic Beanstalk application: We use the aws.elasticbeanstalk.Application resource to create an AWS Elastic Beanstalk application.
4. Create an Elastic Beanstalk environment: We use the aws.elasticbeanstalk.Environment resource to create an environment within our Elastic Beanstalk application. We specify the Node.js solution stack to run our Express.js app.
5. Export the S3 bucket name: We export the name of the S3 bucket so that it can be used by other parts of our infrastructure.

Deploying the Express App

To deploy your Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, follow these steps:

1. Install the necessary dependencies by running the following command in your project directory:

   npm install @pulumi/pulumi @pulumi/aws
   

2. Create a new directory for your Pulumi program and navigate into it:

   mkdir pulumi
   cd pulumi
   

3. Create a new file named index.ts and copy the Pulumi program code into it.

4. Save the app.zip file into the same directory as your Pulumi program file.

5. Initialize a new Pulumi project by running the following command:

   pulumi new aws-typescript
   

   This will initialize a new Pulumi project with the necessary infrastructure code for deploying AWS resources using TypeScript.

6. Configure your Pulumi project to use your AWS credentials by running the following command:

   pulumi config set aws:region <AWS_REGION>
   

   Replace <AWS_REGION> with the AWS region where you want to deploy your application (e.g., us-west-2).

7. Build and deploy your Pulumi program by running the following command:

   pulumi up
   

   Pulumi will analyze your program, create the necessary infrastructure resources, and deploy your Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk. You will be prompted to confirm the changes before they are applied.

8. Once the deployment is complete, Pulumi will display the URL of your deployed Express app. You can now access your app by visiting that URL in your web browser.

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed your Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk using Pulumi. With Pulumi, managing and deploying your infrastructure has never been easier.

Conclusion

In this article, we walked you through how to deploy an Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk using Pulumi. We started with a simple Pulumi program that created an S3 bucket and an Elastic Beanstalk environment, and then uploaded the app bundle to the bucket. Finally, we deployed the Express app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk using Pulumi.

Pulumi makes it easy to define and manage your infrastructure as code, enabling you to deploy your applications to the cloud with confidence. By leveraging the power of AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you can take advantage of the fully managed environment for your Express.js app, allowing you to focus on developing your application.

If you want to learn more about the AWS resources used in this article, check out the following documentation on the Pulumi Registry:

• aws.s3.Bucket
• aws.s3.BucketObject
• aws.elasticbeanstalk.Application
• aws.elasticbeanstalk.Environment

Now it’s your turn to deploy your Express.js app to AWS Elastic Beanstalk using Pulumi. Happy coding!