Make your NodeJS app run as a service in Linux

This is an example where you can make your NodeJS app (also MEAN or MERN stack app) run as a service in your Linux server. Here we create the app "My NodeJS App".

1. Firtly, add this to the first line of your main nodeJS app file. Here it is the file server.js:

#!/usr/bin/env node

2. Add the service in the folder /etc/systemd/system/:

sudo vim mynodejsapp.service

[Unit]
Description=My NodeJS App

[Service]
ExecStart=/var/www/apps/mynodejsapp/server.js
Restart=always
User=nobody
Group=nogroup
Environment=PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/apps/mynodejsapp

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If you have Red Hat (RHEL) or Fedora as an OS, then you have to use "nobody" as a group. "nogroup" is used in Ubuntu and Debian.

3. Set executable permission

chmod +x /var/www/apps/mynodejsapp/server.js

4. To start the app automatically on system boot:

sudo systemctl enable mynodejsapp

5. Start the app

sudo systemctl start mynodejsapp

6. Check the status of your app, restart, stop, etc. with the command "systemctl":

sudo systemctl status mynodejsapp

sudo systemctl stop mynodejsapp