How can I automatically start a node.js application in Amazon Linux AMI on aws?

Question

Is there a brief guide to explain how to start up a application when the instance starts up and running? If it were one of the services installed through `yum` then I guess I can use `/sbin/chkconfig` to add it to the service. (To make it sure, is it correct?) However, I just want to run the program which was not installed through `yum`. To run node.js program, I will have to run script `sudo node app.js` at home directory whenever the system boots up. I am not used to Amazon Linux AMI so I am having little trouble finding a 'right' way to run some script automatically on every boot. Is there an elegant way to do this?

Accepted Answer

One way is to create an upstart job. That way your app will start once Linux loads, will restart automatically if it crashes, and you can start / stop / restart it by `sudo start yourapp` / `sudo stop yourapp` / `sudo restart yourapp`.

Here are beginning steps:

1) Install upstart utility (may be pre-installed if you use a standard Amazon Linux AMI):

```
sudo yum install upstart
```

For Ubuntu:

```
sudo apt-get install upstart
```

2) Create upstart script for your node app:

in `/etc/init` add file `yourappname.conf` with the following lines of code:

```
#!upstart
description "your app name"

start on started mountall
stop on shutdown

# Automatically Respawn:
respawn
respawn limit 99 5

env NODE_ENV=development

# Warning: this runs node as root user, which is a security risk
# in many scenarios, but upstart-ing a process as a non-root user
# is outside the scope of this question
exec node /path_to_your_app/app.js >> /var/log/yourappname.log 2>&1
```

3) start your app by `sudo start yourappname`

How can I automatically start a node.js application in Amazon Linux AMI on aws?

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