Nodester {Open Source Node.JS Hosting Platform}

Nodester Platform Upgraded to Support Node.JS v0.6.17

We are happy to announce the support of Node.JS version 0.6.17 on the Nodester platform.  This update was prompted from receiving an urgent notice from the Node.JS project related to an HTTP Server Security Vulnerability detected in versions prior to 0.6.17.  The full security article can be found at http://blog.nodejs.org/2012/05/07/http-server-security-vulnerability-please-upgrade-to-0-6-17/

Please update your nodester CLI tool so that newly created apps will default to v0.6.17.  This can be done by running:

sudo npm install nodester-cli -g

Upgrading existing Nodester-hosted Node.JS apps to v0.6.17 is simple.  Open your package.json file and change the following entry to:

“node”:”0.6.17”

Commit your change to git and push it to nodester:

git commit -am “upgrading to v0.6.17”

git push

Hack the planet!  Thanks again to @_AlejandroMG for performing this update!

New Nodester-CLI Fixes Windows Git Issue

Update your CLI by running “npm install nodester-cli -g” and Windows users will find that their git issues on nodester app init have been resolved!  

The main change in the update is that Windows uses && to join multiple commands together whereas Mac and Linux use semicolons.  We had a long string of commands that changed into the new app directory and did a “git add .” followed by a “git commit” and “git push”.  We were not properly breaking these commands up on Windows machines hence the initial app failing to start because the code was not added to the git repo properly to push to Nodester.

Hope this helps :)

Tips for Windows Users

Installing Node.JS apps on Nodester using Windows was slightly different that the steps for Mac and Linux users.  Last night, I used Bootcamp on my Mac to walk through installing Node.JS as an MSI on Windows 7 and installing the Nodester-CLI and deploying the “hello world” app.  My recap is below:

1. Download and install Node.JS by clicking on the Download and Windows links on http://nodejs.org.  Next reboot your PC to get the paths working to run Node. (There is probably an easier way to do this but I am slightly Windows challenged ;)
2. Install Git for Windows and generate your RSA key using GitHub’s instructions here: http://help.github.com/win-set-up-git/
3. Rather than using the Windows CMD prompt, I had much better results using the Git Bash prompt on Windows for the remainder of these steps. 
   
    
4. Install Nodester-CLI by running:
   npm install nodester-cli -g
5. Link the CLI to your Nodester account by running:
   nodester user setup yourusername yourpassword
6. Submit your RSA key to Nodester so that your git commands work as follows:
   nodester user setkey
7. Create and deploy your first Node.JS “hello world” app on Nodester using the following 2 commands:
   nodester app create mycoolnewappname
   nodester app init  mycoolnewappname
8. This created a new app directory for me and a git repo but the CLI failed to add the new nodester files (server.js and package.json) to my git repo and thus failed to push files to Nodester (because they were not added to git.)  I manually added these files to git and pushed and the app came up as expected.  Here were the steps that I used:
   git add .
   git commit -m “initial commit”
   git push origin master

If everything worked for you as it did for me, your new Node.JS application should now be running online at: mycoolnewappname.nodester.com

Special thanks to Nirahiel for helping us troubleshoot our CLI on Windows!

Nodester Now Running Node.JS 0.6.12

Thanks to Alejandro Morales and “n”, TJ Holowaychuk’s Node Version Management project, Nodester is now able to run multiple versions of Node.JS!  In addition to Node.JS version 0.4.9 that we have been running for months, we now also support Node.JS version 0.4.12 and 0.6.12.  

Once you update your Nodester CLI ( sudo npm install nodester-cli -g ), your next hello world app that you init will automatically create a package.json set to run on version 0.6.12.  

nodester app create nodesterrox
nodester app init nodesterrox

 Browsing to http://nodesterrox.nodester.com results in the following:

Hello World
App (nodesterrox) is running on Node.JS v0.6.12

The new magic in our package.json comes from the “node” version definition.  You can currently specify 0.4.9, 0.4.12, or 0.6.12

{

  “name”:”nodesterrox”,

  “node”:”0.6.12”,

  “author”:”chris matthieu”

}

Simply update this file in your existing hosted apps and push it to nodester to change and restart your app running under a new version of Node.JS!  ( git commit -am “updated node version” and git push ).

Hack the planet! 

Rocketeers Wanted

In just a little over 1 year, Nodester has grown to over 3,000 registered Node.JS developers hosting nearly 4,000 apps on our free open source PaaS.  We would like to thank Tropo for continuing to fund our hosting fees on AWS as well as the following key individuals for making Nodester what it is today: Chris Matthieu, Contra, Dav Glass, and Daniel Bartlett.  

Our mission has been to bring an open source Node.JS PaaS and free hosting services to the market in an attempt to accelerate the adoption of Node.JS as well as to provide fellow nodesters and companies with a platform to deploy private nodester clouds.  We believe that we have succeeded on our original mission.  Now what?

Most of the original team has moved on to other projects except Chris Matthieu, the founder of Nodester.  He is still supporting the ongoing operations and contributing to the code base as time permits (evenings and weekends). Despite having no funding or full-time resources dedicated to this open source project, Nodester still stacks up nicely against the commercial Node.JS hosting providers in the industry including: Joyent and Heroku! There is even a new commercial offering called CloudNode that is built on top of the Nodester PaaS.  Here is the hosting services matrix maintained on Joyent’s repo:

https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Node-Hosting

We still have big ideas for Nodester including:

• Better sandboxing with support for any version of node.js
• NPM installer for dead simple private cloud deployments
• Public Amazon Machine Image availability
• Admin panel for an easier browser-based view of your account
• Horizontal scaling of the platform with application auto-scaling capabilities
• OpenStack Integration for simple Rackspace deployments

The community has big ideas for Nodester too but we need your help to continue to support the service and contribute to advancing our open source Node.JS PaaS forward! Every little bit helps from ideas to documentation to working on the admin panel or installer to even jumping into the core Nodester code base on github. In addition to Node.JS development assistance, we are also looking for a few strong Linux system engineers to help us maintain the nodester.com service platform as well as assist us with new sandboxing techniques such as deploying LXC containers or other innovative ideas.

What’s in it for you? How about: Nodester fame, contributing back to the Node.JS community, solving interesting new PaaS problems, working with cutting-edge technology, free Node.JS hosting resources and all of the Nodester stickers that you can pass out to your friends.

Rocketeers Wanted: If you are interested in becoming a Nodester Rocketeer, please contact Chris Matthieu via Twitter or email him at chris [at] nodester.com.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

H A C K     T H E     P L A N E T     !     !     !

Deploying an Existing Node.JS App to Nodester

Do you have an existing Node.JS application and a Nodester Node.JS hosting account? Cool! Let’s walk through getting that app deployed for you.

1. Open your command line and cd into your app directory

2. Run “nodester app create <appname>”. (Note: If your starting javascript file is NOT server.js, add its name after the appname on the create command)

3. Update your app’s port address to match the one we assigned via the create app command. (Note: If your app uses websockets, set your client app to use port 80.)

4. Run “nodester app info <appname>”

5. Assuming you already have a git repo, add a nodester remote by running “git remote add nodester <git repo from info command>”.  If you do not have a git repo already, first run “git init” followed by “git add .” and git commit -m “initial commit”

6. Run “git push nodester master”.  This will push and run your existing app to Nodester where it can be reached at http://<appname>.nodester.com.

Does your application use any NPM modules?  If so, you will need to install them to your app’s sandbox and restart your application using the following commands:

7. Run “nodester npm install <appname> <module>”

8. Run “nodester app restart <appname>”

Subsequent git pushes update your Nodester app and restarts it automatically for you. Easy as that :)

Dotting your Apps

Quick test with dots in appnames/subdomains passes! Checkout http://node.js.nodester.com/

There is nothing to do differently than creating a standard app on nodester.  

nodester app create node.js

nodester app init node.js

\m/ nodester out \m/