htdangkhoa / nginx-node-lb

Example project to learn about NGINX load balancing Node instances

Background

This is a sample repo I created for the express purpose of learning and becoming familiar with how to setup NGINX service in front of Node.js servers. Specifically in this particular case, I've configured NGINX as a reverse proxy and load balancer, load balancing 2 Node.js servers behind it.

Setup

1. Install nginx on system by running brew install nginx
2. Copy nginx.conf file in this repo to /usr/local/etc/nginx
3. Run npm install in repo to install npm modules, mainly express
4. Run npm start to start up Node server instances (server #1 on localhost:8080 and #2 on localhost:8081)
5. Run brew services start nginx to startup the NGINX service at http://localhost:8080
6. Open browser to http://localhost:8080 and refresh page a few times.

You should see a page with the message "Hello World from Node Server #1" or "Hello World from Node Server #2". This is effectively NGINX handling the request and proxying to the 2 Node servers using round-robin load balancing.

Resources

• Installing NGINX on MacOSX: http://learnaholic.me/2012/10/10/installing-nginx-in-mac-os-x-mountain-lion/