Hosting a Node.js application on Windows with IIS as reverse proxy

Hi Peter, I came across this post because I want to deploy my node app in our windows server. Luckily this article looks great for my requirement. I'm just having a difficulty with the configurations of the bindings of my site. May I look on your site bindings? Should it be the same with the port I'm running on my Node App?

Hi Peter -
Thanks for responding to my last question.
OK... I started over. Reinstalled node.js on my Windows 2016 Server.
When I do "pm2 show," I see app.js is running.
"node app.js" worked great from the command prompt. As in, it outputs what it should, within the command prompt window.
I set up the reverse proxy rule in iis for my test site's domain name "amonkeymarket.com".
If you go to amonkeymarket.com/app.js, you will just see the code, not execution of the code. This happens whether I go there with a local browser on the server or remote.
Ideas?
THANK YOU!

Hey Peter -
Having a new issue I wonder if you can help with.
When I change the code of my "sign_in.js" file, then go to the site, the old "Hello World" coming up. I'm betting I have something misconfigured. Hoping you are up for looking at this stuff:
ecosystem.config.js:

module.exports = {
  apps : [{
    name: 'API',
    script: 'sign_in.js',

    // Options reference: https://pm2.io/doc/en/runtime/reference/ecosystem-file/
    args: 'one two',
    instances: 1,
    autorestart: true,
    watch: true,
    max_memory_restart: '1G',
    env: {
      NODE_ENV: 'development'
    },
    env_production: {
      NODE_ENV: 'production'
    }
  }],

/*  deploy : {
    production : {
      user : 'node',
      host : '212.83.163.1',
      ref  : 'origin/master',
      repo : 'git@github.com:repo.git',
      path : '/var/www/production',
      'post-deploy' : 'npm install && pm2 reload ecosystem.config.js --env production'
    }
  }
  */
};

and for PM2, here's an image:
clearsay.net/images/2019-09-05-pm2...
I'll also try to use their "upload image" option here that didn't work in the past for me.

Thanks for this great article!

It filled one big gap in my puzzle... :) In turn, I'd like to share with you an article: "The easiest way to install a node.js script as a windows service" here: github.com/tallesl/qckwinsvc and here: npmjs.com/package/qckwinsvc

I think that would be a good solution to keep application running in a managed and standardized fashion on a Windows server. At least administrators would thank you for this! :D

With best regards, Tomas.

Hi, I found this tutorial very useful with getting the production version of our React/Express app working. We can now access localhost:5000 via localhost and our external domain.
One issue I am having is that every time I do a new build on the dev server, I get this error: EPERM: operation not permitted, unlink 'F:\inetpub\wwwroot\build\web.config' and I have to delete the web.config file and add the rule again in IIS.
Is there a way to avoid this do you know?
Thanks.

Hi Peter,

This was the single best resource for quickly resolving/troubleshooting errors related to running a NodeJS app and another application both over SSL. Many other resources–even for Windows–point to using NGINX which wasn't required at all.

Thanks, much appreciated.

Hello, this is a great solution and help me to deploy the API following IT restrictions I have. Thanks for sharing it!. However, I found a problem I don't know if it is posible to solve, if it is, I need help to figure out how.

I have a non-node API published under a domain (api.example.com) listening on 443 (on IIS, that is why I am here :/)
We need to publish a node API and since IT doesn't allow to open different ports than 80 and 443, I have found the reverse proxy a great solution. I have achieved to set up everything and serve the API correctly. In the root folder where api.example.com is I added the following rewrite rule

            <rule name="ReverseProxyInboundRule1" stopProcessing="true">
                <match url="^my-node-api/(.*)" />
                <action type="Rewrite" url="http://localhost:3000/{R:1}" />
            </rule> 

And I am able to request:
api.example.com/my-node-api/
endpoints perfectly.

Now the problem:
In the web.config where I set up the rewrite rule, I need to have customHeaders section to define CORS, besides the rewrite section I also have the following section in the web.config file:

    <httpProtocol>
        <customHeaders>
            <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Origin" value="https://www.example.com" />
            <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Methods" value="PUT,GET,POST,HEAD,DELETE" />
            <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Headers" value="Content-Type, Access-Control-Allow-Headers, Authorization, X-Requested-With" />
            <add name="Access-Control-Allow-Credentials" value="true" />
        </customHeaders>
    </httpProtocol>

The problem is the node-api can't manage the "Allow-Origin" by its own because it is taking the web.config definition from its main domain "api.example.com" too, so at the end there are two different allow origin values and it is blocked by CORS when trying to consume my-node-api from another domain than example.com.

I can't use * because I need Allow-Credentials set to true, and * is not valid in this case.

I think if the httpProtocol customHeaders settings could be not inherit from child applications (I mean following the description I shared, "my-node-api" application) it will work, since I will be able to manage the allowed origin in the node-api without getting the customHeaders defined in the parent application (api.example.com)

Is that possible ?
how can I do it if this is the case?

I will appreciate any hint/advice, even a confirmation what I am trying to achieve is not posible, having this reverse-proxy solution working restricted to a site only.

Thanks for your time!
·_-

Really thank you Peter.
I still can't believe it's so easy to solved, I have struggling in so called iisnode for hours.
By the way, the rules and patterns can be used for reverse multiple requests, in my case I host dozens websites on express, but only one website in IIS with several rules and patterns to reverse proxy them all.
It's quite easy even compare with Nginx...

Hi! Thnx for the article. Seems that there will be some troubles with res.redirect('example.com'). I've got succeed with res.redirect('../local_route'), but everything with external URIs not working.

Hi Peter,

I have a nodeJS app with a express server running on port 443. I followed your steps and my index.html seems to work using hostname:443 in the Url. but when i login and it redirects to home.html (as supposed to) page. But it starts using localhost:443/home.html once again. How to i get rid of the localhost:443 in the home.html pages as well?

Hello Peter,

What a great article, thanks for sharing. PM2 is definitely nice to know. Everything works great and have now hosted my nodejs server on Windows.

However, I keep getting a 502.3 Bad Gateway whenever my request takes more than 2 minutes. So i'm guessing its a timeout issue. However, I can't seem to find where to change the timeout... Do you have any clue?

Hi peter,Luckily i found this article to deploy the nodejs i had followed the same steps you had mentioned it is working fine but only thing is it is not working in internet it is working only in internet can you please help me on that.

Please I still have issues accessing what I deployed following your every steps.
Only condition here is on what section or path would I do the Site Binding on IIS ?
I guess a screnshot will help.

Thank you

Hello, I am new to IIS and I have a little problem. I don't know if I'm missing something.

Here is my problem :
I want to redirect traffic from outside (mynewapp.domain.fr) to this app.
So I created a site, with the following link:
type : https
name of host: mynewapp.domain.fr
port : 9998
IP address : *

And in reverse proxy I have this adress : localhost:3000
But it doesn't seem to be working, thank you in advance for your help.

There is already an asp site running on :
app.domain.fr:9999

Hi,
Works perfect for me using app.send. Now I need to use SSE (app.write) and having an open HTTP-connection. Is that possible?
The ap I am testing does work when I test using localhost from the browser.
I have tried without changing anything in the IIS setup. And that does not work.