25/01/13 NOTE: updated scripts to run npm -g version upgrade (only once, on initial instance roll out or rebuild) and to avoid NPM operations during EB configuration change (when app dir is not present, to avoid error and to speed up configuration updates).
Okay, Elastic Beanstalk behaves dodgy with recent node.js builds (including presumably supported v.0.10.10), so I decided to go ahead and tweak EB to do the following:
- to install ANY node.js version as per your env.config (including
the most recent ones that are not yet supported by AWS EB)
- to avoid rebuilding existing node modules, including in-app
node_modules dir
- to install node.js globally (and any desired module as well).
Basically, I use env.config to replace deploy&config hooks with customized ones (see below). Also, in a default EB container setup some env variables are missing ($HOME for example) and node-gyp sometimes fails during rebuild because of it (took me 2 hours of googling and reinstalling libxmljs to resolve this).
Below are the files to be included along with your build. You can inject them via env.config as inline code or via source: URL (as in this example)
env.vars (desired node version & arch are included here and in env.config, see below)
export HOME=/root
export NPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error
export NODE_VER=0.10.24
export ARCH=x86
export PATH="$PATH:/opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/:/root/.npm"
40install_node.sh (fetch and ungzip desired node.js version, make global symlinks, update global npm version)
#!/bin/bash
#source env variables including node version
. /opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars
function error_exit
{
eventHelper.py --msg "$1" --severity ERROR
exit $2
}
#UNCOMMENT to update npm, otherwise will be updated on instance init or rebuild
#rm -f /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/npm_updated
#download and extract desired node.js version
OUT=$( [ ! -d "/opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install" ] && mkdir /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install ; cd /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/ && wget -nc http://nodejs.org/dist/v$NODE_VER/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH.tar.gz && tar --skip-old-files -xzpf node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH.tar.gz) || error_exit "Failed to UPDATE node version. $OUT" $?.
echo $OUT
#make sure node binaries can be found globally
if [ ! -L /usr/bin/node ]; then
ln -s /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/node /usr/bin/node
fi
if [ ! -L /usr/bin/npm ]; then
ln -s /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm
fi
if [ ! -f "/opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/npm_updated" ]; then
/opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/ && /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/npm update npm -g
touch /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/npm_updated
echo "YAY! Updated global NPM version to `npm -v`"
else
echo "Skipping NPM -g version update. To update, please uncomment 40install_node.sh:12"
fi
50npm.sh (creates /var/node_modules, symlinks it to app dir and runs npm install. You can install any module globally from here, they will land in /root/.npm)
#!/bin/bash
. /opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars
function error_exit
{
eventHelper.py --msg "$1" --severity ERROR
exit $2
}
#install not-installed yet app node_modules
if [ ! -d "/var/node_modules" ]; then
mkdir /var/node_modules ;
fi
if [ -d /tmp/deployment/application ]; then
ln -s /var/node_modules /tmp/deployment/application/
fi
OUT=$([ -d "/tmp/deployment/application" ] && cd /tmp/deployment/application && /opt/elasticbeanstalk/node-install/node-v$NODE_VER-linux-$ARCH/bin/npm install 2>&1) || error_exit "Failed to run npm install. $OUT" $?
echo $OUT
env.config (note node version here too, and to be safe, put desired node version in env config in AWS console as well. I'm not certain which of these settings will take precedence.)
packages:
yum:
git: []
gcc: []
make: []
openssl-devel: []
option_settings:
- option_name: NODE_ENV
value: production
- option_name: RDS_HOSTNAME
value: fill_me_in
- option_name: RDS_PASSWORD
value: fill_me_in
- option_name: RDS_USERNAME
value: fill_me_in
- namespace: aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs
option_name: NodeVersion
value: 0.10.24
files:
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/env.vars" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
source: https://dl.dropbox.com/....
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/configdeploy/pre/40install_node.sh" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
source: https://raw.github.com/....
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
source: https://raw.github.com/....
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/configdeploy/pre/50npm.sh" :
mode: "000666"
owner: root
group: users
content: |
#no need to run npm install during configdeploy
"/opt/elasticbeanstalk/hooks/appdeploy/pre/40install_node.sh" :
mode: "000775"
owner: root
group: users
source: https://raw.github.com/....
There you have it: on t1.micro instance deployment now takes 20-30 secs instead of 10-15 minutes! If you deploy 10 times a day, this tweak will save you 3 (three) weeks in a year.
Hope it helps and special thanks to AWS EB staff for my lost weekend :)
