node.js hosting with SSL?

Question

So say I have a node.js application that hosts both a HTTP and HTTPS server as described in the question: How to force SSL / https in Express.js

In my code I have the following:

// General configuration settings for production usage
app.configure(function () {
  app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
  app.set('sslport', process.env.SSLPORT || 4000);
  ...
}

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function () {
  winston.info('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

var options = {
  key: fs.readFileSync('key.pem'),
  cert: fs.readFileSync('cert.pem')
};

https.createServer(options, app).listen(app.get('sslport'), function () {
  winston.info('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('sslport'));
});

Which works perfectly fine for a local running node server.

However, I want to publish my site to a cloud hosted provider like Azure Web Sites, Heroku, Nodejitsu, etc.

All of the cloud hosts seem to set a process.env.PORT value, but only the one. When my HTTPS server is created this usually results in the app crashing, as the PORT is already in use / access denied / etc.

So how do I create / host a site with a secure login page with only one port to work with!?

Are you saying that you can only listen to one port? And you want both plain and ssl connections on that port? — Tarandeep Gill, Feb 07 '13 at 20:36
@TarandeepGill I *am* listening on two ports in code, but on Azure I only get a single port allocated, so the second https server create call fails. — Siyfion, Feb 08 '13 at 09:05

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 07 '13 at 20:57

7

If you use Heroku you get SSL without needing to specify a port in nodejs. All you need to do is listen on the heroku PORT environment variable for http requests. Once uploaded to heroku you can address your heroku app using either https (on 443) or http (on port 80). Heroku routes either to your server.

Similarly if using elastic load balancing with EC2 you can make use of SSL termination at the load balancer, and again route to your node server listening on port 80 using using http. http://aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing

In both cases you can use either self-signed or proper SSL certificates depending upon your need.

answered Feb 07 '13 at 20:57

Roy

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Ah, so on Heroku I effectively only need a single http server in my code, and it will pickup both http and https requests? How do the SSL certificates get piped in though? – Siyfion Feb 08 '13 at 09:04
And for those wondering about Microsoft Azure, the same applies. One http server will deal with both HTTP and HTTPS requests. :) – Siyfion Feb 08 '13 at 09:11

node.js hosting with SSL?

1 Answers1