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I'm moving my Three.js app and its customized node.js environment, which I've been running on my local machine to Google Cloud. I want to test things out there, and hopefully soon get some early alpha testing going with other people.

I'm not sure which is the wiser way to go... to upload the repo I've been running locally as-is onto a VM which users would then access via the VM's external IP until I get a good name to call this app... or merge my local node.js environment with what's available via the Google App Engine and run it on GAE.

Issues I'm running into with the linux VM approach... I'm not sure how to do the equivalent on the VM of what I've been doing locally. In Windows Powershell I cd into the app directory and then enter node index.js. I'm assuming by this method of deployment that I can get the app running as soon as the browser hits the external IP. I should mention too that the app will allow users to save content as well as upload images, and eventually, 3D models as well as json datasets.

Issues I'm running into with the App Engine approach: it looks like I only have access to a linux-based command line, and have to install all the node.js modules manually. Meanwhile I have a bunch of files to upload, both the server-side node files and all the frontend stuff. I don't see where to upload those files, and ultimately what I'd like to do is have access to a visual, editable file-tree interface, as I have in Windows and FileZilla, so I can swap files in and out, etc. Alternatively I suppose I could import a repo from Github? Github would be fine as long as I can visually see what's happening. Is there a visual interface for file structure available in GAE somewhere? Am I missing something?

I went through the GAE "Hello World" tutorial and that worked fine, but was left scratching my head afterward regarding how to actually see and edit the guts of the tutorial app, or even where to look for the files.

So first off, I want to determine what's the better approach, and then if possible, determine how to make the experience of getting my app up there and running a more visual, user-friendly experience.

Thanks.

Emma Scott Lavin
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1 Answers1

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There are many things to consider when choosing how to run an app, but my instinct for your use case is to simply use a VM on GCE. The most compelling reason for this is that it's the most similar thing to what you have now. You can SSH into the machine and run nohup node index.js & (or node index.js inside tmux/screen if you prefer) and it will start the app and not stop it when you log out of SSH. You can use SCP / SFTP with whatever GUI client you want to upload files. You don't have to learn anything new! If you wanted to, you could even use a Windows VM (although I think you have to pay a little more than for a comparable Linux VM due to the licensing fees).

That said, the other way is arguably more "correct" by modern development standards, but it will involve a lot more learning that will prevent you from getting your app running somewhere other than your laptop in the short term:

  • First, you'll need to learn about Docker and stateless containers, which is basically what your app runs inside of on AppEngine.
  • Next, you'll need to learn how to hook up a separate stateful service (database, file server, ...) to your app's container so you can store your files, etc. in it, and then probably rewrite your app somewhat to use it to store stuff.
  • Next, you'll probably want some way to automatically deploy this from code instead of manually doing it, which gets you into build systems, package managers, artifact storage, continuous integration systems, and on and on and on.

This latter path is certainly what you should choose for a long-running production service if you work with a big team of developers -- but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily the right path for your project today. If you don't care about scaling up automatically, load balancing between nodes, redundant copies of your app running in different regions in case there's a natural disaster, etc., then go with the easy way for now, and you can learn new ways to improve the service when they're actually needed.

Dan
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  • Thank you SOOO much @Dan for clarifying all of this. I think you're right - for the moment I essentially just want to get the project up on a server online so I and a few alpha testers, essentially friends and colleagues, can play with it in web-based VR. All those things you mention are things I hope I can hire others to figure out once I've got some funding for this bad boy... one thing at a time. Seriously thanks! I'm going to test out the approach tomorrow or Friday and will hopefully have good things to say. – Emma Scott Lavin Nov 08 '18 at 01:56
  • Ok, @Dan, almost there on getting the app running from the VM instance. In the gcloud Terminal, I ran `node index.js` and as I see on my local machine, I get the line back 'app is listening on port 3000.' HOWEVER, when I call up the VM's IP address in the browser, I get the dreaded "This Site Refused to Connect." I added :3000 to the IP address in the browser. Still getting the error. I tried creating a Firewall Rule. No diff made. Any thoughts? – Emma Scott Lavin Nov 08 '18 at 07:24
  • You probably just need to open up that port in your VM’s firewall through the GCE UI. – Dan Nov 08 '18 at 07:26
  • Clarifying issues in last comment. When I added :3000 to the IP address in the browser, then I get "This site can’t be reached [IP] took too long to respond". – Emma Scott Lavin Nov 08 '18 at 07:33
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    See this question for more information: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21065922/how-to-open-a-specific-port-such-as-9090-in-google-compute-engine – Dan Nov 08 '18 at 07:34
  • Getting the VM's GCE UI to work is an ordeal unto itself. Trying to get vncserver to work, dbus install got stuck, had to kill and restart, not sure if the manual install of a couple of packages did the trick. Using this tutorial https://medium.com/google-cloud/graphical-user-interface-gui-for-google-compute-engine-instance-78fccda09e5c for Ubuntu though my VM is running Debian... trying TightVNC but that's erroring out... – Emma Scott Lavin Nov 08 '18 at 09:15
  • Ok... got it working. Insecure connection, but that's a battle for another day. The trick was to create a Firewall Rule under VPC Connection that allowed ingress traffic to Port 3000. No need at this moment to deal with the GCE UI. That too, a battle for another day. Thanks for the help @Dan – Emma Scott Lavin Nov 08 '18 at 09:52