If like me, you are heavily invested in an Apache web server environment and want to move into node.js, there are two several approaches:

• Apache First: Have the Apache server receive all requests, then route certain ones to the node.js server(s)
• Node First: Have a node.js server receive all requests, then route certain ones to the appropriate Apache or node.js server(s)
• nginx: This is a more modern server than Apache and can handle sockets as it is inherently a reverse proxy server by design

Here we only consider the the Apache First option: It is not a viable option to completely migrate a new hosting infrastructure.

The key idea is to set up your Apache server as a Reverse Proxy

I am mainly interested in tunneling web-sockets messages. This requires Apache 2.4+ and you must enable the module mod_proxy_wstunnel which in turn requires mod_proxy.

Configure Apache

In httpd.conf

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}  ^/socket.io            [NC]
  RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} transport=websocket    [NC]
  RewriteRule /(.*)           ws://localhost:8080/$1 [P,L]


  ProxyRequests Off
  ProxyPreserveHost On
  ProxyVia Full
  <Proxy *>
     Require all granted
  </Proxy>

  ProxyPass        /socket.io http://localhost:8080/socket.io
  ProxyPassReverse /socket.io http://localhost:8080/socket.io

Windows Batch file to launch node server

cd /www/thaidrills/public_html/apps/node/chess
node server.js
    @if not %ERRORLEVEL%==0 goto hell
    @if not "%1" == "" goto heaven

:heaven
    @echo Heaven!
    @goto end

:hell
    @echo Error: %ERRORLEVEL%
    @goto end

:end
    @pause

PM2 to launch node server

Use PM2 to keep the socket server running in the background: PM2 will relaunch the app if it crashes or the server reboots.

It's AWESOME!!!!

Install PM2: See Ubuntu Notes: Install node.js and PM2 for instructions on installing node.js on Ubuntu.

$ npm install pm2 -g

You can start any application (Node.js, Python, Ruby, binaries in $PATH...) like that:

$ pm2 start app.js

To list all running applications:

$ pm2 list

Managing apps is straightforward:

$ pm2 stop     <app_name|namespace|id|'all'|json_conf>
$ pm2 restart  <app_name|namespace|id|'all'|json_conf>
$ pm2 delete   <app_name|namespace|id|'all'|json_conf>

To have more details on a specific application:

$ pm2 describe <id|app_name>

To monitor logs, custom metrics, application information:

$ pm2 monit