Setup Node.js Web Server On Ubuntu 22.04

NOTE: I have used Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and postgresql v14 for this demo

Step 0:

• Once you have an Ubuntu system follow the below steps assuming you already have git CLI installed

sudo -i // switch to root user
apt update -y

• Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/rohit1101/SRE-Bootcamp-Web-Server.git

• Install the dependencies required for the project:

# installs nvm (Node Version Manager)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

# download and install Node.js
nvm install 20

# verifies the right Node.js version is in the environment
node -v # should print `v20.14.0`

# verifies the right NPM version is in the environment
npm -v # should print `10.7.0`

• Install postgresql:

apt install postgresql // this install psql client for interacting with the database with quries

• Switch to postgres user and use psql client

• Run the following command to set postgres user with a valid password and exit psql client using \q and type exit to logout from postgres user shell:

ALTER USER postgres PASSWORD 'postgres';

---

Step 1:

After successful pre-requisites setup following the below steps:

• Now let us clone this repo(fork and clone) and move into the src of the web server code:

git clone https://github.com/rohit1101/SRE-Bootcamp-Web-Server.git
cd SRE-Bootcamp-Web-Server

• Execute make install to install all the dependancies for the express js web server
• Run make db_config command creates a knexfile.js configuration file.
• Create a new directory named migrations

mkdir migrations

• Make sure you pass the correct values for the environment variables in a new file named .env by referring the .env.example. My .env file looks as shown below.*Since I am testing the API locally I am using the default postgres DB for creating tables(on a production environment this is not recommended).

NODE_ENV=development
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=postgres
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=5432
DB_DATABASE=postgres

• Modify the knexfile.js configuration file based on your requirements

require("dotenv").config({ path: ".env" });
module.exports = {
  development: {
    client: "pg",
    connection: {
      user: process.env.DB_USER,
      host: process.env.DB_HOST,
      database: process.env.DB_DATABASE,
      password: process.env.DB_PASSWORD,
    },
    pool: {
      min: 2,
      max: 10,
    },
    migrations: {
      directory: "./migrations",
    },
  },
};

• Create a new migration, the following command will create a new migrations file in this path -> migrations/ and update the migrations file by refering the migrations file in this repo.

make create_migrations

• This command applies the migration and creates the students table in your PostgreSQL database.

make migrate

• Now switch to postgres user and enter psql to check our students table:

---

Endpoints

Base URL: http://locahost:3000/v1

Health Check

GET /v1/healthcheck

• Description: Checks API health status.
• Response: 200 OK

Example Request:

curl -X GET http://localhost/v1/healthcheck

Get All Students

GET /v1/students

• Description: Retrieves all students.
• Response: 200 OK

Example Request:

curl -X GET http://localhost/v1/students

Get Student by ID

GET /v1/students/{id}

• Description: Retrieves student by ID.
• Response: 200 OK / 404 Not Found

Example Request:

curl -X GET http://your-api-domain.com/v1/students/1

Create New Student

POST /v1/students

• Description: Creates a new student.
• Response: 200 Created / 400 Bad Request
• Request body:
  • name: string
  • age: number
  • department: string

Example Request:

curl -X POST http://localhost/v1/students \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Alice", "age": 23, "department": "MECH"}'

Delete Student by ID

DELETE /v1/students/{id}

• Description: Deletes student by ID.
• Response: 200 No Content / 404 Not Found

Example Request:

curl -X DELETE http://localhost/v1/students/4

Update Existing Student

PUT /v1/students/{id}

• Description: Updates student by ID.
• Response: 200 OK / 400 Bad Request / 404 Not Found
• Request body:
  • name: string
  • age: number
  • department: string

Example Request:

curl -X PUT http://localhost/v1/students/5 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Robert", "age": 24, "department": "ECE"}'

Conclusion

You now have a Node.js web server running on Ubuntu 22.04. This server can handle basic web requests and responds can be extended with more functionality as needed.