With these steps, your Node.js application will be deployed on AWS Elastic Beanstalk.
Common problems encountered
Despite the initial ease of the process, it is common to encounter errors that can frustrate deployment or cause performance issues. Below we review some of the most common problems.
Problems with Launch Templates
One of the first obstacles encountered when trying to greece telegram data deploy the application arose from a change introduced by AWS on October 1, 2024, which requires the use of Launch Templates instead of Launch Configurations . Elastic Beanstalk was attempting to use the old method, resulting in errors that prevented the environment from being created. The error message looked something like this:
ERROR: Service:AutoScaling, Status Code: 400, Request ID: [Request ID], Message: "The Launch Configuration creation operation is not available in your account. Use launch templates to create configuration templates for your Auto Scaling groups."
To work around this issue, it was necessary to “select” Launch Templates during the environment creation process. When asked if you want to enable Spot Fleet requests , you must answer 'y' (yes) and provide at least two supported instance types:
Would you like to enable Spot Fleet requests for this environment? (y/n): y
Enter a list of one or more valid EC2 instance types separated by commas (at least two instance types are recommended).
(Defaults provided on Enter): t3.micro, t3.small, m5.large
This setting allowed Elastic Beanstalk to use modern launch templates and resolved the configuration issue.
Dependency errors
One of the most common issues is related to application dependencies. Elastic Beanstalk uses a standard Linux environment to install and run applications, so any discrepancy between local and server dependencies can cause failures. Therefore, it is recommended to ensure that all dependencies are correctly listed in the package.json file and that the version of Node.js in Elastic Beanstalk is compatible with your code.
It's useful to check that your package.json file includes all the necessary dependencies, both for production and development. A common problem is losing dependencies when switching from local to production, which can be solved by making sure that the necessary modules are correctly listed under dependencies or devDependencies .
Node.js versions
Elastic Beanstalk supports multiple versions of Node.js, and it's important to make sure you're using the correct version. A common mistake is to deploy an application that requires a specific version of Node.js but isn't available in the Elastic Beanstalk environment.
To avoid this, you can explicitly define the Node.js version in your package.json under the engines section :
"engines": {
"node": ">=20.0.0"
}
If you do not specify this correctly, the system may use a default version, which can cause compatibility errors. It is important to match the local version with the one in the production environment to avoid conflicts.
Procfile Configuration
Another common issue faced by some developers is incorrect configuration of the Procfile , a file that tells Elastic Beanstalk how to run your application. If this file is misconfigured, Elastic Beanstalk will not know how to start your application, resulting in deployment errors.
An example of a Procfile for a Node.js application might look like this:
web: npm start
This file should be placed in the root of your project and ensure that the command being run (in this case npm start ) is the correct one to start your application.