So today I had to setup an EC2 server running a Node server on AWS that needed a load balancer and SSL. After looking online I found a lot of articles with information missing or instructions written for old versions of AWS and even sometimes not in the correct order. So I created this article to help anybody in the same position I was in.

Part 1: Create EC2 Instance



1. Launch EC2 Instance

1. Log into AWS Console → EC2 Dashboard
2. Click "Launch Instance"
3. Name your instance (e.g., "nodejs-server")
4. Choose Amazon Linux 2023 or Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS (recommended)
5. Instance type: t2.micro (free tier) or larger
6. Create/select a key pair (download .pem file - keep it safe!)
7. Network settings:
8. Create/select a VPC
9. Enable auto-assign public IP
10. Create a new security group (we'll configure it later)
11. Configure storage: 8-30 GB
12. Click "Launch Instance"

2. Connect to Your Instance

ssh -i "your-key.pem" ec2-user@your-ec2-public-ip

(Use ubuntu@ instead of ec2-user@ for Ubuntu)

Part 2. Install Node.js

For Amazon Linux 2023:

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install nodejs -y
sudo dnf install npm -y

For Ubuntu:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.0/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install --lts

Part 3: Setup Your Node.js Application

1. Create application directory

mkdir ~/myapp
cd ~/myapp
npm init -y
npm install express

2. Create server (server.js):

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const PORT = 3000;

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello from EC2 with ALB!');
});

app.get('/health', (req, res) => {
  res.status(200).send('OK');
});

app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`);
});

3. Install PM2 (process manager)

sudo npm install -g pm2
pm2 start server.js
pm2 startup
pm2 save

Part 4: Configure EC2 Security Group

1. Go to EC2 → Security Groups
2. Select your instance's security group
3. Configure Inbound Rules:
4. SSH (22) - Source: Your IP only (for security)
5. Custom TCP (3000) - Source: ALB security group (we'll create this next)
6. Remove any HTTP/HTTPS rules (ALB will handle this)

Part 5. Request SSL Certificate (AWS Certificate Manager)

1. Go to AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
2. Click "Request certificate"
3. Choose "Request a public certificate"
4. Add domain names:
5. yourdomain.com
6. www.yourdomain.com
7. Or use *.yourdomain.com for wildcard
8. Validation method: DNS validation (recommended)
9. Click "Request"
10. Add DNS records for validation:
11. ACM will show you CNAME records
12. Add these to your domain's DNS settings
13. Wait for status to change to "Issued" (5-30 minutes)

Part 6: Create Target Group

1. Go to EC2 → Target Groups
2. Click "Create target group"
3. Configure:
4. Target type: Instances
5. Target group name: nodejs-tg
6. Protocol: HTTP
7. Port: 3000
8. VPC: Select your VPC
9. Protocol version: HTTP1
10. Health checks:
11. Health check protocol: HTTP
12. Health check path: /health
13. Advanced settings (optional):
14. Healthy threshold: 2
15. Unhealthy threshold: 2
16. Timeout: 5
17. Interval: 30
18. Click "Next"
19. Register targets:
20. Select your EC2 instance
21. Port: 3000
22. Click "Include as pending below"
23. Click "Create target group"

Part 7: Create Application Load Balancer

1. Go to EC2 → Load Balancers
2. Click "Create Load Balancer"
3. Choose Application Load Balancer
4. Basic configuration:
5. Name: nodejs-alb
6. Scheme: Internet-facing
7. IP address type: IPv4
8. Network mapping:
9. VPC: Select your VPC
10. Mappings: Select at least 2 availability zones
11. Security groups:
12. Create new security group or select existing:
13. Allow HTTP (80) from 0.0.0.0/0
14. Allow HTTPS (443) from 0.0.0.0/0
15. Listeners and routing:
16. HTTP:80: Forward to nodejs-tg
17. Click "Add listener"
18. HTTPS:443: Forward to nodejs-tg
19. Default SSL/TLS certificate: Select your ACM certificate
20. Click "Create load balancer"

Part 8: Update EC2 Security Group

Now that ALB is created:

1. Go to EC2 → Security Groups
2. Select your EC2 instance security group
3. Edit Inbound Rules for port 3000:
4. Custom TCP (3000) - Source: Select the ALB security group
5. Save rules

Part 9: Configure HTTP to HTTPS Redirect

1. Go to EC2 → Load Balancers
2. Select your ALB
3. Click Listeners tab
4. Select the HTTP:80 listener
5. Click Actions → Edit listener
6. Remove the forward action
7. Add Redirect action:
8. Protocol: HTTPS
9. Port: 443
10. Status code: 301 (permanent redirect)
11. Save changes

Part 10: Configure Domain DNS

1. Get your ALB DNS name:
2. Go to Load Balancers → Select your ALB
3. Copy the DNS name (looks like: nodejs-alb-1234567890.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com)
4. Configure DNS Records (in your domain registrar):
5. Add CNAME Record: www → Your ALB DNS name
6. Add A Record or ALIAS Record (if supported): @ → Your ALB DNS name
7. Note: If your registrar supports ALIAS records (like Route 53), use that for the root domain. Otherwise:
8. Alternative: Use Route 53 (recommended for AWS):
9. Go to Route 53 → Hosted Zones
10. Create hosted zone for your domain (if not exists)
11. Create A Record:
12. Name: @ (root) or leave blank
13. Type: A
14. Alias: Yes
15. Route traffic to: ALB
16. Region: Your region
17. Select your load balancer
18. Create A Record for www:
19. Name: www
20. Type: A
21. Alias: Yes
22. Route traffic to: ALB
23. Select your load balancer
24. Update nameservers at your domain registrar to Route 53 nameservers

Part 11: Verify Everything Works

1. Wait 5-30 minutes for DNS propagation
2. Visit http://yourdomain.com → Should redirect to HTTPS
3. Visit https://yourdomain.com → Should show your app with valid SSL
4. Check ALB health:
5. EC2 → Target Groups → Select nodejs-tg
6. Targets tab → Should show "healthy"

You now have a Node server running on an EC2 with an AWS load balancer! 🥳