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The Nodejitsu platform makes writing and deploying web applications a snap! In addition to simple yet powerful tools for deployment, the Nodejitsu platform also has snapshot management, database provisioning, database connectivity, and more!

There are three main tools for deploying and managing applications to Nodejitsu:

  • jitsu, the Nodejitsu command line tool
  • The Webops Web Application, an easy to use web interface for managing your applications
  • Nodejitsu's JSON API

Each of these tools allow developers to access the same functionality.

Application Scalability with Drones

Each deployed application runs as a drone on a forza application server. Because of this architecture, one app can be served by any amount of drones on arbitrary machines, giving you many options for scaling your application.

Load Balancer Sticky Sessions

When clients connect to the load balancers, they get routed to the same drone over multiple requests. This is required for WebSockets to work. After each deploy, the associations are lost, so this does not persist between deploys.

Zero Downtime Deploys

When deploying a new application, Nodejitsu keeps hosting your old app version until the new deploy is confirmed to be running. This means your applications never go down, even if you have a bad deploy.

Multi-Version Node Support

Nodejitsu allows users to choose which version of node they want their application to run on. In order to set your node version, specify it in your package.json's "engines" field. For example:

{
  "author": "Nodejitsu <josh@nodejitsu.com>",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node bin/server"
  },
  "analyze": false,
  "name": "helloworld",
  "engines": {
    "node": "0.10.x"
  }
}

If no node engine is specified, jitsu will prompt for it automatically. Currently Nodejitsu runs node 0.6.x, 0.8.x and 0.10.x.

Snapshots

Every time you deploy to Nodejitsu, we automatically take a snapshot of your application. Using any of our tools, you can view and manage snapshots, or even roll back to an old snapshot when disaster strikes in your production environment. During a deploy, nodejitsu will create a new snapshot automatically.

jitsu commands for snapshot management include:

  • jitsu snapshots list <app-name> will list all snapshots for an application.
  • jitsu snapshots activate <snapshot-name> allows you to choose which snapshot your drones are running.
  • jitsu snapshots fetch <snapshot-name> will download a specified snapshot of your application to your computer.

Databases

Applications on Nodejitsu are ready to be connected to any database. If you already have a database running, Nodejitsu can connect to your pre-existing database. If you require a new database, Nodejitsu can provide you free instances of several different types of databases. These free instances are great for development purposes or hobby sites. If you require a high traffic or production database we'll connect you with our database partners and you can speak directly to them about your database needs.

Creating new Databases

If you require database hosting you can create a new database instance of any of our supported databases using jitsu or Nodejitsu's API. Cloud database hosting is currently provided by IrisCouch, RedisToGo and MongoLab.

Existing Databases

If you already have an externally hosted Database, Nodejitsu is capable of connecting to it. We've got Database hosting if you need it, but we fully support externally hosted Databases.

Connecting Applications to Databases

Whenever you create a database using Nodejitsu, you will be provided with all the information you need to connect to your database.

CouchDB

If you run jitsu databases create couchdb myCouch, jitsu will tell you the url for your new CouchDB from IrisCouch:

info:    Welcome to Nodejitsu user
info:    It worked if it ends with Nodejitsu ok
info:    Executing command databases create couchdb myCouch
info:    Database myCouch was created.
data:    Database Type: couch
data:    Database Name: myCouch
data:    Connection url: http://subdomain.iriscouch.com:5984
data:    SSL connection url: https://subdomain.iriscouch.com:6984
info:    Nodejitsu ok

You can connect to this database using any http client, or a CouchDB specific library. For example, you can connect with curl:

$ curl http://subdomain.iriscouch.com:5984

Or, you can connect with nano:

var nano = require('nano')('http://nodejitsudb944957670256.iriscouch.com:5984');

You can also access your database in your browser by going to http://subdomain.iriscouch.com:5984/_utils.

MongoDB

If you run jitsu databases create mongo myMongo, jitsu will supply a connection string for your new MongoDB database on MongoLab:

info:   Welcome to Nodejitsu user
info:   It worked if it ends with Nodejitsu ok
info:   Executing command databases create mongo myMongo
info:   A new mongo has been created
info:   Database name: myMongo
info:   Database type: mongo
info:   Connection url: mongodb://nodejitsu:pass@subdomain.mongolab.com:10057/myMongo
info:   Nodejitsu ok

You can connect to this using the mongo CLI client tool like so:

$ mongo subdomain.mongolab.com:100027/myMongo -u nodejitsu -p pass

or with the mongodb-native module:

var mongodb = require('mongodb'),
    db = new mongodb.Db('myMongo',
      new mongodb.Server('subdomain.mongolab.com', 10027, {})
    );

db.open(function open(err, db_p) {
  if (err) {
    throw err;
  }

  db.authenticate('nodejitsu', 'pass', function authenticate(err, replies) {
    if (err) {
      throw err;
    }

    // You are now connected and authenticated.
  });
});

or with Mongoose, you can copy-paste this URL directly into the library's connect method:

var mongoose = require('mongoose');
mongoose.connect('mongodb://nodejitsu:pass@subdomain.mongolab.com:10057/myMongo');

Redis

Running jitsu databases create redis myRedis will create a Redis instance supplied by IrisCouch:

info:    Welcome to Nodejitsu user
info:    It worked if it ends with Nodejitsu ok
info:    Executing command databases create r testRedis
info:    A new redis has been created
data:    Database Type: redis
data:    Database Name: testRedis
data:    Connection host: subdomain.redistogo.com
data:    Connection port: 5309
data:    Connection auth: pass
info:    Nodejitsu ok

Note: Some versions of jitsu may show a connection string, e.g. redis://nodejitsu:pass@subdomain.redistogo.com:5309.

You can connect to your Redis with the redis-cli CLI client:

$ redis-cli -h subdomain.redistogo.com -p 5309 -a pass

Or with the redis module:

var redis = require('redis'),
    client = redis.createClient(5309, 'subdomain.redistogo.com');

client.auth('pass', function authenticate(err) {
  if (err) {
    throw err;
  }

  // You are now authed with your redis.
});

Note: If you are using an older version of node_redis(<0.8.0), You may have to explicitly use its JavaScript parser instead of the optional native module hiredis that may be packaged with it, as there are issues compiling on the Nodejitsu platform. Passing { parser: 'javascript' } to redis.createClient will ensure usage of the JavaScript parser. Check out the other possible options in the node redis docs.

Environment Variable Management

Nodejitsu allows users to modify the environment variables exposed to their apps using jitsu and our other tools. When an environment variable is changed it is necessary restart your app for it to take effect.

Available commands are list, get, set, delete, and clear.

  • jitsu env list will list any and all environment variables in an apps current working directory (Note: the app needs to have been deployed before the environment variables can be accessed).
  • jitsu env list <myapp> will list any and all environment variables related to <myapp> in an account.
  • jitsu env get <key> will display the apps key environment variable <value>.
  • jitsu env set <key> <value> will set the apps <key> environment variable to <value>.
  • jitsu env delete <key> will delete the apps <key> environment variable.
  • jitsu env clear will delete all of the apps environment variables after a prompt.

An Example:

$ jitsu env set NODE_ENV production

This will set the environment variable NODE_ENV to have the string value production. Remember, this will not take effect until the app is started again (jitsu apps start -- there is no need to take your app down with a restart with the zero downtime deploys).

Piggyback SSL nodejitsu.com, jitsu.com and jit.su

Our balancers can proxy HTTPS to http (SSL termination), so you get free SSL on nodejitsu.com subdomains automatically! For example, the app behind http://nodejitsu.com is serving http, but visiting https://nodejitsu.com works without any special action on your part.

If you need to identify if you are receiving http or HTTPS traffic use the x-forwarded-proto response header value, see headers.jit.su for more information on headers passed through the balancers.

Custom Domains

We allow users to host their applications on custom domains by specifying their app's domains in their package.json and then properly configuring their DNS. If you'd like to know how, just read the instructions at our DNS section!

SSL Certificates for Custom Domains

Our balancers use SNI which allow them to receive SSL traffic from multiple domains---including yours! If, for example, you owned mydomain.com and wanted secure connections, all you need are your .pem and .key files!

Note: This feature is only available to users with business plans. If you need help with this feature, please contact support at support@nodejitsu.com.