Deploy a MEAN Stack through the Linode Marketplace

A MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js) stack is a free and open-source web software bundle used to build modern web applications:

• MongoDB is a document database used to persist your application’s data.

• Express serves as the web application framework.

• Angular is used to build your application’s user interfaces using JavaScript. Angular offers Web Workers and server-side rendering that helps your applications achieve the maximum speed possible on the Web Platform.

• Node.js serves as the run-time environment for your application.

MEAN is a full-stack JavaScript-based framework consisting of MongoDB database, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and NodeJS. You can build entire web applications on JavaScript, from client to server to database with this stack. Single-language programming makes it easier to develop working applications more quickly without sacrificing functionality and features.

Deploying a Marketplace App

The Linode Marketplace lets you easily deploy software on a Compute Instance using Cloud Manager. See Get Started with Marketplace Apps for complete steps.

1. Log in to Cloud Manager and select the Marketplace link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Complete the form by following the steps and advice within the Creating a Compute Instance guide. Depending on the Marketplace App you selected, there may be additional configuration options available. See the Configuration Options section below for compatible distributions, recommended plans, and any additional configuration options available for this Marketplace App.

4. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Compute Instance has been provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail.

To verify that the app has been fully installed, see Get Started with Marketplace Apps > Verify Installation. Once installed, follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section to access the application and start using it.

Configuration Options

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Recommended minimum plan: 1GB Shared Compute Instance or higher, depending on the number of sites and size of the sites you plan on hosting.

MEAN Options

• Email address (required): Enter the email address to use for generating the SSL certificates.

Limited Sudo User

You need to fill out the following fields to automatically create a limited sudo user, with a strong generated password for your new Compute Instance. This account will be assigned to the sudo group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the sudo prefix.

• Limited sudo user: Enter your preferred username for the limited user. No Capital Letters, Spaces, or Special Characters.

  Locating The Generated Sudo Password

  A password is generated for the limited user and stored in a .credentials file in their home directory, along with application specific passwords. This can be viewed by running: cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials

  For best results, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user that is deploying the instance, and select that user as an authorized_user in the API or by selecting that option in Cloud Manager. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both root and the limited user.

• Disable root access over SSH: To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. You can still switch to the root user once logged in, and you can also log in as root through Lish.

  Accessing The Instance Without SSH

  If you disable root access for your deployment and do not provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the authorized_user, you will need to login as the root user via the Lish console and run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view the generated password for the limited user.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish to automatically configure a custom domain, you first need to configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers. This is typically accomplished directly through your registrar. See Use Linode’s Name Servers with Your Domain. Once that is finished, you can fill out the following fields for the Marketplace App:

• Linode API Token: If you wish to use the Linode’s DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain, create a Linode API Personal Access Token on your account with Read/Write access to Domains. If this is provided along with the subdomain and domain fields (outlined below), the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. See Get an API Access Token. If you do not provide this field, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
• Subdomain: The subdomain you wish to use, such as www for www.example.com.
• Domain: The domain name you wish to use, such as example.com.

Getting Started After Deployment

Once the app is deployed, you need to obtain the credentials from the server.

To obtain credentials:

1. Log in to your new Compute Instance using one of the methods below:

   • Lish Console: Log in to Cloud Manager, click the Linodes link in the left menu, and select the Compute Instance you just deployed. Click Launch LISH Console. Log in as the root user. To learn more, see Using the Lish Console.
   • SSH: Log in to your Compute Instance over SSH using the root user. To learn how, see Connecting to a Remote Server Over SSH.

2. Run the following command to access the credentials file:

   cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials

This returns passwords that were automatically generated when the instance was deployed. Save them. Once saved, you can safely delete the file.

Once deployed, a Hello World sample application should be running. The Express backend runs on port 5000, and Nginx serves the Angular frontend through your custom domain or rDNS domain over ports 80 and 443. Follow the instructions below to view or access it.

Accessing the MEAN App through the Command Line

The MEAN stack components are organized as follows:

• Frontend (Angular): /var/www/[domain]
• Backend (Express): /var/www/[domain]/backend

To access these components within the command line:

1. Log in to your Compute Instance via SSH or Lish.

2. Go to the backend directory:

   cd /var/www/[domain]/backend
   

3. To view the Express server file, run:

   cat server.js
   

4. To view the Angular frontend files, run:

   cd /var/www/[domain]
   ls
   

Viewing the MEAN App through a Web Browser

Open your web browser and navigate to https://[domain], where [domain] is the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Compute Instance’s rDNS domain (such as 192-0-2-1.ip.linodeusercontent.com). See the Managing IP Addresses guide for information on viewing rDNS.

Software Included

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• MongoDB Getting Started
• Express Hello World Example
• Angular Getting Started
• Node.js Getting Started
• PM2 Getting Started