Setup reverse proxy NodeJS

Setup reverse proxy NodeJS

This example creates a small Node.js 20+ application inside the Devilbox PHP container, runs it with pm2, and proxies the virtual host to the Node process through the Devilbox vhost-gen reverse proxy templates.

Overview

Project name	Container path	Database	TLD_SUFFIX	Project URL
my-node	/shared/httpd/my-node	none	lvh.me	http://my-node.lvh.me / https://my-node.lvh.me

The Node.js application listens on port 4000 inside the PHP container. Devilbox HTTPD proxies requests from my-node.lvh.me to php:4000.

Tip

For isolated Node services, you can also attach a dedicated Node container with a Docker Compose override. This page keeps the classic PHP-container proxy mechanism and updates the commands for the DVL CLI.

Prerequisites

• Devilbox installed with PHP, HTTPD, and Bind services.
• Node.js 20 LTS or newer and pm2 available in the selected PHP image.
• Docker Compose v2 through Docker.

Start the stack:

./dvl.sh up php httpd bind

Walk through

It will be ready in nine steps:

1. Enter the PHP container.
2. Create a new virtual host directory.
3. Create a Node.js application.
4. Create a placeholder htdocs directory.
5. Add reverse-proxy vhost-gen config files.
6. Create an autostart script.
7. Verify DNS.
8. Restart Devilbox.
9. Open the project in a browser.

1. Enter the PHP container

./dvl.sh shell php83

Confirm the runtime:

node --version
pm2 --version

Use Node.js 20 LTS or newer.

2. Create the vhost directory

mkdir -p /shared/httpd/my-node
cd /shared/httpd/my-node

3. Create the Node.js application

mkdir src
vi src/index.js

import http from 'node:http';

const server = http.createServer((request, response) => {
  response.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  response.end('Hello from Node.js 20 on Devilbox\n');
});

server.listen(4000, '0.0.0.0');

Add a minimal package file:

cat > package.json <<'JSON'
{
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node src/index.js"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=20"
  }
}
JSON

4. Create a placeholder docroot

Reverse-proxy projects still need an htdocs directory so the Devilbox intranet recognizes the virtual host.

mkdir htdocs

5. Add reverse-proxy vhost-gen config files

Leave the container and copy the reverse-proxy templates from the Devilbox directory on the host:

exit
cd /path/to/devilbox
mkdir -p data/www/my-node/.devilbox
cp cfg/vhost-gen/apache22.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-node/.devilbox/apache22.yml
cp cfg/vhost-gen/apache24.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-node/.devilbox/apache24.yml
cp cfg/vhost-gen/nginx.yml-example-rproxy data/www/my-node/.devilbox/nginx.yml

Edit each copied template and change the upstream port from 8000 to 4000.

Apache templates should contain:

ProxyPass / http://php:4000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://php:4000/

The Nginx template should contain:

location / {
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_pass http://php:4000;
}

6. Create an autostart script

Copy the Node.js autostart template and register your app path:

cd /path/to/devilbox
cp autostart/run-node-js-projects.sh-example autostart/run-node-js-projects.sh
vi autostart/run-node-js-projects.sh

Set the project list to the internal container path:

NODE_PROJECTS=(
    "/shared/httpd/my-node/src/index.js"
)

If your template starts files directly with pm2, keep that behavior. If you prefer npm scripts, use a small custom startup command that runs pm2 start npm --name my-node -- start from /shared/httpd/my-node.

7. Verify DNS

my-node.lvh.me resolves to localhost by default. For another suffix, add a hosts-file record.

8. Restart Devilbox

./dvl.sh restart

Or recycle only the required services:

./dvl.sh down
./dvl.sh up php httpd bind

9. Open your browser

Visit http://my-node.lvh.me or https://my-node.lvh.me. The web server proxies the request to the Node.js process on port 4000.

Managing Node.js

Enter the container and inspect pm2:

./dvl.sh shell php83
pm2 list
pm2 logs my-node

For a one-off status check from the host, run:

./dvl.sh exec "pm2 list"

Next steps

• Move larger Node services to a dedicated container when they need separate dependencies.
• Configure trusted HTTPS before testing browser APIs.
• Keep ports unique when multiple reverse-proxy apps run in the PHP container.