Deploy Nuxt App on Ubuntu with Nginx

Install Node.js ¹

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"\n[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"
NODE_VERSION=22
nvm install $NODE_VERSION
node -v

Install PM2 ²

PM2 is a production process manager for Node.js applications with a built-in load balancer. It allows you to keep applications alive forever, to reload them without downtime and to facilitate common system admin tasks.

sudo npm install -g pm2

Install Nuxt App

cd
git clone https://user@bitbucket.org/org/nuxt-app.git nuxt-app
sudo mv nuxt-app /var/www
cd /var/www/nuxt-app

npm ci
npm run build

Create a new ecosystem.config.cjs file in your project root directory. You should commit this file.

module.exports = {
  apps: [
    {
      name: 'NuxtAppName',
      port: '3000',
      exec_mode: 'cluster',
      instances: 'max',
      script: './.output/server/index.mjs',
      env: {
        NODE_ENV: 'development',
        // Add your env variables here
      },
    },
  ],
}

pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs
pm2 save # Save the process lists
pm2 startup systemd # Ensure to start the daemon on reboot
pm2 list # See all processes

If you update the code, just reload pm2;

pm2 reload ecosystem.config.cjs

Setup NGINX

sudo apt install nginx
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/nuxt-app

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/nuxt-app /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Setup Firewall

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Set Up SSL (Optional)

To secure your site with HTTPS, you can use Let’s Encrypt to obtain an SSL certificate:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com

Verify

Verify by accessing your site using domain or ip address in the web browser.