Deploying QuizAPI on DigitalOcean: A Production Setup Guide

From Local to Production

Your quiz API works on your machine. Now you need it to work for everyone, reliably, with HTTPS, behind a reverse proxy, and with a managed database that handles backups. DigitalOcean is a solid choice for this - the pricing is predictable, the setup is straightforward, and you get managed PostgreSQL without running your own database server.

This guide walks you through the full production deployment: Droplet setup, Node.js with PM2, Nginx reverse proxy, Let's Encrypt SSL, and managed PostgreSQL. By the end, your API will be live at https://api.yourdomain.com.

If you do not have a DigitalOcean account yet, you can sign up here and get free credits to follow along.

Prerequisites

A domain name with DNS access
An SSH key pair for server access
Your quiz API code in a Git repository

Creating the Droplet

Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Plan: Basic, 2 vCPUs / 4 GB RAM ($24/month) - sufficient for most quiz APIs
Datacenter: Choose the region closest to your users
Authentication: SSH key (never use password auth for production)

Once the Droplet is created, point your domain's DNS A record to the Droplet's IP address:

api.yourdomain.com -> YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Initial Server Setup

SSH into the Droplet and secure it:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Create a non-root user:

adduser deploy
usermod -aG sudo deploy

# Copy SSH keys to the new user
rsync --archive --chown=deploy:deploy ~/.ssh /home/deploy

Set up the firewall:

ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
ufw enable

Switch to the deploy user for all subsequent steps:

su - deploy

Installing Node.js

Install Node.js 20 LTS using the NodeSource repository:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Verify the installation:

node --version
npm --version

Setting Up the Application

Clone your repository and install dependencies:

mkdir -p ~/apps
cd ~/apps
git clone [email protected]:yourusername/quiz-api.git
cd quiz-api
npm ci --production

Create the environment file:

nano ~/.env.quiz-api

Add your production configuration:

NODE_ENV=production
PORT=3000
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@db-host:25060/quizapi?sslmode=require
QUIZAPI_SECRET=your-secret-key
API_KEY_SALT=your-random-salt

Secure the file:

chmod 600 ~/.env.quiz-api

Run the database migrations:

cd ~/apps/quiz-api
export $(cat ~/.env.quiz-api | xargs)
npx prisma migrate deploy

PM2 Process Management

PM2 keeps your application running, restarts it on crashes, and manages logs:

sudo npm install -g pm2

Create a PM2 ecosystem file at ~/apps/quiz-api/ecosystem.config.cjs:

1module.exports = {
2  apps: [
3    {
4      name: "quiz-api",
5      script: "dist/server.js",
6      instances: "max",
7      exec_mode: "cluster",
8      env_file: "/home/deploy/.env.quiz-api",
9      max_memory_restart: "500M",
10      log_date_format: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss Z",
11      error_file: "/home/deploy/logs/quiz-api-error.log",
12      out_file: "/home/deploy/logs/quiz-api-out.log",
13      merge_logs: true,
14    },
15  ],
16};

Create the logs directory and start the application:

mkdir -p ~/logs
cd ~/apps/quiz-api
npm run build
pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs

Verify it is running:

pm2 status
pm2 logs quiz-api --lines 20

Set PM2 to start on boot:

pm2 startup systemd
# Run the command it outputs
pm2 save

Nginx Reverse Proxy

Install Nginx:

sudo apt install -y nginx

Create the site configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/quiz-api

1upstream quiz_api {
2    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
3    keepalive 64;
4}
5
6server {
7    listen 80;
8    server_name api.yourdomain.com;
9
10    # Security headers
11    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
12    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
13    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
14    add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;
15
16    # Request size limit
17    client_max_body_size 10M;
18
19    # Gzip compression
20    gzip on;
21    gzip_types application/json text/plain application/javascript;
22    gzip_min_length 1000;
23
24    location / {
25        proxy_pass http://quiz_api;
26        proxy_http_version 1.1;
27        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
28        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
29        proxy_set_header Host $host;
30        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
31        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
32        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
33        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
34        proxy_read_timeout 60s;
35        proxy_send_timeout 60s;
36    }
37
38    # Health check endpoint - no logging
39    location /health {
40        proxy_pass http://quiz_api;
41        access_log off;
42    }
43}

Enable the site and reload Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/quiz-api /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Test that the proxy works:

curl http://api.yourdomain.com/health

SSL with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Obtain and configure the SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --nginx -d api.yourdomain.com

Certbot automatically modifies your Nginx config to redirect HTTP to HTTPS and adds the certificate paths. Verify auto-renewal works:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Managed PostgreSQL

Create a managed PostgreSQL database from the DigitalOcean control panel:

Engine: PostgreSQL 16
Plan: Basic, 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM ($15/month)
Datacenter: Same region as your Droplet

After creation, restrict access to your Droplet's IP in the Trusted Sources settings. Copy the connection string and update your environment file:

nano ~/.env.quiz-api
# Update DATABASE_URL with the connection string from DigitalOcean

Restart the application:

cd ~/apps/quiz-api
export $(cat ~/.env.quiz-api | xargs)
npx prisma migrate deploy
pm2 restart quiz-api

Deployment Script

Automate future deployments with a script at ~/deploy.sh:

1#!/bin/bash
2set -e
3
4APP_DIR=~/apps/quiz-api
5LOG_FILE=~/logs/deploy-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log
6
7echo "Starting deployment at $(date)" | tee "$LOG_FILE"
8
9cd "$APP_DIR"
10
11# Pull latest code
12echo "Pulling latest code..." | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
13git pull origin main 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
14
15# Install dependencies
16echo "Installing dependencies..." | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
17npm ci --production 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
18
19# Build
20echo "Building..." | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
21npm run build 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
22
23# Run migrations
24echo "Running database migrations..." | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
25export $(cat ~/.env.quiz-api | xargs)
26npx prisma migrate deploy 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
27
28# Reload PM2 with zero-downtime
29echo "Reloading application..." | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
30pm2 reload quiz-api 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
31
32echo "Deployment complete at $(date)" | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
33
34# Verify health
35sleep 2
36HTTP_STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://api.yourdomain.com/health)
37if [ "$HTTP_STATUS" = "200" ]; then
38    echo "Health check passed" | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
39else
40    echo "WARNING: Health check returned $HTTP_STATUS" | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
41fi

Make it executable:

chmod +x ~/deploy.sh

Monitoring

Set up basic monitoring with PM2 and system tools:

1# Check application status
2pm2 monit
3
4# View logs in real-time
5pm2 logs quiz-api
6
7# Check system resources
8htop
9
10# Check disk usage
11df -h

For more comprehensive monitoring, see our guide on Monitoring Quiz API Performance with Prometheus and Grafana.

Summary

Your quiz API is now running in production with:

PM2 handling process management, clustering, and automatic restarts
Nginx as a reverse proxy with security headers and gzip compression
Let's Encrypt providing free, auto-renewing SSL certificates
Managed PostgreSQL with automated backups and easy scaling
A deployment script for zero-downtime updates

The total cost starts at around $39/month on DigitalOcean - $24 for the Droplet and $15 for managed PostgreSQL. Scale up as your traffic grows by resizing the Droplet or adding read replicas to the database.