Your First Deploy

This guide continues from Quickstart. You should already have a hostfn.config.json file in your project.

Step 1: Set Up the Server

HostFn can automatically provision your server with everything needed for deployments:

hostfn server setup ubuntu@my-server.com

This installs:

Node.js (via nvm) at the version specified in your config
PM2 process manager for running and monitoring your app
Nginx reverse proxy for handling HTTP traffic
Certbot for SSL certificates
rsync for file syncing
UFW firewall rules (ports 22, 80, 443)

The setup takes 2-5 minutes and streams output to your terminal so you can follow progress.

Optional: Install Redis

hostfn server setup ubuntu@my-server.com --redis

Step 2: Push Environment Variables

If your app needs environment variables (database URLs, API keys, etc.), push them to the server before deploying:

# Push an entire .env file
hostfn env push production .env.production

# Or set individual variables
hostfn env set production DATABASE_URL "postgresql://..."
hostfn env set production JWT_SECRET "my-secret-key"

Step 3: Deploy

With the server ready and environment variables in place, deploy your application:

hostfn deploy production

HostFn executes a 7-phase deployment:

$ hostfn deploy production

  Deploy Application

  Application       my-api
  Runtime           nodejs
  Environment       production
  Server            ubuntu@my-server.com
  Port              3000

  ── Pre-flight Checks ──

  ✔ rsync available
  ✔ Connected to server
  ✔ Node.js v20.11.0 ready
  ✔ Remote directory created
  ✔ Deployment lock acquired

  ── Syncing Files ──

  ✔ Files synced successfully

  ── Building Application ──

  ✔ Dependencies installed
  ✔ Build completed

  ── Creating Backup ──

  ℹ No existing deployment to backup

  ── Deploying Service ──

  ✔ Service started

  ── Health Check ──

  ✔ Health check passed

  ✅ Deployment completed successfully!

  Environment  production
  Service      my-api-production
  Duration     34s
  Health URL   http://my-server.com:3000/health

  Next steps:

  1. Configure domain and SSL (if needed):
  $ hostfn expose production

  2. View logs:
  $ hostfn logs production

Step 4: Configure Domain and SSL

If you have a domain configured, expose your service through Nginx with SSL:

hostfn expose production

This will:

Generate an Nginx reverse proxy configuration
Write it to the server
Obtain an SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt
Configure automatic HTTPS redirect

After this, your app will be accessible at https://api.example.com.

Step 5: Verify

Check your deployment status:

# View service status (memory, CPU, uptime)
hostfn status production

# View application logs
hostfn logs production

# View server information
hostfn server info ubuntu@my-server.com

What Happens on Subsequent Deploys

After the first deployment, subsequent deploys are faster because:

The server is already set up
Dependencies are partially cached
PM2 performs a zero-downtime reload instead of a cold start
A backup is created before each deployment in case a rollback is needed

Simply run hostfn deploy production again whenever you want to deploy new changes.