Skip to content

Recipe: Deploy Node.js with Docker on Elastic Beanstalk

Prerequisites

  • Node.js application prepared for container packaging.
  • Elastic Beanstalk Docker platform target environment.
  • Docker tooling available locally for image testing.
  • Understanding of Dockerfile and Dockerrun.aws.json options.

What You'll Build

You will package a Node.js app into a Docker image for single-container Elastic Beanstalk deployments and understand how Dockerrun.aws.json can describe container deployment metadata.

flowchart TD
    A[Node.js Source] --> B[Dockerfile Build]
    B --> C[Container Image]
    C --> D[Elastic Beanstalk Docker Environment]
    E[Dockerrun.aws.json] --> D
    D --> F[Application Endpoint]

Steps

  1. Create a Dockerfile for your Node.js web process.

    FROM public.ecr.aws/docker/library/node:18

WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --omit=dev
COPY . .

ENV PORT=8080
EXPOSE 8080
CMD ["npm", "start"]

  2. Build and test the image locally.

    docker build --tag eb-nodejs-docker:latest .
docker run --publish 8080:8080 eb-nodejs-docker:latest

  3. Prepare deployment descriptor if using Dockerrun.aws.json format.

  4. Initialize or update Elastic Beanstalk environment on Docker platform branch.

  5. Deploy containerized application version.

    eb deploy

  6. Validate endpoint behavior and logs.

  7. Keep image build deterministic for repeatable deployments.

    • Use explicit base image tags.
    • Use lockfile-based dependency installation.
    • Keep build context minimal to reduce drift.

  8. Capture platform-level metadata for operations runbooks.

    Platform: Docker running on 64bit Amazon Linux 2023
Image Tag: <image-tag>
Application Version: <version-label>

Verification

  • Container image builds successfully from repository source.
  • Application listens on container port compatible with environment routing.
  • Elastic Beanstalk deployment succeeds on Docker platform.
  • Endpoint returns expected application response after deployment.
  • Deployment metadata is recorded with placeholder identifiers.

See Also

Sources