Deploy My First Node.js App on AWS: EC2 + Docker + RDS MySQL Explained

Hi everyone,
My name is Soumen Bhunia. This is my first blog. In this blog, I build and deploy my first Node.js app using Docker, hosted on an AWS EC2 instance, and connected to a MySQL database hosted via Amazon RDS

Technologies Used

• Node.js – JavaScript runtime to build the server-side app
• Docker – For containerizing the Node.js app
• Amazon EC2 – Virtual server for running the Docker container
• Amazon RDS (MySQL) – Managed MySQL database service
• AWS Security Groups – For access control to EC2 and RDS

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Step 1: Create an RDS MySQL Instance

1. Go to Amazon RDS Console.
2. Click Create Database.
3. Choose:
   • Engine type: MySQL
   • Use case: Free Tier
4. Under Settings:
   • Set a DB instance identifier
   • Master username: admin
   • Master password: Set a secure password (avoid special characters like @, %, etc.)
5. In Connectivity:
   • Enable Public access = Yes (for development purposes)
   • Create a new VPC security group
   • Add an inbound rule to allow MySQL/Aurora (port 3306) from Anywhere (0.0.0.0/0)

After RDS is created, copy the endpoint/hostname — you'll use it to connect your app to the database.

Step 2: Launch and Configure an EC2 Instance

1. Go to Amazon EC2 Console.

2. Launch a new instance:

   • Amazon Linux 2 AMI (Free Tier eligible)
   • Choose t2.micro (Free Tier)

3. In Security Group, allow:

   • HTTP (port 80) – for web traffic
   • SSH (port 22) – for connecting to the instance
   • Optional: Restrict access by IP for SSH

Step 3: Install Docker on EC2

Once connected to EC2, run the following:

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y docker
sudo service docker start
sudo usermod -aG docker ec2-user

Important: Log out and log back in to activate Docker permissions for ec2-user.

Step 4: Run the Dockerized Node.js App

Pull the Docker image:

sudo docker pull philippaul/node-mysql-app:02

Then run your container, replacing the values with your actual RDS credentials:

docker run --rm -p 80:3000 \
-e DB_HOST="your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com" \
-e DB_USER="admin" \
-e DB_PASSWORD="your-db-password" \
-d philippaul/node-mysql-app:02

Your app should now be accessible at your EC2 public IP on port 80.

Web interface screenshot

Optional: Test the MySQL Connection

You can test connecting to the database from inside EC2 using a MySQL Docker client:

docker run -it --rm mysql:8.0 mysql \
-h your-db-endpoint.rds.amazonaws.com \
-u admin -p

Enter your password when prompted. If you connect successfully — your EC2 can talk to your RDS instance.

Thanks for Reading!

Hope this gives you some perspective.

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