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Meteor.js

Meteor.js

Overview

Clever Cloud allows you to deploy any Meteor.js application. This page will explain how to set up your application to run it on our services.

Be sure your .meteor folder is in your git repository.

Create an application on Clever Cloud

With the web console

Refer to Quickstart for more details on application creation via the console.

With the Clever Tools CLI

  1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally or follow our CLI getting started guide.
  2. In your code folder, do clever create --type <type> <app-name> --region <zone> --org <org> where :
    1. type is the type of technology you rely on
    2. app-name the name you want for your application,
    3. zone deployment zone (par for Paris and mtl for Montreal)
    4. org the organization ID the application will be created under.

Refer to clever create for more details on application creation with Clever Tools.

Setting up environment variables on Clever Cloud

With the Clever Cloud console

  1. Go to the Clever Cloud console, and find the app you want to fine tune under it’s organization.
  2. Find the Environment variables menu and select it.
  3. In this menu, you will see a form with VARIABLE_NAME and variable value fields.
  4. Fill them with the desired values then select Add.
  5. Don’t forget to “Update Changes” at the end of the menu.

With the Clever Tools CLI

  1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally. Refer to our CLI getting started.
  2. In your code folder, do clever env set <variable-name> <variable-value>

Refer to environment variables reference for more details on available environment variables on Clever Cloud.

You can of course create custom ones with the interface we just demonstrated, they will be available for your application.

Configure your Meteor.js based application

Mandatory configuration

Set up environment variables

To run your Meteor.js application you need a few mandatory environment variables:

  • MONGO_URL: this is the mongo uri you can find in your mongodb’s dashboard, it has to start with mongodb://
  • ROOT_URL: this is your application’s root url. It has to start with http:// or https://
  • PORT: keep the current value of 8080

With Meteor 2.6.n comes MongoDB 5.n and the new npm driver. You need to append ?directConnection=true in your MONGO_URL to avoid the new mongo driver Service Discovery feature.

Optional Meteor settings as environment variable

Some application require a settings.json file to store api keys and other various private and public Meteor variables. You can declare a METEOR_SETTINGS environment variable and past the content of the json file as the value of this key.

Specify required Node.js version

Since building with the latest version of Node.js might fail, you should specify in the package.json file of the application the version needed for your Meteor application ; as shown in Deploying Node.js apps documentation. To find out which version is required by your application type the following command meteor node -v inside root folder.

Currently with Meteor 2.6.1 the Node.js version is 14.18.3 so you should add the following inside the package.json file.

  ...
  "engines": {
    "node": "14.18.3"
  },
  ...

You may change the node version value according to the application requirements.

Activate the dedicated build

Meteor.js uses a lot of memory during the build. You most likely will need to activate the dedicated build feature and set your vertical scaling size at least to M.

If your build still fails after you enabled the feature, please contact us on the support so we can set you a bigger scaler.

Automatic HTTPS redirection

You can use the force-ssl atmosphere package to redirect your users to the HTTPS version of your application.

Custom start parameters

If you want to set custom start parameters, the main entry point of built meteor applications is: .build/bundle/main.js. Add in the scripts.start field of the package.json: node .build/bundle/main.js <parameters>

Deployment process on Clever Cloud

At each deployment, the needed Meteor.js version will be read from .meteor/release and installed. Your application will then be built using meteor build --server-only and deployed from the files created by this command.

Environment injection

Clever Cloud injects environment variables from your application settings as mentioned in setting up environment variables and is also injecting in your application production environment, those from your linked add-ons.

Custom build configurations

On Clever Cloud you can define some build configuration: like the app folder to deploy or the path to validate your application deployment is ready To do that follow the documentation here and add the environement variable you need.

Git Deployment on Clever Cloud

You need Git on your computer to deploy via this tool. Here is the official website of Git to get more information: git-scm.com

Setting up your remotes

  1. The “Information” page of your app gives you your Git deployment URL, it looks like this:

    1. git+ssh://git@push.clever-cloud.com/<your_app_id>.git
    2. Copy it in your clipboard

  2. Locally, under your code folder, type in git init to set up a new git repository or skip this step if you already have one

  3. Add the deploy URL with git remote add <name> <your-git-deployment-url>

  4. Add your files via git add <files path> and commit them via git commit -m <your commit message>

  5. Now push your application on Clever Cloud with git push <name> master

Refer to git deployments for more details.

Linking a database or any other add-on to your application

By linking an application to an add-on, the application has the add-on environment variables in its own environment by default.

On add-on creation

Many add-ons do exist on Clever Cloud: refer to the full list and check add-ons dedicated pages for full instructions.

During add-on creation, an Applications screen appears, with a list of your applications. You can toggle the button to Link and click next. If you finish the process of add-on creation, the application is automatically linked to it.

Add-on already exists

In the Clever Cloud console, under the Service Dependencies menu of your application, you can use the Link add-ons dropdown menu to select the name of the add-on you want to link and use the add button to finish the process.

You can also link another application from the same page in the Clever Cloud console, using the Link applications dropdown menu.

Oplog Tailing

Oplog tailing is supported on dedicated databases (starting from Hazelnut size). Contact the support to enable oplog. Once enabled, set the following environment variable:

  • MONGO_OPLOG_URL: mongodb://[…]mongodb.services.clever-cloud.com:{DB_PORT}/local?authSource={DB_NAME}

Since Meteor 2.6.n the mongo driver detect the MONGO_OPLOG_URL by itself and you should not add this to your environment variables.

Migrate from a Node.js instance

If you want to migrate from your classic node.js app to a meteor application, contact our support in the console or at support@clever-cloud.com with the application id.

More configuration

Need more configuration? To run a script at the end of your deployment? To add your private SSH key to access private dependencies?

Go check the Common configuration page.

You may want to have an advanced usage of your application, in which case we recommend you to read the Administrate documentation section.

If you can’t find something or have a specific need like using a non supported version of a particular software, please reach out to the support.

Enable health check during deployment

The healthcheck allows you to limit downtimes. Indeed, you can provide Clever Cloud with paths to check. If these paths return something other than 200, the deployment will fail.

Add one (or several) environment variable as such:

CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH=/my/awesome/path

Or

CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH_0=/my/awesome/path
CC_HEALTH_CHECK_PATH_1=/my/other/path

The deployment process checks all paths. All of them must reply with a 200 OK response code.

By default, when no environment variable (for ex: APP_HOME) is defined, the monitoring checks your repository root path /.

Example

Using the path listed above, below are the expected logs:

Response from GET /my/awesome/path is 200
Response from GET /my/other/path is 500
Health check failed:
- GET /my/other/path returned 500.
If the deployment fails after this message, please update your configuration and redeploy.

In this example, the first path is OK, but the second one failed. This gives you a hint on what failed in your application.

Best practice for healthcheck endpoints

To make the most of a healthcheck endpoint, have it check your critical dependencies. For example:

  • execute SELECT 1 + 1; on your database
  • retrieve a specific Cellar file
  • ping a specific IP through a VPN
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