5 ms·

Nodester - Open-source Heroku-style hosting for node.js

38 points by cgbystrom 16y ago

gcv 16y ago
Has anyone actually tried this, or something similar? A hosted node.js combined with a hosted CouchDB? Does it work well? Is it actually easy to program? Does it perform well?
- js4all 16y ago
  I have used it for a web statistics/analytics site. The combo is killer. And CouchDB's group level map-reduces make the data aggregation a snap.
futuremint 16y ago
I have a project at work that uses CouchDB & node.js, but it isn't hosted. I have Cloudant, CouchOne & no.de accounts, but haven't had enough free time to finish a side project to put them to good use. Node & couch together are a pretty nice combo though, it's just JSON & JavaScript all the way. There is no context switching between programming languages like what is typical using Ruby or whatever for your application layer. Been shoveling lots of ice & snow in my spare time instead :(
vincentpants 16y ago
I'd love a 'coupon' to register for this site. This would be the perfect test bed for hosted node.js tools.
- aaronblohowiak 16y ago
  curl -X POST -d "email=your_address@gmail.com" http://nodester.com/coupon http://nodester.com/coupon
js4all 16y ago
Nodester is a super cool project, because it is a node.js hosting platform that is fully open source. I am preparing a similar node.js and couchdb hosting site (http://cloudno.de http://cloudno.de) based on the work of Chris and Dan. I guess there are some more coming and the long wait for a coupon/invite will be soon over.
ianhawes 16y ago
Just a heads up in the e-mail that I received from them: "Our database was compromised and all of our data was maliciously deleted. (We are still working with our CouchDB provider to restore this data and help with forensics to hand over to the FBI.)" Not a good start.
jerf 16y ago
Honest question: What is the point of all these specialized hosting sites? At least some are succeeding so I assume there is some value being delivered to some customers, but I am curious what that is. From where I sit it seems like Node.js, Rails, etc are just apps on an OS and while there may some tuning opportunities it's not like the difference between a specialized Node.js/Rails/etc optimizer is going to get ten times the performance of a general purpose skilled optimizer out of a stack. (I assume that if you're building a business on one of these stacks that we can safely assume that we're not talking the totally unoptimized case.) I explain my assumptions so you can better answer my question; as I say, I am assuming there's a positive answer, I just don't know what it is.
- rst 16y ago
  It's not performance --- it's reduced setup overhead. The main upside of something like Heroku is that if you want to get something up quickly, you don't have to bother configuring a VPS for it; run three shell commands[1], and there's your app, running on the public internet. The main downside of something like heroku is that if you want to do something that would require custom config on a VPS (e.g., installing some oddball software package), you can't. There are also restrictions on what directories you can write to, and so forth, and some fairly common gems require workarounds to deal with them. But enough people find it a net win that they've had, I believe, the largest YC exit to date. [1] Walkthrough here: http://docs.heroku.com/quickstart http://docs.heroku.com/quickstart
- simonw 16y ago
  Configuring and maintaining a deployment environment is really, really hard. You need to set the thing up in the first place. You need to secure it. You need to configure monitoring. When something breaks, you need to know how to fix it. Virtual servers don't help that much - at least you don't have to build the thing with your own hands, but the sysadmin angle is pretty much the same. It's a ton of very specialised knowledge which a great deal of web application developers don't have - and if they do have it, they may still not feel confident being the person on call. There's a good reason the Heroku guys earned $200 million for making that set of problems go away.
chapel 16y ago
Nodester isn't a new hosting service, it is Nodefu just rebranded. This was submitted to HN eighteen days ago [0] and there was some confusion over the name being similar to another node.js hosting service provider. I am glad that there is no confusion anymore. You should check out Nodejitsu [1] who also open sources most if not all their code and have been a vital part of the node.js community for a long time now. [0]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2116319 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2116319 [1]: http://nodejitsu.com http://nodejitsu.com

38 points by cgbystrom 16y ago

gcv 16y ago

Has anyone actually tried this, or something similar? A hosted node.js combined with a hosted CouchDB? Does it work well? Is it actually easy to program? Does it perform well?

js4all 16y ago
I have used it for a web statistics/analytics site. The combo is killer. And CouchDB's group level map-reduces make the data aggregation a snap.

futuremint 16y ago

I have a project at work that uses CouchDB & node.js, but it isn't hosted. I have Cloudant, CouchOne & no.de accounts, but haven't had enough free time to finish a side project to put them to good use. Node & couch together are a pretty nice combo though, it's just JSON & JavaScript all the way. There is no context switching between programming languages like what is typical using Ruby or whatever for your application layer. Been shoveling lots of ice & snow in my spare time instead :(

vincentpants 16y ago

I'd love a 'coupon' to register for this site. This would be the perfect test bed for hosted node.js tools.

aaronblohowiak 16y ago
curl -X POST -d "email=your_address@gmail.com" http://nodester.com/coupon http://nodester.com/coupon

js4all 16y ago

Nodester is a super cool project, because it is a node.js hosting platform that is fully open source. I am preparing a similar node.js and couchdb hosting site (http://cloudno.de http://cloudno.de) based on the work of Chris and Dan. I guess there are some more coming and the long wait for a coupon/invite will be soon over.

ianhawes 16y ago

Just a heads up in the e-mail that I received from them: "Our database was compromised and all of our data was maliciously deleted. (We are still working with our CouchDB provider to restore this data and help with forensics to hand over to the FBI.)" Not a good start.

jerf 16y ago

Honest question: What is the point of all these specialized hosting sites? At least some are succeeding so I assume there is some value being delivered to some customers, but I am curious what that is. From where I sit it seems like Node.js, Rails, etc are just apps on an OS and while there may some tuning opportunities it's not like the difference between a specialized Node.js/Rails/etc optimizer is going to get ten times the performance of a general purpose skilled optimizer out of a stack. (I assume that if you're building a business on one of these stacks that we can safely assume that we're not talking the totally unoptimized case.) I explain my assumptions so you can better answer my question; as I say, I am assuming there's a positive answer, I just don't know what it is.

rst 16y ago
It's not performance --- it's reduced setup overhead. The main upside of something like Heroku is that if you want to get something up quickly, you don't have to bother configuring a VPS for it; run three shell commands[1], and there's your app, running on the public internet. The main downside of something like heroku is that if you want to do something that would require custom config on a VPS (e.g., installing some oddball software package), you can't. There are also restrictions on what directories you can write to, and so forth, and some fairly common gems require workarounds to deal with them. But enough people find it a net win that they've had, I believe, the largest YC exit to date. [1] Walkthrough here: http://docs.heroku.com/quickstart http://docs.heroku.com/quickstart
simonw 16y ago
Configuring and maintaining a deployment environment is really, really hard. You need to set the thing up in the first place. You need to secure it. You need to configure monitoring. When something breaks, you need to know how to fix it. Virtual servers don't help that much - at least you don't have to build the thing with your own hands, but the sysadmin angle is pretty much the same. It's a ton of very specialised knowledge which a great deal of web application developers don't have - and if they do have it, they may still not feel confident being the person on call. There's a good reason the Heroku guys earned $200 million for making that set of problems go away.

chapel 16y ago

Nodester isn't a new hosting service, it is Nodefu just rebranded. This was submitted to HN eighteen days ago [0] and there was some confusion over the name being similar to another node.js hosting service provider. I am glad that there is no confusion anymore. You should check out Nodejitsu [1] who also open sources most if not all their code and have been a vital part of the node.js community for a long time now. [0]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2116319 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2116319 [1]: http://nodejitsu.com http://nodejitsu.com