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As I was browsing various hosting plans, I noticed that some offer Node.JS support.
If a host does not offer Node.JS; Can I log in, download, and install Node.JS support myself if the host supports SSH?

I am confused on what Node.JS support means in a hosting plan.
Can someone help me understand it?

Tl;dr:

  • On a shared host: Can I install Node.JS support with an SSH connection?
  • Can someone explain what Node.JS support means on a shared host?
Elliot Huffman
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Jaden Chaca
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  • Hard to say without specifics, but as you've tagged this "shared-hosting", there's a good chance you won't be allowed to install node on your own at all. – ceejayoz Sep 21 '19 at 01:00
  • how can they control that though? It's not like they can detect whether something is nodejs and whether something is not. SSH is supported – Jaden Chaca Sep 21 '19 at 01:07
  • Sure they can. `ps aux | grep node`. They'll probably also notice the resource usage - shared hosting typically has strict CPU and RAM limits - and you won't be able to bind to port 80/443 either. – ceejayoz Sep 21 '19 at 01:11
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    SSH support does not mean you can reconfigure the webserver to execute things you might download. So while you might be able to download nodejs yourself, you would at the most be able to use it to manage your files, not to generate webpages. – Henrik supports the community Sep 21 '19 at 08:51

1 Answers1

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Node.JS installed on a shared host means that the hosting platform supports running Node.JS apps (apps that have a package.json file).

You can't simply install Node.JS on a shared host platform as the hosting service is being provided to you as a Platform as a Service architecture.
A PaaS architecture means that the hosting provider is responsible for the hosting fabric from the physical hardware to the operating system to the hosting frameworks (Apache, Node.JS, PHP, Ruby, and so on).
You are responsible for building your app and getting it on their fabric.
So the hosting provider will provide filesystem access to allow you to upload your app to their fabric.

Because you do not have access to the operating system, you will not be able to install new hosting apps into the fabric. That means that you will want to make sure that the host has all of frameworks installed and up to date so that your app that you want to host will be able to run.

Node.JS needs to be installed into the operating system to run, which means that you will not be able to deploy it into a PaaS host.

If the host is giving you a virtual machine (IaaS), you can do whatever you want to in it as you have full control over the operating system.
Excluding some MAC address stuff as that goes into the physical layer side of things.

I hope this helps

Thanks!

Elliot Huffman
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