How I Deployed Netflix Clone (NGold) to AWS EC2 - Live at 32.196.145.76:3000 [Docker + Nginx Guide]

I finally deployed my Netflix clone project NGold to AWS EC2!

After 3 failed attempts with permission errors and Nginx crashing, it's now LIVE at http://32.196.145.76:3000

Here's exactly how I did it for anyone trying to deploy a React frontend to EC2.

My Stack

•  Frontend: React (from my GitHub: Sirvickcloud91/netflix-frontend-1)
•  Server: AWS EC2 Ubuntu
•  Tools: Docker, Nginx, Git
•  Live IP: 32.196.145.76:3000

Step 1: Launch EC2 and Open Port 3000

Most beginners forget Security Group. You must allow inbound rule:

• Type: Custom TCP
• Port: 3000
• Source: 0.0.0.0/0

If you don't do this, your app will run but you won't see it in browser!

Step 2: Clone and Dockerize

On your EC2:

git clone https://github.com/Sirvickcloud91/netflix-frontend-1.git

cd netflix-frontend-1

docker build -t ngold-frontend .

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 ngold-frontend

Fix Nginx (My Biggest Headache)

Nginx kept showing 502 Bad Gateway. The fix:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Change proxy_pass to http://localhost:3000;

Lessons Learnt

1. Always check `docker ps` - my container stopped 2 times silently.

2. AWS free tier is enough for this project.

3. That GitHub error "failed to push some refs" I fixed yesterday happened while pushing this same project!

Live Link: http://32.196.145.76:3000 (Check it before AWS stops my free tier!)

Next post: How I will add Kubernetes to this same project.

Questions? Drop in comments. I reply fast.

Read also: How I fixed "failed to push some refs" error while pushing this same NGold project to GitHub