Deploy Remix to AWS Lightsail with Docker

TLDR: Watch the video instead.

Before getting started, make sure to meet the following requirements:

• Install Docker Desktop

• Create an AWS account

• Install AWS CLI

• Install the Lightsail container services plugin

1) Set up Docker-related files

Dockerfile:

#!/bin/bash

FROM --platform=linux/amd64 node:18-bookworm-slim as base
ENV NODE_ENV production
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y openssl
FROM base as deps
WORKDIR /myapp
ADD package.json ./
RUN npm install --production=false --legacy-peer-deps
FROM base as production-deps
WORKDIR /myapp
COPY --from=deps /myapp/node_modules /myapp/node_modules
ADD package.json ./
RUN npm prune --production --legacy-peer-deps
FROM base as build
WORKDIR /myapp
COPY --from=deps /myapp/node_modules /myapp/node_modules
ADD prisma .
RUN npx prisma generate
ADD . .
RUN npm run build
FROM base
ENV PORT="8080"
ENV NODE_ENV="production"
WORKDIR /myapp
COPY --from=production-deps /myapp/node_modules /myapp/node_modules
COPY --from=build /myapp/node_modules/.prisma /myapp/node_modules/.prisma
COPY --from=build /myapp/build /myapp/build
COPY --from=build /myapp/public /myapp/public
COPY --from=build /myapp/package.json /myapp/package.json
COPY --from=build /myapp/start.sh /myapp/start.sh
COPY --from=build /myapp/prisma /myapp/prisma
RUN chmod +x /myapp/start.sh
CMD ["./start.sh"]

If you're wondering why I'm using --legacy-peer-deps it's because React 19 hasn't released yet, and some libraries complain on version mismatch.

package.json:

{
  ...
  "scripts": {
    ...
    "build": "remix vite:build",
    "start": "remix-serve ./build/index.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    ...
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    ...
  }
}

start.sh:

#!/bin/sh
npm run start

The #!/bin/sh line is to make the file compatible accross operating systems.

.dockerignore:

/node_modules
*.log
.DS_Store
.env
/.cache
/public/build
/build

2) Building the Image

Ensure that your docker image can be built correctly:

docker build -t saasrock-dev .

After it's built, you should have the image displayed on Docker Desktop:

Or use the docker command:

docker images

3) Testing the Container

Run the docker image in a container:

docker run -p 8080:8080 --env-file .env saasrock-dev:latest

You should have the following output or similar:

And make sure the application is running correctly at localhost:8080:

Now we're ready to deploy to AWS Lightsail.

4) Create an AWS Lightsail Container

You can either create a container service from your terminal or from the Amazon Lightsail dashboard:

aws lightsail create-container-service --region us-east-1 --service-name saasrock-dev-service --power nano --scale 1

This is creating a Nano instance ($7/m):

Check the status with the following command:

aws lightsail get-container-services --region us-east-1 --service-name saasrock-dev-service --query "containerServices[].state"

If it's still pending, you'll just get a PENDING status:

I'd say wait around 3 minutes and check again. You can also check the container status at the Amazon Lightsail dashboard:

5) Deploy the Container

Run the following command to push your image:

aws lightsail push-container-image --region us-east-1 --service-name saasrock-dev-service --label latest --image saasrock-dev:latest

This pushes the image to the container service, but does not deploy it.

Create a local configuration aws-lightsail-containers.json, and add it in your .gitignore as we're going to define the environment variables:

{
  "serviceName": "saasrock-dev-service",
  "containers": {
    "saasrock-dev-service": {
      "image": "saasrock-dev:latest",
      "environment": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "your_database_url_here",
        ...
      },
      "ports": {
        "80": "HTTP"
      }
    }
  },
  "publicEndpoint": {
    "containerName": "saasrock-dev-service",
    "containerPort": 80
  }
}

Make sure to update the service/container name, and your environment vars, and deploy it:

aws lightsail create-container-service-deployment --region us-east-1 --cli-input-json file://aws-lightsail-containers.json

If everthing worked, you should get a JSON output in the terminal.

Check the deployment status with the following commands:

aws lightsail get-container-services --region us-east-1  --query "containerServices[].nextDeployment.state"

aws lightsail get-container-services --region us-east-1 --query "containerServices[].currentDeployment.state"

You should get the following output:

And once it's deployed, get the URL with the following command:

aws lightsail get-container-services --region us-east-1 --query "containerServices[].url"

That's it! Your app should be live!

And if you check your Amazon Lightsail dashboard, you should see your container service:

6) Deploy a new Version

Build the image again:

docker build -t saasrock-dev .

and push the new image:

aws lightsail push-container-image --region us-east-1 --service-name saasrock-dev-service --label latest --image saasrock-dev:latest

You should get a new image name:

Digest: sha256:71e4e122c1af0c8da686e35921ac1ccab452369145f8164094116d19ddac8c37
Image "saasrock-dev:latest" registered.
Refer to this image as ":saasrock-dev-service.latest.2" in deployments.

Take that name (in my case :saasrock-dev-service.latest.2) and put it in the aws-lightsail-containers.json file:

{
  ...
  "containers": {
    "saasrock-dev-service": {
      "image": ":saasrock-dev-service.latest.2",
      ...
}

And redeploy the image as a new container deployment:

aws lightsail create-container-service-deployment --region us-east-1 --cli-input-json file://aws-lightsail-containers.json

Known Issues

🔴 Unable to start container process: exec: "./start.sh": permission denied: unknown

Assign permissions, rebuild the image and run the container again.

chmod +x start.sh
docker build -t saasrock-dev .
docker run -p 8080:8080 --rm --env-file .env saasrock-dev:latest

Or, in your Dockerfile make sure to assign permissions:

...
RUN chmod +x /myapp/start.sh
ENTRYPOINT [ "./start.sh" ]

🔴 if (!origin) throw Error("Dev server origin not set")

Make sure that you're not setting NODE_ENV manually in your environment.

🔴 PrismaClientInitializationError: the URL must start with the protocol...

Make sure to remove double quotes in your DATABASE_URL variable:

DATABASE_URL="postgres://

🔴 Can't reach database server at localhost...

If you're running a local database like me (postgres), you can use host.docker.internal instead of localhost.

DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host.docker.internal:5432/db

🔴 exec /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh: exec format error

This means that you built your image in an Apple Silicon machine (M1, M2, M3...), make sure to have the --platform flag in your Dockerfile:

#!/bin/bash

FROM --platform=linux/amd64 node:18-bookworm-slim as base

Or when building the image (better explanation here):

DOCKER_DEFAULT_PLATFORM=linux/amd64 docker build -t saasrock-dev .

References:

• Deploy a Container Web App on Amazon Lightsail