No Access to NodeJS Express App hosted on Google Compute Engine

Question

I have a f1-micro instance on google cloud. IN installed ubuntu 14.04, NodejS 0.10 and mongoDB. Now I have made an express application with yeoman which works perfectly on localhost. But when I try to run it in the instance, I can not access it!

Here' what I do:

1. Commit local code to BitBucket
2. Clone code from BitBUcket to Google Compute Engine through SSH
3. run command grunt
4. Access the external IP provided by Google with port no. on browser but it says This webpage is not available

Here is my source code:

** app.js **

'use strict';

// Module dependencies.
var express = require('express'),
    path = require('path'),
    fs = require('fs'),
    methodOverride = require('method-override'),
    morgan = require('morgan'),
    bodyParser = require('body-parser'),
    errorhandler = require('errorhandler');

var app = module.exports = exports.app = express();

app.locals.siteName = "Server";

// Connect to database
var db = require('./config/db');
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));


// Bootstrap models
var modelsPath = path.join(__dirname, 'models');
fs.readdirSync(modelsPath).forEach(function (file) {
  require(modelsPath + '/' + file);
});

var env = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development';

if ('development' == env) {
    app.use(morgan('dev'));
    app.use(errorhandler({
        dumpExceptions: true,
        showStack: true
    }));
    app.set('view options', {
        pretty: true
    });
}

if ('test' == env) {
    app.use(morgan('test'));
    app.set('view options', {
        pretty: true
    });
    app.use(errorhandler({
        dumpExceptions: true,
        showStack: true
    }));
}

if ('production' == env) {
    app.use(morgan());
     app.use(errorhandler({
        dumpExceptions: false,
        showStack: false
    }));
}

app.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile);
app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.use(methodOverride());
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

// Bootstrap routes
var routesPath = path.join(__dirname, 'routes');
fs.readdirSync(routesPath).forEach(function(file) {
  app.use('/', require(routesPath + '/' + file));
});

// Bootstrap api
var apiPath = path.join(__dirname, 'api');
fs.readdirSync(apiPath).forEach(function(file) {
  app.use('/api', require(apiPath + '/' + file));
});

// Start server
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port, function () {
  console.log('Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.get('env'));
});

** Gruntfile.js **

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  require('load-grunt-tasks')(grunt);
  grunt.initConfig({
    // Configure a mochaTest task
    mochaTest: {
      test: {
        options: {
          reporter: 'spec'
        },
        src: ['test/**/*.js']
      }
    },
    watch: {
      options: {
        livereload: true,
      },
      express: {
        files:  [ '*.js','routes/*.js', 'models/*.js', 'config/*.js','api/*.js'  ],
        tasks:  [ 'express:dev' ],
        options: {
          spawn: false // Without this option specified express won't be reloaded
        }
      }
    },
    express: {
      options: {
        port : 3000,
        node_env: 'development'
      },
      dev: {
        options: {
          script: 'app.js',
          node_env: 'development'
        }
      },
      prod: {
        options: {
          script: 'app.js',
          node_env: 'production'
        }
      }
    },
    open: {
      server: {
        url: 'http://localhost:3000' 
      }
    }
  });

  grunt.registerTask('test', 'mochaTest');

  grunt.registerTask('server', function(arg) {
    if(arg && arg == 'prod')
    {
      grunt.task.run([
        'express:prod',
        'open',
        'watch'
      ]);
    }
    else
    {
      grunt.task.run([
        'express:dev',
        'open',
        'watch'
      ]);
    }
  });
  grunt.registerTask('default', [ 'server' ]);
  grunt.registerTask('dist', [ 'server:prod' ]);

};

I tried changing the app.listen with Google provided Internal IP but still no luck. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Okay so I just figured it out. It was actually very simple. The problem was with the port only. I just needed to change the firewall setting to allow the ports from any source. that's it.

1. Go to Google Cloud console.
2. Networking > Firewall Rules.
3. Find the entry "default-allow-internal" with tcp and udp ranges 1-65535 . Edit it and change the source filter to allow it from any source.
   4. Restart the app with. It should work now.

UPDATE 27 April 2017 : The flow is changed little bit now on GCE. Edit the source filter -> ip range to 0.0.0.0/0