MERN Stack

Deploy the MERN stack, a free and open source web software bundle (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js) used to build modern web applications.

You can upload your existing MERN website code to your new Linode, or use MERN’s scaffolding tool to start writing new web applications on the Linode.

1. Deploy MERN Stack

Estimated deployment time: 2–5 minutes

Follow the deployment instructions from the Get started section to configure the app, deploy it, and verify software installation.

For information on the app-specific configurations, see the Configuration options section.

Software included

Software installed on your Linode when deploying the app.

Package	Description
MongoDB	A document-based database to persist your application’s data.
Express	A web application framework.
React	A JavaScript library to build your application’s user interfaces. It offers a server-side rendering function to enable search engines to crawl your web application.
Node.js	A runtime environment.
UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall)	A firewall utility. Ports 22/tcp for IPv4 and IPv6 allows incoming traffic. All other ports have these firewall rules: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing).

Base distribution and plan

Supported distribution: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Recommended plans: 1GB Shared Compute Instance or higher, depending on the number of sites and size of the sites you plan on hosting.

Configuration options

Configure the required options to deploy your instance. For additional customization, add advanced options.

The table maps the Cloud Manager UI fields to their corresponding API/CLI keys (stackscript_data) required for automated deployments.

StackScript ID: 401702

UI field	API/CLI key	Description
Required options
Limited sudo user	`user_name`	Your preferred username for the limited sudo user, entered without any capital letters, spaces, or special characters. When adding a limited sudo user, the user is created with a strong generated password for your new Linode instance, and the account is assigned to the `sudo` group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the `sudo` prefix. Note: For easier and more secure access with the sudo user, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user during deployment and select that user as an `authorized_user`. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both the root and limited sudo users.
Email address (for the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate)	`soa_email_address`	The email used to receive notifications about the renewal of the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate.
Advanced options
Disable root access over SSH	`disable_root`	Applies to a limited sudo user. To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. Defaults to No. Note: When you disable the root user from logging in over SSH and don't provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the `authorized_user`, you can still switch to the root user. To do that, log in as root via the Lish console and run `cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials` to view the generated password for the limited sudo user.
Linode API token	`token_password`	Applies to a custom domain. The Linode API token if you want to use Linode's DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain. Follow Manage personal access tokens to get your token on your account with `Read/Write` access to `Domains`. If you provide the token along with the subdomain and domain, the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. If you don't provide the token, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
Subdomain	`subdomain`	Applies to a custom domain. The subdomain you want to use, like `blog` for `blog.example.com`. Use it only if you specify a Domain.
Domain	`domain`	Applies to a custom domain. The domain name you want to use, like `example.com`. Use it only if you specify a Linode API token.
Optional data exporter Add-ons	`add_ons`	An option to include add-ons for your deployment. Possible values are: none (default) node_exporter mysqld_exporter newrelic

Notes:

After the app deployment completes, the password for your limited sudo user is generated and stored in the .credentials file in the home directory. Log in to your instance as root through the Lish console or SSH, then run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view its contents.

You can automatically configure a custom domain (optional) during deployment. To do that:

First, configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers via your registrar. See Configure your domain's authoritative name servers for details.

Once you complete that, specify the Linode API token, subdomain, and domain for the app in Cloud Manager or via API/CLI/Terraform.

Use API, CLI, or Terraform

In addition to deploying the app to a new Linode instance via Cloud Manager, you can also use the Linode API, CLI, or Terraform. When running the operation, you need to provide the StackScript ID, supported Linux distribution, and app-specific fields along with the standard Linode deployment configurations.

Note: Generate a personal access token to authenticate your API, CLI, or Terraform requests.

curl --location 'https://api.linode.com/v4/linode/instances' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Accept: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer abc123def456hij789klm' \
    --data-raw '{
        "region": "us-east",
        "type": "g6-standard-2",
        "image": "linode/ubuntu24.04",
        "label": "my-mern-stack-one-click-app",
        "root_pass": "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd",
        "stackscript_id": 401702,
        "stackscript_data": {
            "user_name": "jsmith",
            "soa_email_address": "jsmith@example.com"
        }
    }'

linode-cli linodes create \
    --region us-east \
    --type g6-standard-2 \
    --label my-mern-stack-one-click-app \
    --image linode/ubuntu24.04 \
    --root_pass @C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd \
    --stackscript_id 401702 \
    --stackscript_data '{"user_name":"jsmith", "soa_email_address": "jsmith@example.com"}'

resource "linode_instance" "my-linode" {
    region         = "us-east"
    type           = "g6-standard-2"
    label          = "my-mern-stack-one-click-app"
    image          = "linode/ubuntu24.04"
    root_pass      = "@C0mpl3x#P@ssw0rd"
    stackscript_id = 401702
    stackscript_data = {
        "user_name"         = "jsmith",
        "soa_email_address" = "jsmith@example.com"
    }
}

2. Access MERN Stack

Get credentials

Once the app is deployed, you need to get the credentials from the server.

Log in to your new Linode instance as the root user using the Lish console or SSH.
Run the cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials command to access the contents of the .credentials file.

The output returns passwords that were automatically generated when the instance was deployed.
Save the credentials to a secure location, and then delete the file from the server.

To learn more about working with the MERN stack's components, see these guides:

Additional resources

For more information about the installed packages, see their official documentation.

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