Deploy Your Medusa Server on Heroku
In this document, you'll learn how to deploy your Medusa server on Heroku. Heroku is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) that allows you to easily deploy your applications in the cloud.
Alternatively, you can use this button to deploy the Medusa server to Heroku directly:
Prerequisites
Medusa Server
It is assumed that you already have a Medusa server installed locally. If you don’t, please follow the quickstart guide.
Furthermore, your Medusa server should be configured to work with PostgreSQL and Redis. You can follow the Configure your Server documentation to learn how to do that.
Needed Accounts
- A Heroku account.
Required Tools
- Git’s CLI tool. You can follow this documentation to learn how to install it for your operating system.
- Heroku's CLI tool. You can follow Heroku's documentation to learn how to install it for your operating system.
Deploy to Heroku
1. Login to Heroku from your CLI
Before you can create an app with Heroku, you must login with the CLI tool:
heroku login
Depending on your operating system, you must follow either the instructions in your terminal or a page in your browser will open.
2. Create an App with Heroku
In the root directory of your Medusa server, run the following commands to create an app on Heroku and add it as a remote origin:
heroku create <APP_NAME>
heroku git:remote -a <APP_NAME>
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of the app you'll create. You can use any name you want.
3. Install Postgresql and Redis on Heroku
Medusa requires a Postgres database and a Redis instance to work. You can add those to your Heroku app using Add-ons.
If you don't have a payment method set up in your Heroku account, you'll be asked to enter your payment details when you try to install these addons.
PostgreSQL
Add a Postgres add-on to your Heroku app with the following command:
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:mini
This uses Heroku Postgres's smallest plan. You can check out the available plans and pricing of Heroku Postgres on Heroku's website.
Redis
Add a Redis instance to your Heroku app with the following command:
heroku addons:create stackhero-redis:ist-ebi1rc
This uses the lowest plan in Stackhero Redis. You can check out the plans and pricing of Stackhero Redis on Heroku's website.
4. Configure Environment Variables on Heroku
Medusa requires a set of environment variables to be configured. You can learn more about Medusa's configurations in the Configure your Medusa Server document.
Run the following commands in the root directory of your Medusa server to set some environment variables:
heroku config:set NODE_ENV=production
heroku config:set JWT_SECRET=your-super-secret
heroku config:set COOKIE_SECRET=your-super-secret-pt2
heroku config:set NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION=false
Make sure to replace your-super-secret and your-super-secret-pt2 with actual secrets in a production environment.
Set Buildpack
Additionally, you need to set the buildpack to Node.js using the following command:
heroku buildpacks:set heroku/nodejs
Configure the Redis URL
Stackhero Redis adds the Redis URL under the environment variable STACKHERO_REDIS_URL_TLS. However, Medusa looks for the REDIS_URL environment variable when initializing the connection with Redis.
Retrieve the value of STACKHERO_REDIS_URL_TLS with the following command:
heroku config:get STACKHERO_REDIS_URL_TLS
This prints the value of the environment variable which is a Redis connection string.
Copy that value and use it to set the environment variable REDIS_URL with the following command:
heroku config:set REDIS_URL=<YOUR_REDIS_URL>
Where <YOUR_REDIS_URL> is the value you received from the previous command.
Configure the PostgreSQL Database URL
If you're using the Heroku PostgreSQL Add-on, it should configure the environment variable DATABASE_URL. In that case, you don't need to perform any additional actions.
However, if you use another add-on, make sure to set the environment variable DATABASE_URL to the PostgreSQL Database URL.
(Optional) Configure CORS Variables
Optionally, if you've deployed the admin dashboard and you want to ensure it can use the server's REST APIs, you must set the following environment variable:
heroku config:set ADMIN_CORS=<YOUR_ADMIN_URL>
Where <YOUR_ADMIN_URL> is the URL of your admin dashboard.
Similarly, if you've deployed the storefront and you want to ensure it can use the server's REST APIs, you must set the following environment variable:
heroku config:set STORE_CORS=<YOUR_STOREFRONT_URL>
Where <YOUR_STOREFRONT_URL> is the URL of your storefront.
5. Configure Medusa Server
Before jumping into the deployment, you need to configure your Medusa server to ensure it uses the previous environment variables and the recommended production configurations.
medusa-config.js
Update module.exports to include the following configurations:
module.exports = {
projectConfig: {
redis_url: REDIS_URL,
database_url: DATABASE_URL,
database_type: "postgres",
store_cors: STORE_CORS,
admin_cors: ADMIN_CORS,
database_extra:
process.env.NODE_ENV !== "development"
? { ssl: { rejectUnauthorized: false } }
: {},
},
plugins,
}
package.json
Update scripts to include the following scripts:
"scripts": {
"serve": "medusa start",
"start": "medusa develop",
"heroku-postbuild": "medusa migrations run",
"prepare": "npm run build",
"build": "babel src -d dist --extensions \".ts,.js\""
},
6. Launch your Medusa Server
Finally, commit and push all changes to Heroku:
git add .
git commit -m "Deploy Medusa Server on Heroku"
git push heroku HEAD:master
This triggers a redeploy of the Medusa server with all the new configurations.
Test your Server
To test your server, run the following command to retrieve the server's URL:
heroku apps:info -a <APP_NAME>
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of the app. You should see as the output a bunch of info of the app.
The server's URL is available under "Web URL". You can copy it and perform requests to it to test it out.
For example, you can send a request to <YOUR_SERVER_URL>/store/products and you should receive a JSON response with the products in your store.
Troubleshooting: Inspect Build Logs
If an error occurs during the deployment, you can explore your Heroku app build logs using the following command in the root directory of your Medusa server:
heroku logs -n 500000 --remote heroku --tail -a <APP_NAME>
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of the app.
Run Commands on Your Server
To run commands on your server, you can use the following command:
heroku run -a <APP_NAME> -- <COMMAND>
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of the app and <COMMAND> is the command you want to run.
For example, to create an admin user you can run the following command:
heroku run -a <APP_NAME> -- medusa user -e "<EMAIL>" -p "<PASSWORD>"
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of your Heroku app, and <EMAIL> and <PASSWORD> are the credentials you want to use to log in to the Medusa admin dashboard.
Add Environment Variables
You’ll likely need to add environment variables later such as Admin Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) and Store CORS variables.
To set or change an environment variable's value, you can use the following command:
heroku config:set <ENV_NAME>=<ENV_VALUE> -a <APP_NAME>
Where <APP_NAME> is the name of your Heroku app, <ENV_NAME> is the name of the environment variable, and <ENV_VALUE> is the value.