Azure Kubernetes App Deploy

Express / Fastify Knowledge Pack

Applies to: Projects detected with package.json containing express or fastify as a dependency

Quick Reference

Signal Handling

Node.js does not handle SIGTERM correctly when running as PID 1. The base template includes dumb-init as the entrypoint to forward signals properly; no application-level changes are needed unless the app registers explicit cleanup handlers.

Fastify listen caveat

Fastify defaults to listening on 127.0.0.1, which is unreachable from outside the container. Bind to 0.0.0.0 explicitly:

await fastify.listen({ port: 3000, host: '0.0.0.0' });

If the pod starts but health probes fail with connection refused, this is almost always the cause. Express already binds to 0.0.0.0 by default — no change needed for Express apps.

Package manager variants

Copy the correct lock file in the Dockerfile COPY step to match the project's package manager.

Health Endpoints

Node.js frameworks do not provide health endpoints out of the box. Add a /healthz route manually.

Express

app.get('/healthz', (req, res) => {
  res.status(200).json({ status: 'UP' });
});

Fastify

fastify.get('/healthz', async () => {
  return { status: 'UP' };
});

For richer checks (database connectivity, downstream services), extend the handler to verify dependencies and return 503 when unhealthy.

Probe configuration in Deployment manifest

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz
    port: 3000
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 15
  timeoutSeconds: 3
  failureThreshold: 3
readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz
    port: 3000
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 10
  timeoutSeconds: 3
  failureThreshold: 3

Note: Node.js apps start in under a second, so initialDelaySeconds: 5 is sufficient. No startupProbe is needed unless the app performs heavy initialization (e.g., loading ML models).

Database Profiles

Node.js projects use a variety of database libraries. The standard pattern is a DATABASE_URL connection string injected via environment variable:

Environment variables for PostgreSQL on AKS

env:
  - name: DATABASE_URL
    value: "postgresql://{{IDENTITY_NAME}}@{{PG_SERVER_NAME}}.postgres.database.azure.com:5432/{{DB_NAME}}?sslmode=require"
  - name: PGHOST
    value: "{{PG_SERVER_NAME}}.postgres.database.azure.com"
  - name: PGDATABASE
    value: "{{DB_NAME}}"
  - name: PGUSER
    value: "{{IDENTITY_NAME}}"
  - name: PGPORT
    value: "5432"
  - name: PGSSLMODE
    value: "require"

For Workload Identity with passwordless authentication, use the @azure/identity package with pg to obtain Azure AD tokens instead of passwords.

Writable Paths (DS012 Compliance)

When readOnlyRootFilesystem: true is set, Node.js apps need only /tmp writable:

• Multipart uploads (e.g., multer, @fastify/multipart) stage files to /tmp

• Logging libraries that buffer to disk use /tmp

Required volume mount

volumes:
  - name: tmp
    emptyDir: {}
containers:
  - name: app
    volumeMounts:
      - name: tmp
        mountPath: /tmp

Resource Sizing

Node.js is single-threaded and relatively lightweight. These are starting-point defaults — tune based on observed usage.

For memory-intensive workloads (large payloads, SSR), increase the memory limit and set --max-old-space-size to ~75% of the limit.

Port Configuration

• Default port: 3000

• Env var override: PORT=3000

• Code pattern: app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000)

Express binds to 0.0.0.0 by default, so it is reachable from outside the container without additional configuration.

Fastify binds to 127.0.0.1 by default — you must pass host: '0.0.0.0' in the listen() call or the pod will start but all probes and traffic will fail with connection refused.

Build Commands

For TypeScript projects, ensure tsconfig.json has "outDir": "dist" and the Dockerfile copies the dist/ folder to the runtime stage. Do not install typescript or ts-node in the production image.

Common Issues on AKS