Best practices for Node.js process management with PM2

Successfully deploying and managing a Node.js application in production involves more than just developing the app, as it requires a robust deployment strategy and continuous monitoring to ensure reliability and optimal performance. Node.js operates as an asynchronous, event-driven, single-threaded platform, which makes it capable of handling multiple network requests efficiently, but also requires specific attention to process management to avoid crashes from unhandled exceptions. Best practices for production deployment include managing source code, integrating continuous delivery pipelines, and leveraging tools like PM2 for process management. PM2 helps in increasing application resiliency by automatically restarting crashed processes, utilizing full CPU capacity through the Cluster Module, and providing monitoring capabilities for performance metrics such as CPU usage and request latency. While PM2 addresses many process management needs, the choice of tools and strategies should align with the specific stack and infrastructure requirements of the organization to effectively scale Node.js applications.