Deployment

Guides· DeploySmith ·

Node.js 26 Is Active LTS: 24/22 Migration Plan

Intermediate · 11 min read

On 28 October 2026 Node.js 26 becomes Active LTS. It is the last LTS promotion under the old even/odd release model, and the first window where the new annual cadence (v27 Alpha starts the same day) shapes your version choice. v24 moved to Maintenance on 20 October; v22 reaches end-of-life in April 2027. Worst of all, the version to move to - 26.12.1 - is also the one that carries the October HIGH security fixes, including the Node2Shell Brotli RCE. Here’s how to plan the move on a self-hosted VPS, what breaks when you jump from 24/22, and the exact check-install-verify commands.…

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Guides· DeploySmith ·

Node.js Oct 2026 Security: 26.12.1 and Node 26 LTS

Intermediate · 11 min read

On 21 Oct 2026 the Node.js project released security versions across all three supported lines - 26.12.1 (Current), 24.22.1 and 22.23.4 (LTS) - closing four HIGH CVEs, three of them remotely reachable by default, plus six more medium/low issues. Node 26 becomes Active LTS on 28 Oct. How to check your version and upgrade on a self-hosted VPS with nvm or a direct tarball, then restart cleanly under pm2.…

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Hosting· DeploySmith ·

PM2 vs systemd for Node.js

Intermediate · 10 min read

Every Node.js app that survives more than a week in production eventually asks the same question: what keeps it running when it crashes, and what brings it back when the server reboots? Two answers dominate - PM2, a Node-native process manager, and systemd, the init system already living inside virtually every modern Linux distribution. They are not competing at exactly the same layer. PM2 is a userspace daemon you install on top of the OS. systemd is the OS. Understanding where the boundary sits is the difference between a setup that quietly works for years and one that fights you every time you deploy. This guide walks through the real, documentation-backed behavior of each so you can pick deliberately. What each one actually is PM2 is a daemon process manager written for Node.js, installed via npm. You start it with npm install pm2@latest -g, then launch an app with pm2 start app.js. PM2 daemonizes the process, keeps it alive, and gives you a CLI to inspect status, tail logs, and reload the app.[1] Its headline feature for Node is cluster mode: with the -i flag it spans a workload across every available CPU with zero changes to your code.[2] …

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