Setting up NodeJS for Bitrix push notifications

Setting up Node.js for Bitrix push notifications

Long Polling via PHP holds one PHP process (or FPM worker) per open connection. At 500 simultaneous users — 500 occupied workers, just waiting for events doing nothing useful. PHP-FPM under such load hits pool limits. Node.js solves this: one Node process handles thousands of connections through an event loop without blocking.

Architecture: Node.js as Push server

The Bitrix Node.js push server is a ready package push-server included in Bitrix VM or installed separately. It receives events from PHP via HTTP API, stores queue in Redis, and delivers to clients via WebSocket or SSE.

PHP → HTTP POST → Node.js push-server ← WebSocket/SSE → browsers
                        ↕
                     Redis

Installing Node.js push-server

On Bitrix VM push-server is already installed. On clean server:

# Install Node.js LTS
curl -fsSL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
yum install -y nodejs

# Or for Ubuntu
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs

# Download push-server from Bitrix repository
# (package available to BitrixEnv subscribers or in Bitrix VM)
# Usually located at:
ls /opt/push-server/

Typical structure:

/opt/push-server/
  app.js          — entry point
  config.json     — configuration
  node_modules/   — dependencies

Configuring push-server

File /opt/push-server/config.json:

{
  "server": {
    "http": {
      "port": 9010,
      "host": "127.0.0.1"
    },
    "websocket": {
      "port": 9011,
      "host": "0.0.0.0"
    }
  },
  "security": {
    "key": "your_secret_key_here",
    "cors": ["https://example.ru", "https://www.example.ru"]
  },
  "redis": {
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 6379,
    "database": 1
  },
  "log": {
    "level": "warn",
    "file": "/var/log/push-server/app.log"
  },
  "cluster": {
    "workers": 2
  }
}

Port 9010 — HTTP API for PHP (localhost only). Port 9011 — WebSocket for browsers (public, via Nginx proxy).

Systemd unit for push-server

cat > /etc/systemd/system/push-server.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Bitrix Push Server
After=network.target redis.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/opt/push-server
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node app.js --config config.json
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable push-server
systemctl start push-server

Nginx proxy for WebSocket

Browsers shouldn't connect to Node.js directly — need Nginx as proxy with SSL termination:

# In HTTPS server block
location /bitrix/subws/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9011;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_read_timeout 86400;  # 24 hours for WebSocket
    proxy_send_timeout 86400;
}

location /bitrix/pub/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9010;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Connection "";
    proxy_buffering off;
    proxy_cache off;
    proxy_read_timeout 25;
}

Configuration in Bitrix

In admin panel — "Settings" → "Push and Pull" → tab "Server":

• Push server: http://127.0.0.1:9010
• Pull server (public): https://example.ru/bitrix/pub/
• WebSocket server (public): wss://example.ru/bitrix/subws/
• Security key: same as in config.json

Or via PHP code:

\Bitrix\Main\Config\Option::set('pull', 'PUSH_SERVER_URL', 'http://127.0.0.1:9010');
\Bitrix\Main\Config\Option::set('pull', 'PULL_SERVER_URL', 'https://example.ru/bitrix/pub/');
\Bitrix\Main\Config\Option::set('pull', 'SERVER_ENABLED', 'Y');
\Bitrix\Main\Config\Option::set('pull', 'PUSH_SECURITY_KEY', 'your_secret_key_here');

Checking connection

# HTTP API is available
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9010/server/ping
# Response: {"result":"pong"}

# WebSocket via wscat
npm install -g wscat
wscat -c wss://example.ru/bitrix/subws/

# push-server logs
journalctl -u push-server -f

Monitoring active connections

# Count of WebSocket connections
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9010/server/stat | python3 -m json.tool

# Response contains: connections_count, channels_count, memory_usage

If connections_count grows without stopping and doesn't decrease — connection leak. Check logs for client disconnect errors.