Install the MEAN Stack on Debian 12

What MEAN is

MEAN is a set of JavaScript tools to build web apps:

• MongoDB, the database.
• Express.js, the web framework for Node.js.
• Angular, the front-end framework.
• Node.js, the runtime for the server.

Step 1: Update the system

sudo apt update

Step 2: Install Node.js and npm

Add the NodeSource repository (Node.js 18 is shown; use a current LTS such as 20 or 22 if you can):

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -

Install Node.js (npm is included):

sudo apt install -y nodejs

Check the versions:

node -v
npm -v

Step 3: Install MongoDB

Import the GPG key:

curl -fsSL https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-7.0.asc | sudo gpg -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg --dearmor

Create the source list. Debian 12 is not officially listed for MongoDB 7.0 on every build, so check the MongoDB documentation for your release. The example uses the Debian repository:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg] http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian bookworm/mongodb-org/7.0 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list

Update and install:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install mongodb-org

Start and enable the service:

sudo systemctl start mongod

sudo systemctl enable --now mongod

Check it:

sudo systemctl status mongod

Step 4: Install Express.js

Create a project folder:

mkdir myapp && cd myapp

Start a Node.js project:

npm init -y

Install Express:

npm install express

Step 5: Set up Angular

Install the Angular CLI:

sudo npm install -g @angular/cli

Create the Angular project:

ng new client

Go into the folder:

cd client

Start the development server:

ng serve

To reach it from outside the server, bind it to all addresses (and open the port in the firewall):

ng serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 4200

Step 6: Run the MEAN app

Open http://your_server_ip:4200. You see the Angular start page.

A real app has an Express server (server.js) with routes that read and write MongoDB (with the mongoose package), and an Angular front end that calls these routes with HttpClient.

Quick recap

• Install Node.js, MongoDB, Express and the Angular CLI.
• Start MongoDB with systemctl and Angular with ng serve.
• Connect them with Express routes and Mongoose.