AWS Bitnami Parse Server parse-file retrieval slow

Question

I am running Bitnami Parse Server (Parse Stack) with included mongoDB on AWS T2.micro EC2 instance. All config is done and forced HTTPS enabled. At the moment, I save image files directly on mongoDB on the same instance as parse-server. When I retrieve the image via nodejs web app (local and Heroku), I get extreme delay, ~3 seconds, whereas when it was hosted by parse.com, downloads were ~200ms max. Image shows this delay.

I have tried the following with no success:

1. Disabled HTTPS and reverted to default HTTP
2. Connect to mongoDB on mlab (my previous DB location)
3. Instead of using DNS CNAME forwarding, used AWS-provided public domain
4. Tried both on Heroku hosted web app and local

A few other options I am considering (but would like to know the reasons why it may work):

• Use AWS S3 Bucket for file storage
• Put mongoDB on a separate EC2 instance (we want to keep cost to minimum for testing)
• Do a full stack build on our own (not Bitnami)

I am running out of options. The same exact nodejs app will work fine if I connect back to parse.com hosted parse-server with mlab hosted mongodb. Once the initial download occurs, rest are fairly fast. Where is the "Stalled" activity coming from? Content download only took 90ms.

Answer 1

It looks like what you want to achieve is too much for a T2.micro instance. Amongst the options you propose, my recommendation is to store the images in a S3 bucket + CloudFront. This would free the server from the task of transferring the assets to the client.