title: Using pm2 Inside of an Auto-Scaling Environment
body: <p>I am planning to use the AWS EC2 Container Service to host an auto-scaling group of Node.js + Express instances that expose a REST API. I've seen multiple articles telling me that I should be using <code>pm2</code> over <code>forever.js</code> in order to ensure that my application restarts if it crashes, that I can have smooth application reloads, etc. </p>
  
  <p>However, I'm a bit confused as to what configuration I should use with <code>pm2</code> inside of the container. As these instances will be scaled automatically, should I still be running the process manager in "cluster mode"? I want to be sure that I am getting the most out of my instances, and I can't seem to find any definitive answers about whether clustering is necessary in an auto-scaling environment like this (just that <code>pm2</code> comes with a load-balancer and scaling technique itself).</p>