OpenShift is one of the best cloud servers available for free. You can easily deploy a static website using the PHP catridge, however the default page should be index.php.

It is no big deal to create a .php extension page, but I wanted the web stack to work with a .html page. This objective can be achieved using NodeJs catridge as follows:

• Login to your Openshift account.
• Click on the Add Application button.
• Now, you’ll be asked to Choose a type of application. Here you select the NodeJS catridge.
• Next step is to Configure the application. Add the appropriate details. (We won’t go into details) and then click on Create Application.
• Now, Grab the Git repo URL and clone the repo on your local machine.
• cd into the cloned directory. Find the server.js which is your HTTP server.
• You have to configure the HTTP server according to your requirements. I suggest you create a public_html(or any other name) directory inside the cloned directory so that the Openshift files are not exposed.
• You can Refer the server.js below if you don’t want to scratch your head.

  #!/bin/env node
  //  OpenShift sample Node application
  var express = require('express');
  var fs = require('fs');
  
  var publicDirectory = "public_html"; // Edit this accordingly
  
  /**
   *  Define the sample application.
   */
  var MyApp = function() {
  
      //  Scope.
      var self = this;
  
      /*  ================================================================  */
      /*  Helper functions.                                                 */
      /*  ================================================================  */
  
      /**
       *  Set up server IP address and port # using env variables/defaults.
       */
      self.setupVariables = function() {
          //  Set the environment variables we need.
          self.ipaddress = process.env.OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_IP;
          self.port      = process.env.OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_PORT || 8080;
  
          if (typeof self.ipaddress === "undefined") {
              //  Log errors on OpenShift but continue w/ 127.0.0.1 - this
              //  allows us to run/test the app locally.
              console.warn('No OPENSHIFT_NODEJS_IP var, using 127.0.0.1');
              self.ipaddress = "127.0.0.1";
          };
      };
  
      /**
       *  Populate the cache.
       */
      self.populateCache = function() {
          if (typeof self.zcache === "undefined") {
              self.zcache = { 'index.html': '' };
          }
  
          //  Local cache for static content.
          self.zcache['index.html'] = fs.readFileSync('./index.html');
      };
  
      /**
       *  Retrieve entry (content) from cache.
       *  @param {string} key  Key identifying content to retrieve from cache.
       */
      self.cache_get = function(key) { return self.zcache[key]; };
  
      /**
       *  terminator === the termination handler
       *  Terminate server on receipt of the specified signal.
       *  @param {string} sig  Signal to terminate on.
       */
      self.terminator = function(sig){
          if (typeof sig === "string") {
             console.log('%s: Received %s - terminating sample app ...',
                         Date(Date.now()), sig);
             process.exit(1);
          }
          console.log('%s: Node server stopped.', Date(Date.now()) );
      };
  
      /**
       *  Setup termination handlers (for exit and a list of signals).
       */
      self.setupTerminationHandlers = function(){
          //  Process on exit and signals.
          process.on('exit', function() { self.terminator(); });
  
          // Removed 'SIGPIPE' from the list - bugz 852598.
          ['SIGHUP', 'SIGINT', 'SIGQUIT', 'SIGILL', 'SIGTRAP', 'SIGABRT',
           'SIGBUS', 'SIGFPE', 'SIGUSR1', 'SIGSEGV', 'SIGUSR2', 'SIGTERM'
          ].forEach(function(element, index, array) {
              process.on(element, function() { self.terminator(element); });
          });
      };
  
      /*  ================================================================  */
      /*  App server functions (main app logic here).                       */
      /*  ================================================================  */
  
      /**
       *  Create the routing table entries + handlers for the application.
       */
      self.createRoutes = function() {
          self.routes = { };
  
          self.routes['/asciimo'] = function(req, res) {
              var link = "http" + "://i.imgur.com/kmbjB.png";
              res.send("<"+"html"+"><"+"body"+"><"+"img src='" + link + "' />"+"<"+ "/"+"body"+">"+"<"+"/"+"html"+">");
          };
  
          self.routes['/'] = function(req, res) {
              res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
              res.send(self.cache_get('index.html') );
          };
      };
  
      /**
       *  Initialize the server (express) and create the routes and register
       *  the handlers.
       */
      self.initializeServer = function() {
          self.createRoutes();
          self.app = express.createServer();
  
          //  Add handlers for the app (from the routes).
          for (var r in self.routes) {
              self.app.get(r, self.routes[r]);
          }
      };
  
      /**
       *  Initializes the sample application.
       */
      self.initialize = function() {
          self.setupVariables();
          self.setupTerminationHandlers();
  
          // Create Express server
          self.app = express.createServer();
  
          // Gzip content
          self.app.use(express.compress()); 
  
          // Browser Cache
          var oneDay = 86400000;
          self.app.use('/', express.static(__dirname + '/' + publicDirectory + '/', { maxAge: oneDay }));
      };
  
      /**
       *  Start the server (starts up the sample application).
       */
      self.start = function() {
          //  Start the app on the specific interface (and port).
          self.app.listen(self.port, self.ipaddress, function() {
              console.log('%s: Node server started on %s:%d ...',
                          Date(Date.now() ), self.ipaddress, self.port);
          });
      };
  
  };
  
  /* My Application.  */
  
  /**
   *  main():  Main code.
   */
  var myAppObj = new MyApp();
  myAppObj.initialize();
  myAppObj.start();
  

• Edit the publicDirectory variable, Commit the code and Push it to Openshift. Your static Website using nodejs should be LIVE.