diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index ce0c0c87..ce873fa4 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ su - vagrant -c 'curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby=2.1.3'
 
 # install some other deps
 sudo apt-get install nodejs -y
+sudo apt-get install npm -y
 sudo apt-get install postgresql -y
 sudo apt-get install libpq-dev -y
 sudo apt-get install redis-server -y
@@ -20,6 +21,9 @@ sudo apt-get install redis-server -y
 # Install node
 ln -fs /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node
 
+# install forever for running the node server
+sudo npm install forever -g
+
 # set the postgres password
 sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD '3112';"
 
@@ -31,6 +35,7 @@ Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
   config.vm.box = "trusty64"
   config.vm.box_url = "http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/vagrant/trusty/current/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-vagrant-disk1.box"
   config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 3000, host: 3000
+  config.vm.network :forwarded_port, guest: 5001, host: 5001
   config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "10.0.1.11"
   config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", :nfs => true
 
diff --git a/bin/start b/bin/start
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ed2b0130
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/start
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+#start rails server and realtime node server 
+vagrant ssh --command "cd /vagrant; rails s -d; forever start ./realtime/realtime-server.js"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/bin/stop b/bin/stop
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b8bdaeb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/stop
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# stop rails server and node server
+vagrant ssh --command "cd /vagrant; kill -9 $(cat tmp/pids/server.pid); forever stopall"
\ No newline at end of file