# \[ANN\] mongrel\_cluster-0.1.1: the bird dog (capistrano suppor **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-cluster-0-1-1-the-bird-dog-capistrano-suppor/59326 "2006-05-03T18:57:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bktaylor)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-cluster-0-1-1-the-bird-dog-capistrano-suppor/59326/1 "2006-05-03T18:57:20Z")
Hey y’all: mongrel\_cluster provides management tools for running Mongrel behind a reverse-proxy/load balancer. It is an extraction from Rails Machine, a deployment service and Ruby library that simplifies Rails application deployment. This release fixes bugs and adds a Capistrano task library. Changes: -changed pid file format to include port -only write configuration options that are explicitly specified or required. -removed some validation rules and delegate to mongrel\_rails. -added Capistrano task library. Please rerun mongrel\_rails cluster::configure to ensure smooth operation. _ **Capistrano Recipe** _ Add to config/deploy.rb: require ‘mongrel\_cluster/recipes’ Example usage: cap -a configure\_mongrel\_cluster Variables mongrel\_servers: Number of Mongrel servers to start. mongrel\_port: Starting port to bind to. mongrel\_address: Address to bind to. mongrel\_environment: Rails environment to run as. mongrel\_config: Path to config file. use\_sudo: Whether or not tasks that can use sudo, ought to use sudo. Capistrano defaults to true. Tasks (performed on :app role) configure\_mongrel\_cluster: Configure the cluster with variables. Uses sudo if use\_sudo is true. start\_mongrel\_cluster: Start Mongrel processes on the app server. Uses sudo if use\_sudo is true. stop\_mongrel\_cluster: Stop the Mongrel processes on the app server. Uses sudo if use\_sudo is true. restart\_mongrel\_cluster: Restart the Mongrel processes on the app server. Uses sudo if use\_sudo is true. restart: Calls restart\_mongrel\_cluster to allow Mongrel to be used with the standard Capistrano deploy task. spinner: Calls start\_mongrel\_cluster to allow Mongrel to be used with the standard Capistrano cold\_deploy task. Good luck and let me know how it works for ya! ## Thanks, Bradley Taylor Rails Machine Simplified web application deployment [http://railsmachine.com](http://railsmachine.com) ---
**Author:** ![bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bktaylor)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-cluster-0-1-1-the-bird-dog-capistrano-suppor/59326/2 "2006-05-04T16:56:39Z")
Uff, I got lost. I had mongrel\_cluster 0.1working fine, even with capistrano (my own hack). Then came mongrel\_cluster 0.1.1 and I tried to set it up, but somehow I messed up things and nothing worked anymore. So here what I did: ## on production machine: (debian linux, rails 1.1) - installing mongrel\_cluster 0.1.1 ## on development machine\*\*: (windows XP, raills 1.1) - inststalling mongrel\_cluster 0.1.1 - recreating config file: mongrel\_rails cluster::configure - modifying configfile manually to make it look like this: (will be more the one server later) * * * num-procs: 1024 docroot: public timeout: 120 cwd: /home/me/sites/myapp/current log\_file: log/mongrel.log port: 3000 config\_script: debug: false environment: production servers: 1 pid\_file: log/mongrel.pid address: 0.0.0.0 mime\_map: - deploy.rb: commented out my old restart and spinner tasks and added: require ‘mongrel\_cluster/recipes’ - deployment: rake deploy (fails because config file is at: /home/me/sites/myapp/current/config/mongrel\_cluster.yml) … executing “mongrel\_rails cluster::restart -C /home/me/sites/myapp/config/mongrel\_cluster.yml” … then I thought I could give “cap -a configure\_mongrel\_cluster” a try, hoping it would put things into the right order, but I got this: \*\* [out :: xx.xx.xx.xx] !!! Path to log file not valid: log/mongrel.log \*\* [out :: xx.xx.xx.xx] cluster::configure reported an error. Use -h to get help. So what is wrong with the way I approached capistrano mongrel\_cluster ? regards Roberto ---
**Author:** ![bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bktaylor](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/bktaylor)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-mongrel-cluster-0-1-1-the-bird-dog-capistrano-suppor/59326/3 "2006-05-08T09:52:46Z")
bradley taylor wrote: > Hey y’all: > mongrel\_cluster provides management tools for running Mongrel behind > a reverse-proxy/load balancer. It is an extraction from Rails > Machine, a deployment service and Ruby library that simplifies Rails > application deployment. This release fixes bugs and adds a Capistrano > task library. > > Good luck and let me know how it works for ya! This has been VERY helpful, thanks! Two things have come to mind that might be helpful to include in a future release: 1. Parse the mongrel\_cluster.yml file through ERB, like Rails does for the fixtures and database.yml file. Would allow for things like setting the CWD to ENV[‘HOME’], etc. Rails uses: 2. Provide a cluster command for starting up “missing” Mongrel servers. The issue is that “restart” only restarts processes that are actually running. And just running “start” will do _bad_ things if you just run it; it appears to put a new pid into the .pid file, but then fail to start up (since a process is running already on that port) – the net effect is that the process is now orphaned, since you don’t know the pid anymore. I guess I’m looking for something like the fcgi spinner, that can start up Mongrel processes if they die. And allow restarts to turn into a plain old start, if the target process isn’t found.