How do you deploy RoR? Newb alert!

[jeremy]

Hi there,
I’m a newb when it comes to RoR but I have some questions about
deployment that has eluded me since I heard about RoR 2+ years ago. I
was hoping someone could shed some light for me on this subject.

I’ve read many books on Ruby and Rails, and I’ve watched many video
tutorials but after hours of reading up on Ruby and Rails, I am still
confused about how deployment is done. Mind you, I’m learning this
stuff on my own without help from a real person, so I’m a little
frustrated about how difficult it is to deploy a site/app.

Also, another question is where can I find a very cheap host to upload
my RoR app/site? Or what host would you recommend that wouldn’t cost
an arm and a leg? I see to use Joyent.com it cost ALOT to host with
them (http://www.joyent.com/services/cloudhosting/) like around $500+/
mo for 4GB Ram… That’s crazy if you ask me… Especially, if you’re
just starting out and want to play around before you get into paying
more money for a host.

Anyway, here’s what I understand thus far about deployment…
I can use either “SVN” or “Git” to upload my RoR project to a server,
is that correct? Why can’t I just use FTP? (newb question I know…)

I’ve been hearing a lot about Phusion Passenger, but it’s a little
overwhelming. So just wondering if this is all I need to deploy an
app? Would I need git or svn if I used passenger?

What books would you recommend for learning to upload a Ruby on Rails
site/app to a server?

I did a few searches here to find out if i could get an answer for my
questions but it’s a little overwhelming… I know it’s a lot of
questions so my apologies in advance. Any guidance I can get about
these topics would be very appreciated and helpful. Even if it’s just
listing a couple books that specifically target these subjects would
be great.

Thanks again,
Jeremy

P.S. I work on Mac OSX - Snow Leopard 10.6.4, 3.06 GHz Intel Core2 Duo
and 4GB memory… Also, I’m working with the current stable versions
of Ruby, Rails and gems as of June 27 2010.

[jeremy]

Hi,

Try “Deploying Rails Applications”[1] from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. It
covers what you’re looking for.

[1] http://pragprog.com/titles/fr_deploy/deploying-rails-applications

– Bob

[jeremy]

Hey Bob,
Thanks for the information, it’s much appreciated.

Quick question though… I had thought about getting this book but I
saw that it was written 2+ years ago (may 2008)… Do you think there
is more up to date book out there that would cover this or do you
think this book would still be suitable? I’m just worried I’m going
to waste money on an outdated book

Thanks again for your time.
Jeremy

[jeremy]

At work we use capistrano. Our code comes out of mercurial by allowing
the
servers access to the mercurial repository.

On my personal site I use capistrano and the code comes out of SVN by
being
tared up and unpacked at the destination.

Capistrano is a sort of ‘given’ tool if you are a Rails developer, it
would
be useful if you knew how to use it.

Also it is quite handy

[jeremy]

Hi,

Yeah, stuff moves pretty quickly but a lot of what is in the book
still applies. I bought it about a year ago and didn’t think it was
outdated. It will also give you a really good foundation and makes
learning the newer choices easier to pick up.

–Bob

[jeremy]

Hi,

SVN and/or GIT has nothing to do directly with deployment or passenger
but you should study on Source Code M.agement or Source Code Version
SVN and GIT both are a source code management tools and you can manage
the updates of your source code with them.

SVN though is older yet solid, GIT is relatively newer but more
popular in Rails community. So if need to start with something, I
would say to pick up GIT directly.
Get some proficiency in GIT and so if you just wanna test out things,
you can get yourself a free account on http://github.com to host
public repositories and if you need to keep your code private you
might like to go for a paid account. Though GitHub is the most
respected provider for hosting Git repos, there are some other good
providers for hosting private Git repositories which comes with more
economical plans, viz. repositoryhosting.com

Once you are good with Git… time to deploy on a server.
In Rails, just forget the old school FTP deployments… it’s much more
interesting and awesome here once you are familiar with.

Also, another question is where can I find a very cheap host to upload
my RoR app/site? Or what host would you recommend that wouldn’t cost
an arm and a leg? I see to use Joyent.com it cost ALOT to host with
them (http://www.joyent.com/services/cloudhosting/) like around $500+/
mo for 4GB Ram… That’s crazy if you ask me… Especially, if you’re
just starting out and want to play around before you get into paying
more money for a host.

Why would you need 4GB RAM just to jump start your first rails site
(with no live users I suppose). 4GB anyhow is going to cost you a bit
more.
Go for some economical hosting providers, Linode or SpeedyRails etc.
I don’t have personal experience with Linode, but SR guys will setup
everything for you … including… MySql, Phusion Passenger and
automated deployment with Capistrano… you will just need to give
them your repository information (and money :).
Capistrano is a tool for automating your deployment process,
especially for Rails apps… you can read more about it here

CapiFy | Home Page

So, there after, any change you’ll make in your code, you just need to
push the changes to the repository and fire just one command from your
application root… most likely this “cap deploy” to redeploy with
the latest changes.

I hope this would help you somehow.

regards,
Sur

[jeremy]

Jeremy wrote:

Hi everyone,
I have to say that I am very pleased that I have received such great
responses! Â I kept expecting that I would get the cold shoulder but
instead I got real answers. I feel I have a solid direction and don’t
feel like I’m blindly trying to figure this stuff out. So please
accept my sincerest thank you to all of you for helping me out!
Â
Bob,
I decided to go ahead and buy the book regardless if it’s
outdated  I kinda figured the way deployment is done couldn’t have
changed too much.
Â
It probably has. Â I don’t think Passenger was in wide use at the time,
and it’s now probably the most common choice for deployment.
Â
Peter,
Thank you, I appreciate your contribution as well. Â Although, it was a
little over my head when you started talking “mercurial repositories”
but I’m sure I’ll understand what that means sometime in the near
future.

Mercurial is a version control system – though it’s not in all that
wide use in the Rails community. Â I think most Rails developers use Git.
 Which version control system are you using?

(Hint: if the answer is “none”, fix that today by installing Git.
 There is no excuse whatsoever for neglecting version control.)

Also, check out Heroku for very easy Rails deployment.Â

Best,
–Â
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

[jeremy]

Hi Marnen,

> It probably has.  I don't think Passenger was in wide use at the

time,
> and it’s now probably the most common choice for deployment.

So you’re saying Passenger is a good choice for deployment then? I
still plan to read the aforementioned book, I don’t think it would
hurt.

Which version control system are you using?
(Hint: if the answer is “none”, fix that today by installing
Git.
There is no excuse whatsoever for neglecting version control.)

Well, I never plan to neglect vc… that’s partially why I created
this thread because I wasn’t sure what to use. I already have Git
installed (which I installed quite some time ago), but I don’t
understand how to use it quite yet so that’s why I’m reading what I
can about it… but I need a book that is going to take me through it
via baby steps since I don’t have any experience whatsoever using Git,
(or any other vc as far as that goes but Git is what I’ll probably use
in the end.)

Also, check out Heroku for very easy Rails deployment.

I will def look into that, thank you for the reference.

Thanks again,
Jeremy

[jeremy]

Hi everyone,
I have to say that I am very pleased that I have received such great
responses! I kept expecting that I would get the cold shoulder but
instead I got real answers. I feel I have a solid direction and don’t
feel like I’m blindly trying to figure this stuff out. So please
accept my sincerest thank you to all of you for helping me out!

Bob,
I decided to go ahead and buy the book regardless if it’s
outdated I kinda figured the way deployment is done couldn’t have
changed too much.

Peter,
Thank you, I appreciate your contribution as well. Although, it was a
little over my head when you started talking “mercurial repositories”
but I’m sure I’ll understand what that means sometime in the near
future.

Sur,
This helps greatly! You have certainly gone above and beyond what I
was looking for, so thank you for all the time and effort you put into
this thread. I’m sure all this information will help other newbs as
well when they go looking for an answer.

Thanks again!

[jeremy]

Jeremy wrote:

Hi Marnen,
Â
  > It probably has. �I don’t think Passenger was in wide use at the
time,
  > and it’s now probably the most common choice for deployment.
Â
So you’re saying Passenger is a good choice for deployment then?

Definitely.Â

 I
still plan to read the aforementioned book, I don’t think it would
hurt.

Why do you want to read an outdated book?

Â
Â
  > �Which version control system are you using?
  > (Hint: if the answer is “none”, fix that today by installing
Git.
  > �There is no excuse whatsoever for neglecting version control.)
Â
Well, I never plan to neglect vc… Â that’s partially why I created
this thread because I wasn’t sure what to use. Â I already have Git
installed (which I installed quite some time ago), but I don’t
understand how to use it quite yet so that’s why I’m reading what I
can about it… Â but I need a book that is going to take me through it
via baby steps since I don’t have any experience whatsoever using Git,
(or any other vc as far as that goes but Git is what I’ll probably use
in the end.)

I don’t know of any books on Git. Â But there are plenty of Web
tutorials.Â

Just start using it. Â Also use RSpec and Cucumber to do all development
test-first. Â Serious development in 2010 absolutely requires both
version control and automated tests.Â

Â

Also, check out Heroku for very easy Rails deployment.�
Â
I will def look into that, thank you for the reference.
Â
Thanks again,
Jeremy

[jeremy]

Hi Jeremy and everyone

Found myself following this discussion and all the great informative
answers supplied here. I am too in a learning process with my first
app, very much a Newbie (in RoR and Web in general, though have a
programming experience) and lately have been trying to figure out the
deployment process, terms, and sort of ‘what belongs where’

I wish to validate what I understood so far, it probably contains
mistakes and wrong assumptions as I’m still learning , so please
correct me when I’m wrong
(@Jeremy: hope it’s ok I joined the discussions you opened…)

I’m currently developing on Windows… started with using InstantRails
and installed Git on Cygwin. This allowed me to experiment with some
developing locally, begin with local version control and git-clone
repositories for plugins/Gems.
As I read some more, I realized I’d probably want to deploy my App on
a Linux/Unix based server rather than a Windows one and that
developing on windows and deploying on Linux (the way I initially
started developing) might not be a good idea at all.
Therefore I decided to install VM on my Windows machine… have seen
some posts lately on the subject… currently I just installed VMWare
Player (had to use version 2.5, my CPU wasn’t compatible with 3.1) but
have thoughts of maybe trying VirtualRails instead (if it works on my
machine) – I did see VirtualRails is using MintLinux-based Linux and
was wondering whether that might cause future problems (as opposed to
using Ubuntu for example)?
After deciding and once I have that set (I expect future questions
about setting it all up as well) – more questions… these I’m afraid
are going to reflect my newbie confusion… but sincere informative and
patient answers can help me “map” the information I have in my head,
the information I’m reading and looking for and focus me, and thus
will be very much appreciated…
I will say in advance I think some of the mistakes I’m about to
describe may result from the fact English isn’t my first language and
so maybe I don’t understand the different terms fully (such as
deployment, hosting, etc.), that and being also new to Web
development…
Ok – deployment questions:
I couldn’t understand for sure whether I need both a host and a place
to deploy my App? And also was confused by the lines Sur wrote:
"Go for some economical hosting providers, Linode or SpeedyRails etc.
I don’t have personal experience with Linode, but SR guys will setup
everything for you … including… MySql, Phusion Passenger and
automated deployment with Capistrano… you will just need to give
them your repository information (and money :). "
I mean – it didn’t make sense I’d use both Passenger and Capistrano
(probably it does but I understood they’re both used for deployment,
thus the confusion…), unless Capistrano does both automated
deployment but can also be used when using a different deployment
service…
I feel and know I mix everything up here, but any light you can put
for me on this subject will be very helpful…
Was also confused by the fact Phusion Passenger offers “Phusion
Passenger for Nginx”… while I got the impression (obviously a wrong
one, or not full) – I can deploy my app on Nginx as well?
At least I heard people mentioning Nginx at the same sentence with
Heroku and Passenger…
This brings me to another question:
I also understood I can use heroku for deployment, which will require
not more than one git push every once in a while (of course I know
there’s much more to it, but it was to explain me the ease of use)…
in case I do use heroku (couldn’t find any cons to using it I should
be aware of, if someone can write a few from his/her experience, I’ll
be glad to learn…) – can I git push from my local repository or do I
need first to push to a remote one, such as a public/private
repository on GitHub? Moreover, if I’m the only one playing around
with this app right now – what benefits can a GitHub repository give
me comparing to using it locally? (this question is relevant, of
course, only in case it’s not a mandatory step for deployment, for
example… from Sur’s quote it sounds it is a required step, at least
if I used Capistrano…)
More about Heroku – if I choose to use it, do I need a host as well?
From what I understood concerning Heroku – I git push my code there
(which should be possible with local Git repository to my
understanding), and I also need to point my DNS to Heroku, but then it
means I only need a DNS provider and not a necessarily a host… (?)
I feel whenever I think I begin to understand bits of information, I’m
faced with more information which doesn’t fit the previous one… think
once I have the terms and process better mapped I can better learn and
understand…
I’m also feeling this might be seen as a very clueless, mixed post…
To sum this long post up – I’m a NewB, and this is the reason I’m
asking many questions here, as I’m teaching myself and don’t have
anybody to correct me or direct me when I do mistakes
It does not mean I’m not doing my heavy reading to figure things out
on my own, but doing lots of reading with no experienced person around
to direct me led me to such confusion at the moment of writing…
Many thanks in advance to anyone patient enough to address some of my
questions / direct me

Nin.

[jeremy]

@Marnen: Thank you! I appreciate it a lot…

The joy I feel after reading your reply, when things start to make
sense… this is great, thanks

wrote below…

On Jun 30, 4:08 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

newcomer wrote:

started developing) might not be a good idea at all.
problem.

This one surprised me a bit as I heard many confident "no-no"s on
this, though what you wrote sounds like good news. Naturally, best
thing would be to try it out, just hesitated because of what I’ve
heard on this subject… (and besides, was also thrilled to get into
Linux as well, though learning everything from scratch at the same
time has it’s pros and cons…)

I did have another reason to go and install VM, though I’m not sure it
was a correct one, short description as follows:

In one of the posts around I read about Cappuccino and it looked
great, so wanted to try it out as well for my User Interface… but the
download instructions contain a shell script I’m supposed to be
running (if I understood correctly), when not building from the source
(being a Newbie and after reading a bit I assumed this was not for me
yet).
Anyway, when happily going to Cygwin to run the bootstrap.sh file I
encountered the following message:

“Error: Narwhal is not compatible with your JVM. Please switch to the
Sun (HotSpot) JVM and re-run bootstrap.sh”

and from reading a bit
(like here:
http://groups.google.com/group/objectivej/browse_frm/thread/c4996786d8465be7/72d2fcdcfdf7ccb7?tvc=1#72d2fcdcfdf7ccb7
)

I understood (though haven’t asked directly and I may be wrong here)
VM won’t encounter such problems… it’s Cygwin that’s not supported

But… now that I’m writing it here, I re-think this and actually don’t
know if that’s a required thing for my needs of Cappuccino or even if
I understood correctly… (sigh…)

[…]

After this re-thinking and sighing, I still am very happy about the
information you supplied me with…

Thanks again

Nin.

[jeremy]

newcomer wrote:

Hi Jeremy and everyone

Found myself following this discussion and all the great informative
answers supplied here. I am too in a learning process with my first
app, very much a Newbie (in RoR and Web in general, though have a
programming experience) and lately have been trying to figure out the
deployment process, terms, and sort of ‘what belongs where’

Welcome!

[…]

I’m currently developing on Windows… started with using InstantRails
and installed Git on Cygwin. This allowed me to experiment with some
developing locally, begin with local version control and git-clone
repositories for plugins/Gems.
As I read some more, I realized I’d probably want to deploy my App on
a Linux/Unix based server rather than a Windows one and that
developing on windows and deploying on Linux (the way I initially
started developing) might not be a good idea at all.
Therefore I decided to install VM on my Windows machine… have seen
some posts lately on the subject… currently I just installed VMWare
Player (had to use version 2.5, my CPU wasn�t compatible with 3.1) but
have thoughts of maybe trying VirtualRails instead (if it works on my
machine) � I did see VirtualRails is using MintLinux-based Linux and
was wondering whether that might cause future problems (as opposed to
using Ubuntu for example)?

I doubt that that would be a problem. I develop on Mac OS X (which is
BSD, not Linux) and routinely deploy to Linux servers without any
problem.

[…]

Ok � deployment questions:
I couldn’t understand for sure whether I need both a host and a place
to deploy my App?

No. A host is a place to deploy your app. Same thing.

[…]

I mean � it didn’t make sense I’d use both Passenger and Capistrano
(probably it does but I understood they’re both used for deployment,
thus the confusion…), unless Capistrano does both automated
deployment but can also be used when using a different deployment
service…

They are different tools for different purposes. Capistrano takes care
of putting your app on the server, while Passenger serves it once it’s
there.

I feel and know I mix everything up here, but any light you can put
for me on this subject will be very helpful…
Was also confused by the fact Phusion Passenger offers “Phusion
Passenger for Nginx”… while I got the impression (obviously a wrong
one, or not full) � I can deploy my app on Nginx as well?
At least I heard people mentioning Nginx at the same sentence with
Heroku and Passenger…

Apache and Nginx are Web server programs. By themselves, they just
serve static files without any server-side dynamic content. This is
great for serving static websites, but obviously will not work if you’re
using a server-side programming language like PHP or Ruby. For Apache
or Nginx to run PHP/Ruby/Python/whatever applications, it needs a module
to connect it to the appropriate interpreter. That’s basically what
Passenger does.

In other words, you need Passenger (or something similar, but Passenger
is probably simplest) in order for Apache or Nginx to talk to the Ruby
interpreter. Passenger is available either as an Apache module or as an
Nginx module.

This brings me to another question:
I also understood I can use heroku for deployment, which will require
not more than one git push every once in a while (of course I know
there’s much more to it, but it was to explain me the ease of use)…
in case I do use heroku (couldn’t find any cons to using it I should
be aware of, if someone can write a few from his/her experience, I’ll
be glad to learn…) � can I git push from my local repository or do I
need first to push to a remote one, such as a public/private
repository on GitHub?

You can git push from anywhere. Heroku doesn’t care.

Moreover, if I’m the only one playing around
with this app right now � what benefits can a GitHub repository give
me comparing to using it locally?

It gives you another copy of the code stored offsite.

[…]

More about Heroku � if I choose to use it, do I need a host as well?

Heroku is a host.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

[jeremy]

Hi

confused again:
My first question here is a bit less connected to the original post’s
subject, so @Jeremy - I apologise…

@Marnen: Just read this again:
http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk/browse_frm/thread/55bdcc2ee8fb0c3e/72613f954c70a9f2?#72613f954c70a9f2

After reading your reply, I thought I should give it a try to
Passenger, but according to this I should be using VM while I just
understood from the previous answer I do not have to (as I wrote
before, will move to VM gladly, but just trying to understand first)

Also another question about Heroku -
being a host, I was wondering why would it guide me to point my DNS
server to Heroku, Zerigo being recommended?
Do I need to purchase separately a DNS service when deploying to
Heroku?
Or is it again my lack of understading of an additional functionality?

(was looking on this page here:

Custom Domain Names for Apps | Heroku Dev Center

)

Thanks again

Best,
Nin.

[jeremy]

newcomer wrote:

@Marnen: Thank you! I appreciate it a lot…

The joy I feel after reading your reply, when things start to make
sense… this is great, thanks

wrote below…

On Jun 30, 4:08 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

newcomer wrote:

started developing) might not be a good idea at all.
problem.

This one surprised me a bit as I heard many confident "no-no"s on
this, though what you wrote sounds like good news. Naturally, best
thing would be to try it out, just hesitated because of what I’ve
heard on this subject… (and besides, was also thrilled to get into
Linux as well, though learning everything from scratch at the same
time has it’s pros and cons…)

Er, I was talking about Mint Linux vs. Ubuntu Linux (which shouldn’t be
a problem), not Windows vs. *nix (which might well cause problems).

I did have another reason to go and install VM, though I’m not sure it
was a correct one, short description as follows:

In one of the posts around I read about Cappuccino and it looked
great, so wanted to try it out as well for my User Interface… but the
download instructions contain a shell script I’m supposed to be
running (if I understood correctly), when not building from the source
(being a Newbie and after reading a bit I assumed this was not for me
yet).
Anyway, when happily going to Cygwin to run the bootstrap.sh file I
encountered the following message:

“Error: Narwhal is not compatible with your JVM. Please switch to the
Sun (HotSpot) JVM and re-run bootstrap.sh”
[…]

This is probably better directed to a Cappuccino forum.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

[jeremy]

On Jun 30, 5:45 pm, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

Er, I was talking about Mint Linux vs. Ubuntu Linux (which shouldn’t be
a problem), not Windows vs. *nix (which might well cause problems).

Funny, just sent another question about that
Got it, thanks… will happily move to VM then…

Anyway, when happily going to Cygwin to run the bootstrap.sh file I
encountered the following message:

“Error: Narwhal is not compatible with your JVM. Please switch to the
Sun (HotSpot) JVM and re-run bootstrap.sh”

[…]

This is probably better directed to a Cappuccino forum.

yes, my embarrassment in sending stupid questions (like in this post)
prevented me from asking them thus receiving answers.
But after your replies I feel more confident to ask these

Best,

Nin.

[jeremy]

@ Hassan: many thanks

Was just going to rephrase this question to ask whether Heroku has its
own DNS service or do I need to purchase one and point it to Heroku…
and you just answered me and cleared it up

Best,

Nin.

On Jun 30, 6:11 pm, Hassan S. [email protected]

[jeremy]

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 7:58 AM, newcomer [email protected] wrote:

Also another question about Heroku -
being a host, I was wondering why would it guide me to point my DNS
server to Heroku, Zerigo being recommended?
Do I need to purchase separately a DNS service when deploying to
Heroku?

You have to pick a domain registrar – Network Solutions, GoDaddy,
etc. – to register a domain name. That registrar should offer DNS
service as part of the registration.

For development and learning purposes, you don’t even need that,
as your heroku deployment will just appear to be a subdomain, e.g.
http://example.heroku.com/

–
Hassan S. ------------------------ [email protected]
twitter: @hassan

[jeremy]

Hi Nin,

subject, so @Jeremy - I apologise…

No worries at all, you bring up some good points and I welcome anyone
who can offer guidance and newbs who might have questions that I
haven’t thought of or are confused about. I am learning this all
myself so I also do not have a mentor or tutor to guide me through the
steps. All I have is books and video tutorials and the ruby and rails
community.

Anyway, the point you brought up about Passenger—
"I mean – it didn’t make sense I’d use both Passenger and
Capistrano
(probably it does but I understood they’re both used for
deployment,
thus the confusion…), unless Capistrano does both automated
deployment but can also be used when using a different deployment
service… "

and the response that Marnen supplied—
"They are different tools for different purposes. Capistrano
takes care
of putting your app on the server, while Passenger serves it once
it’s
there. "

This was so great because I was still confused about whether to use
Passenger or Capistrano for deployment since I thought they basically
did the same thing. Now that I understand this a little better, it
will definitely help me when learning to use them.

So, thanks for your contributions to the thread

@Marnen, and @Hassan— You ROCK!

Best Regards,
Jeremy

[jeremy]

I am also new on Rails, This thread is very helpful. I also started
development from windows but when i reached at the point of passenger,
than I moved to Linux Ubuntu.

I start working with godaddy hosting, but face some problems than i
move to site5.com and successfully upload my first demo project. (its
working)

Now from this thread i understand the difference between Capis and
Passenger.

Thanks for all contributes.

Now again when I upload the project from FTP, I found it is so hard,
Because it is like installing whole application every time, than i
understand the importance of version control system.

I looked for the way to use any thing else other than GIT, because it
is not free, but did not find any thing , my question is that
subversion and GIT work same task or different. If yes than will putty
is right direction to go with subversion.

Thanks a lot