# Ideal environment for a Rails app **URL:** \ **Category:** Deployment\ **Created:** [July 27, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524 "2007-07-27T04:53:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smc7000)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524/1 "2007-07-27T04:53:18Z")
Hi everybody. I’m still kind of a newbie at anything that exists at a lower level than the OS, but my company wants to set up a server for the rails apps that I will shortly be developing for them. Most of the functions will be only in-house, but some are meant to be accessible by clients, so I need to set something up that will be strong enough to handle a little bit of traffic. So here is my question: What do you recommend as the _best_ or ideal setup for your apps? Like, right now, they’re running Fedora Core 2 on a Dell Poweredge 1300 , running some web server I don’t know about (I’m not officially in the loop yet) to handle static HTML pages. I’m pretty much stabbing in the dark, but I’m guessing I will need to install some kind of Linux somewhere on the machine or in a separate drive and then use Mongrel or Lighttpd or both (do I need both running at the same time? Does one run off the other? or can I just use one?) to serve the application. Then I have to learn about networking and figure out how we can keep one function inside while allowing another function to go outside. But don’t worry about that. So my boss is asking me which distribution of Linux is _the best_, and since I don’t even know if there is a _best_ distribution for Rails apps, I need to find some smart people to ask. i.e. you. So what do you use? Recommend? Warn people away from? What would you do if you had a machine that you could configure any way you wanted? ---
**Author:** ![smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smc7000)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 5:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524/2 "2007-07-27T05:12:05Z")
I’m in the situation where I can use any setup I want to and I went with Ubuntu with nginx and mongrel. Had previously used lighttpd but since Zed released mongrel my life has changed (thanks Zed!) Picking one linux distro over the other isn’t something I’m comfortable doing over a mailing list. 😉 I know a lot of people swear by Solaris but, depending on where you plan to scale your app, that might be overkill. Here’s a (somewhat dated) writeup in case you decide to go at it via Ubuntu: [http://www.urbanpuddle.com/articles/2007/05/09/install-ruby-on-rails-on-ubuntu-feisty-fawn](http://www.urbanpuddle.com/articles/2007/05/09/install-ruby-on-rails-on-ubuntu-feisty-fawn) -VInce On 7/26/07, Sean C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Dell Poweredge 1300 , running some web server I don’t know about (I’m > So my boss is asking me which distribution of Linux is _the best_, and > since I don’t even know if there is a _best_ distribution for Rails > apps, I need to find some smart people to ask. i.e. you. > > ## So what do you use? Recommend? Warn people away from? What would you do if you had a machine that you could configure any way you wanted? > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > – support independent business – [http://www.buyindie.net/](http://www.buyindie.net/) ---
**Author:** ![smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smc7000)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 5:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524/3 "2007-07-27T05:14:05Z")
On 7/26/07, Sean C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hi everybody. I’m still kind of a newbie at anything that exists at a > lower level than the OS, but my company wants to set up a server for the > rails apps that I will shortly be developing for them. Selling my own wares here, but have a look at [http://rubyworks.rubyforge.org](http://rubyworks.rubyforge.org). It’s primarily aimed at situations like yours, and works on several Linux flavors. > So my boss is asking me which distribution of Linux is _the best_ There is no such things as “the best”, but FC2 is definitely not good (ancient). If your sysadmins are already familiar with Fedora, they may want to stick with something similar. I’d say, CentOS 5 (or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, if commercial support is needed). Best regards, Alex Verkhovsky ---
**Author:** ![smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smc7000)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524/4 "2007-08-06T17:35:08Z")
Correction: Behind that you’ll have web server - of course you’ll choose Mongrel (maybe w/ mongrel cluster). —\> Behind that you’ll have _APP_ server - of course you’ll choose Mongrel (maybe w/ mongrel cluster). D. Krmpotic wrote: > I think the best is to use Ubuntu, because there is the most material > available for this distribution. There’s a lot of tutorials and how-tos > specifically for Ubuntu. It sure makes things easier. If you want > “enterprise linux”, you can go with CentOS. Bu I prefer Debian flavors > of linux alltogether. > > Regarding webservers… you’ll need Apache or (even better) nginx as a > web server for serving static content. Behind that you’ll have web > server - of course you’ll choose Mongrel (maybe w/ mongrel cluster). > > For deployment you have to find out about Capistrano and also Deprec > gem. Deprec gem helps you set-up your environment. The problem now is > that Capistrano just came out in version 2.0, but deprec is still not > ready for that version. But I think that it’s better to set up > everything yourself at the beginning. At least I like to do it that way. > Once I really know how it’s done, I’ll start using automation for that > as well. > > that’s it… I’m also not very long in all of this, but I got a feeling > about what are the best tools for the job… I hope others will agree… > > bye > david ---
**Author:** ![smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@smc7000](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smc7000)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ideal-environment-for-a-rails-app/110524/5 "2007-08-06T17:34:07Z")
I think the best is to use Ubuntu, because there is the most material available for this distribution. There’s a lot of tutorials and how-tos specifically for Ubuntu. It sure makes things easier. If you want “enterprise linux”, you can go with CentOS. Bu I prefer Debian flavors of linux alltogether. Regarding webservers… you’ll need Apache or (even better) nginx as a web server for serving static content. Behind that you’ll have web server - of course you’ll choose Mongrel (maybe w/ mongrel cluster). For deployment you have to find out about Capistrano and also Deprec gem. Deprec gem helps you set-up your environment. The problem now is that Capistrano just came out in version 2.0, but deprec is still not ready for that version. But I think that it’s better to set up everything yourself at the beginning. At least I like to do it that way. Once I really know how it’s done, I’ll start using automation for that as well. that’s it… I’m also not very long in all of this, but I got a feeling about what are the best tools for the job… I hope others will agree… bye david