# Multiple Rails apps within one Apache VirtualHost **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 18, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/multiple-rails-apps-within-one-apache-virtualhost/132269 "2008-03-18T16:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/c89c15/32.png) [@zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zakifataya)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/multiple-rails-apps-within-one-apache-virtualhost/132269/1 "2008-03-18T16:25:28Z")
Has anyone configured multiple Rails apps within the same VirtualHost directive? I need to do this with the apps selected by the initial path. I’m using Apache 2.2.3 with mod\_proxy\_balancer and Rails 2.0.2. In fact, non-Rails apps have to be configured within this VirtualHost also, but that problem has been solved via a Location directive. I tried a similar Location statement for the Rails apps with no success yet, so I thought I’d see if anyone has already done this. To date, I’ve only needed to configure one Rails app within a VirtualHost with what appears to be a fairly typical config. Any info sources for more advanced Apache configuration for Rails would be appreciated. Brian A. ---
**Author:** ![zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/c89c15/32.png) [@zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zakifataya)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/multiple-rails-apps-within-one-apache-virtualhost/132269/2 "2008-03-18T16:53:29Z")
Brian, I would look at using mod\_proxy to send different URLs to your rails apps if you need to do in one virtual host. You would start each app with mongrel\_rails on X port and then config Apache like so: #mongrel rails app#1 running on 3000 ProxyPass /yourapp\_prefix http://:3000 ProxyPassReverse /yourapp\_prefix http://:3000 #mongrel rails app#1 running on 3001 ProxyPass /yourapp2\_prefix http://:3001 ProxyPassReverse /yourapp2\_prefix http://:3001 The real issue you will run into with a VPS is memory usage. Some VPSs will kill your mongrel’s if they hog resources. So you’ll want to also run a cron script or “monit” to keep an eye on them. ---
**Author:** ![zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/c89c15/32.png) [@zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zakifataya)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/multiple-rails-apps-within-one-apache-virtualhost/132269/3 "2008-03-18T17:18:53Z")
On Mar 18, 11:52 am, blasterpal [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Brian, > > I would look at using mod\_proxy to send different URLs to your rails > apps if you need to do in one virtual host. You would start each app > with mongrel\_rails on X port and then config Apache like so: > > #mongrel rails app#1 running on 3000 > ProxyPass /yourapp\_prefix http://:3000 > ProxyPassReverse /yourapp\_prefix http://:3000 I’ve seen some folks using the above (ProxyPass ProxyPassReverse), and others using the following (RewriteRule). Any advantages of one over the other? # Redirect all non-static requests to cluster RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT\_ROOT}/%{REQUEST\_FILENAME} !-f RewriteRule ^/app1(._)$ balancer://cluster1%{REQUEST\_URI} [P,QSA,L] RewriteRule ^/app2(._)$ balancer://cluster2%{REQUEST\_URI} [P,QSA,L] > #mongrel rails app#1 running on 3001 > ProxyPass /yourapp2\_prefix http://:3001 > ProxyPassReverse /yourapp2\_prefix http://:3001 > > The real issue you will run into with a VPS is memory usage. Some VPSs > will kill your mongrel’s if they hog resources. So you’ll want to also > run a cron script or “monit” to keep an eye on them. This is on a dedicated machine, not a VPS. The reason I need multiple Rails apps configured in the same VirtualHost is because we’re already using the host name for another purpose - to identify an organization. We’ve specified a \* wildcard DNS entry to allow handling any number of hosts (the apps will parse the hostname to determine organization). For example: http://.foo.com/rails1/controller/action/… http://.foo.com/rails2/controller/action/… http://.foo.com/nonrails1/… http://.foo.com/nonrails2/… The apps are written by one company and cooperate, but also have a degree of independence. I’d prefer to have each app provide its own location for static files for Apache to serve directly, so I think my main problem is finding a nice way to have the equivalent of a docroot per app. I could probably live with a solution that requires the rails app to share a directory tree - maybe via soft links. ---
**Author:** ![zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/c89c15/32.png) [@zakifataya](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zakifataya)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/multiple-rails-apps-within-one-apache-virtualhost/132269/4 "2008-03-18T22:31:01Z")
On Mar 18, 11:24 am, Brian A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Has anyone configured multiple Rails apps within the same VirtualHost > directive? I need to do this with the apps selected by the initial > path. I’m using Apache 2.2.3 with mod\_proxy\_balancer and Rails 2.0.2. The following solution seems to work fairly well for me so far: > **[Multiple Ruby on Rails apps with Mongrel and Apache](http://tonyrose023.blogspot.com/2007/01/multiple-rails-apps-with-mongrel.html)** > > This post will show how to deploy multiple Ruby on Rails applications using Apache2.2 and Mongrel Clusters. The goal is to serve many apps ... I had to mess around with some additional RewriteRules to get Apache to serve static files instead of mongrel and to deal with Rails caching.