Rails 3.0 App Deployment

Rails
1

I have a Rails 3.0 App ready to be deployed on a production server; but
as
you all might know getting all the gems you need (including Rails 3.0)
on a
shared hosting is nearly impossible. So here is what need help with:

  1. Can I freeze my app with all the necessary gems and deploy it on Fast
    CGI?
  2. If yes how do I freeze a Rails 3.0 app?
  3. How do I deploy it on Fast CGI?

I know this is an easy task but I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Tsega

2

On 20 Feb 2011, at 06:29, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

I have a Rails 3.0 App ready to be deployed on a production server; but as you
all might know getting all the gems you need (including Rails 3.0) on a shared
hosting is nearly impossible. So here is what need help with:

  1. Can I freeze my app with all the necessary gems and deploy it on Fast CGI?
  2. If yes how do I freeze a Rails 3.0 app?
  3. How do I deploy it on Fast CGI?

With rails3 you use bundler to manage gems.
You can run bundle package to cache them all inside your app, although
you probably don’t need to do this - in production bundler by default
installs a copy of gems private to the app (no root access required)
Don’t know what the fastcgi story is these days.

Fred

3

Thanks Fred, I was just looking into the bundler thing, I tried to run

rake rails:freeze:gems

but the reply was that the command is depricated and I should try the

bundler install

command instead. I get what that does and it runs perfectly on my
machine,
but that’s because everything is installed on the normal gems folder,

/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems

However, the freezing process was need because it copies these gems to
my
applications 'vendor ’ directory. So when you say

…

You can run bundle package to cache them all inside your app, although you
probably don’t need to do this - in production bundler by default installs a
copy of gems private to the app (no root access required)
…

I would assume that it means bundler does the same thing of moving my
gems
to somewhere in the application’s directory. So in short my question to
you
would be: how do I do that?

Thanks for the help.

4

I guess I should have dug a little deeper at http://gembundler.com
before I
posted my last request. The

bundle package

command does the trick! Now to the next issue at hand the Fast CGI
deployment!

Thanks Fred.

5

Ok I’ve packed (not frozen) my app using bundler, and here is what I’ve
done
on the server:

  1. Created a directory to upload my files to.
  2. Using a web interface I managed to create a symlink to my application
    directory

Now what should I do next?

Thanks,
Tsega

6

Anyone?

7

On Feb 23, 6:33pm, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

Ok I’ve packed (not frozen) my app using bundler, and here is what I’ve done
on the server:

  1. Created a directory to upload my files to.
  2. Using a web interface I managed to create a symlink to my application
    directory

Now what should I do next?

Do you have to use fastcgi? It fell out of favour a long time ago
(last time i used fastcgi was back in 2006)
Rails used to autogenerate a dispatch.fcgi and an htaccess file that
were setup to work with apache, however i don’t think it does anymore.
Your life will be a whole lot easier if you can switch to passenger
(as far as I’m aware that’s what most shared hosting companies used
too since it’s a lot easier for them too).

Fred

8

I think you need rvm, it lets you create a .rvmrc file which specifies
which
gem set to use, it works like magic, you can have one gem set for each
project and even a different ruby version for each, you will fall in
love
with it.

9

Thanks radhames, but I think RVM is for your local machine, I’m trying
to
deploy my app on to a public shared hosting server, which I have no
control
over. So RVM is not an option. Thanks for your help though.

Regards,
Tsega

10

On 1 March 2011 09:02, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

should be in the public folder.
I think you will find that even if you get it going that rails is not
reliable with fcgi. My hosting company moved to passenger a long time
ago to get away from such problems.

Colin

11

On Mar 1, 9:02am, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

should be in the public folder.

They should indeed be in the public folder. That repository you linked
to looks reasonable at first glance - worth a go I’d say.

Fred

12

Hi Fred,

Thanks for you help again, I wish I could try passenger but I’m making
this
app for a client and he insisted on sticking with this particular host
company since they have been doing business for a long time. Talk about
customer loyalty!

Anyways, where does rails keep the dispatch.fcgi and .htaccess files ?
Of
course what are their contents? Is it the same as suggested by this guy
on
github.com GitHub - dre3k/rails3_fcgi: Rails3 and FastCGI ? He is saying that it
should be in the public folder.

Thanks,
Tsega

13

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:49 AM, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

Thanks radhames, but I think RVM is for your local machine, I’m trying to
deploy my app on to a public shared hosting server, which I have no control
over. So RVM is not an option. Thanks for your help though.

No rvm is not for local machines , is easier the complete opposite, you
cant
have a serve without it.

OT, bundler has

$ bundle package

it will install everything on the plugins directory

14

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 4:49 AM, Tsega [email protected] wrote:

15

If you don’t mind me asking… What hosting are you using? I am looking
for a
hosting provider offering passenger…
Any suggestions?

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 3:31 AM, Colin L. [email protected]
wrote:

course what are their contents? Is it the same as suggested by this guy
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16

Hey Fred,

I have finally given up, I mean on getting rails to work on this hosting
account, I think I would have to use another programming language to
make
the app, or may be I 'll use CMS like Drupal. Believe me I am already
dreading the decision but I have no time to fiddle with the server, my
client is getting a little impatient so I would need to act soon. Thanks
a
lot for all he help, hope to see you here every once in a while.

Regards,
Tsega

17

Jaz if you are looking for a hosting plan that is affordable, has a good
deal of features on a shared server. You should look into site5.com .
They
offer a solid service, I use them for hosting a Spree (E-commerce Ruby
on
Rails app ) based website. As Colin suggested they use passenger(I think
they even have git integration) so you can give them a try.

18

For future readers of this thread,

Don’t deploy a Rails app on a shared server. It’s not worth the hassle
and
your hands will be bound. Rails is designed to work with VPS and
dedicated
servers.