# Shared hosting for rails **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 9, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hosting-for-rails/62927 "2006-06-09T16:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philpeterman)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hosting-for-rails/62927/1 "2006-06-09T16:31:32Z")
Hi all, This is my first posting to the mailing list. We are a small but technically competent hosting company in Savannah, GA. We have recently been bitten by the rails bug ourselves and while we are enthusiastic we don’t know a great deal about rails yet. We are looking at setting up hosting for rails, but we wanted to get feedback from the community before doing so. Having said all that, what do you see as your needs in a shared hosting environment. Are you looking for shell access? Should apache have suexec turned on for you? Do you prefer to install your own ruby or should it be available to you as part of the core? How about custom gems? Should we even set up apache at all, or would you prefer to be hosted on a server with lighttpd? Then, is the community preference for FCGI or SCGI? Well, that sort of leaves things wide open. I hope to hear good feedback. Thanks again. Phil P. Traffic Engineering eMarketSouth 912.356.1140 x107 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philpeterman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hosting-for-rails/62927/2 "2006-06-10T02:00:55Z")
Phil P. wrote: > Are you looking for shell access? I couldn’t do without ssh access. > Should apache have suexec turned on for you? Yes. > Do you prefer to install your > own ruby or should it be available to you as part of the core? I prefer to install all my own software, so I’m not surprised by sudden upgrades, but I don’t think most people do. > Should we even set up apache at all, or would you > prefer to be hosted on a server with lighttpd? I would prefer to have control over the configuration of my web server. Apache proxying for multiple instances of lighttpd seems to be one possible solution. Personal opinions only… –Al Evans ---
**Author:** ![philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@philpeterman](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/philpeterman)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/shared-hosting-for-rails/62927/3 "2006-06-10T04:47:49Z")
Hi Phil, I am of two minds on this topic. One of my minds believes the following: The “smaller guys” are likely the “newer” guys and would like you to do lots of stuff for them, while the bigger guys are all “been there done that” and want to fine tune it themselves. Thus, I would say shared-server customers are likely to want everything in the world pre-installed, with maybe some directions on how they can delete various installations if they want in order to regain some disk space. Customers who are using a virtual dedicated server are the middle ground, probably equally split between “do it all for me” and “I set up my own Iron thankyou very much!”. The full dedicated server customers are probably mostly in the later camp. That said, the other mind (let’s call it the right brain) has an idea it would like to share with you. Why not work up installation scripts for dozens of rails related items, and hook each one up to a checkbox on a customer form. User takes a few minutes to check all of the boxes they want installed, and that just feeds a dispatching script that fires off all of the requested installation scripts. Give every user exactly what they want and at the same time greatly reduce the amount of “I was trying to install “rhubarb” and now my rails doesn’t work anymore” calls you get from guys like me that don’t know which way is up yet. Now that my left brain has seen this idea, it wishes to retract it’s idea and promote the idea espoused by the right one. I am whole now, my minds are as one. 🙂 jp Phil P. wrote: > Hi all, > > This is my first posting to the mailing list. We are a small but > technically competent hosting company in Savannah, GA. We have > recently been bitten by the rails bug ourselves and while we are > enthusiastic we don’t know a great deal about rails yet. We are > looking at setting up hosting for rails, but we wanted to get > feedback from the community before doing so. > > Having said all that, what do you see as your needs in a shared > hosting environment. Are you looking for shell access? Should > apache have suexec turned on for you? Do you prefer to install your > own ruby or should it be available to you as part of the core? How > about custom gems? Should we even set up apache at all, or would you > prefer to be hosted on a server with lighttpd? Then, is the > community preference for FCGI or SCGI? > > Well, that sort of leaves things wide open. I hope to hear good > feedback. > > Thanks again. > > Phil P. > Traffic Engineering > eMarketSouth > 912.356.1140 x107 > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid