Best platform for production deployment of RoR applications

Rails
1

Hi,

I’m going to be setting up a small server farm for my production RoR
application deployments. I’m now at the point I need to pick what
software I’ll be running/management techniques.

So, my question is, what OS (and if Linux, which distribution) are
most people having the best luck/performance with? I’m well versed in
FreeBSD/Linux/Solaris, and would be open to other options as well.

Now, once the OS decision is made, how are people managing Ruby?
Installing it by hand (compiling/etc), and then using gems to keep
things updated? Or using the built-in distribution copies (IE debs or
ports or whatever)? I was thinking doing it by hand might be better so
as to keep current with bug fixes and security updates. In this case,
I’d be using KVM with linux to create virtual machines, and install
ruby/rails inside the virtual machines, that way I can build once and
simply deploy the virtual machines across the server farm easily. Does
this make sense?

Now, as to development, soon there will be a team working on RoR
applications. Is the “best” (I realize this is opinion based as much
as fact) multi-user development something like SVN? Or is there some
better solution?

Now, finally, after development, what is the best way to deploy? After
initial deployment, best way to deploy updates?

From reading documentation, it looks like mongrel is the best
application server, and with the updates to the proxy functionality
(coming in next release), lighttpd is the best front end. This is what
I was planning on. I was also thinking about going with Ubuntu
(since 7.x is going to have KVM integrated) for the OS.

I’ve been using Solaris on my servers, but I’ve gotten pretty fed up
with the update/patching system, and the fact that it takes a fair
amount of fuss to get a lot of applications to work, so that’s why I’m
evaluating switching to Linux, simply from the “ease of use”
standpoint. FreeBSD was an option, but jails just seem kinda “hackish”
to me, at least in terms of administration. KVM seems to be the
closest to Solaris Zones I’ve been able to find.

Well, I really do appreciate any input/comments/opinions you all could
provide. Some of this might be in documentation I missed, if so - feel
free to just tell me so (and I’d REALLY appreciate links.) Everything
else, I’m open to hearing any/all ideas. :slight_smile:

Thank you kindly,
David J. Orman

2

Apache 2.2 or 2.3 is in favor as the webserver of choice. There are
lots of tutorials out there on using mod_proxy_balancer and that’s
what I just finished deploying my application on.

Check out Capistrano for pushing your app to multiple servers.

As far as OS/distros go, there’s lots of support/tutorials out there
for Linux I’m only running a single front-end server right now, so I
don’t have any experience with virtual machines, but I would imagine
any distro would do fine. RedHat variants are probably the most
widely used, so if lots of tutorials and such are important to you,
then RedHat might be the way to go. But it sounds like you have a
compelling reason to go with Ubuntu, so that might outweigh any
benefit of a large user community on RedHat.

Good Luck!

3

There’s now a Google Group dedicated to Ruby on Rails deployment
discussions called “Deploying Rails” or “rubyonrails-deployment” if you
want to ask your question there.

David J. Orman wrote:

Hi,

I’m going to be setting up a small server farm for my production RoR
application deployments. I’m now at the point I need to pick what
software I’ll be running/management techniques.

So, my question is, what OS (and if Linux, which distribution) are
most people having the best luck/performance with? I’m well versed in
FreeBSD/Linux/Solaris, and would be open to other options as well.

My current preference is Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server. I wanted something more
up-to-date than RHEL/CentOS at the time I was deciding but was also
going to have security patches available for longer than something like
Fedora Core. This was my first Debian-based distribution having been a
long time Red Hat user and have so far enjoyed using apt-get/dpkg over
rpm/up2date/yum/etc.

Now, once the OS decision is made, how are people managing Ruby?
Installing it by hand (compiling/etc), and then using gems to keep
things updated? Or using the built-in distribution copies (IE debs or
ports or whatever)? I was thinking doing it by hand might be better so
as to keep current with bug fixes and security updates. In this case,
I’d be using KVM with linux to create virtual machines, and install
ruby/rails inside the virtual machines, that way I can build once and
simply deploy the virtual machines across the server farm easily. Does
this make sense?

My preference is to compile from source all the critical components in
my system where I need to have control over how they are built or how
frequently they are updated which in this case would be Ruby, Apache,
and MySQL (Rails is handled through gem).

One problem with using distribution packages is that the packager has
decided for you what options are compiled or not compiled into the
package. And then if you don’t like those options and want to compile
things from scratch that can break all sorts of other dependencies
unless you build the package exactly as the distribution does it which
of course is never the same as what the defaults are if you just do a
./configure, make, make install.

Building stuff from source means more admin work, of course, since you
can’t just keep everything updated with some simple package commands
(apt-get update, apt-get upgrade, etc.)

Now, as to development, soon there will be a team working on RoR
applications. Is the “best” (I realize this is opinion based as much
as fact) multi-user development something like SVN? Or is there some
better solution?

svn is the standard choice now, though Mercurial looks interesting for
those who need a more distributed revision control system. OpenSolaris,
for example, picked that recently as their source code control system.
Also you need to consider any integration between your SCCS the other
development tools in your pipeline like your text editors/IDEs and issue
tracking system. svn is widely supported but others like Mercurial not
as much.

Now, finally, after development, what is the best way to deploy? After
initial deployment, best way to deploy updates?

From reading documentation, it looks like mongrel is the best
application server, and with the updates to the proxy functionality
(coming in next release), lighttpd is the best front end. This is what
I was planning on. I was also thinking about going with Ubuntu
(since 7.x is going to have KVM integrated) for the OS.

I’m using the current generally recommended setup of a Mongrel cluster
behind Apache 2.2 with mod_proxy_balancer. I went straight to that setup
rather than testing out some of the other options (lighttpd + FastCGI,
etc.) so I can’t compare and contrast the various options but I’m happy
with what I’m using now.

–
Michael W.

4

Hi~

On Mar 25, 2007, at 6:45 PM, David J. Orman wrote:

Hi,

I’m going to be setting up a small server farm for my production RoR
application deployments. I’m now at the point I need to pick what
software I’ll be running/management techniques.

So, my question is, what OS (and if Linux, which distribution) are
most people having the best luck/performance with? I’m well versed in
FreeBSD/Linux/Solaris, and would be open to other options as well.

gentoo or ubuntu server linux

Now, once the OS decision is made, how are people managing Ruby?
Installing it by hand (compiling/etc), and then using gems to keep
things updated? Or using the built-in distribution copies (IE debs or
ports or whatever)? I was thinking doing it by hand might be better so
as to keep current with bug fixes and security updates. In this case,
I’d be using KVM with linux to create virtual machines, and install
ruby/rails inside the virtual machines, that way I can build once and
simply deploy the virtual machines across the server farm easily. Does
this make sense?

on gentoo I build everythign from portage gentoo usually gets the
latest releases of ruby within a day of them being released. On
ubuntu I compile ruby from source but use checkinstall to tell apt
about it.

Now, as to development, soon there will be a team working on RoR
applications. Is the “best” (I realize this is opinion based as much
as fact) multi-user development something like SVN? Or is there some
better solution?

SVN is the standard scm that everyone uses with rails.

Now, finally, after development, what is the best way to deploy? After
initial deployment, best way to deploy updates?

capistrano

From reading documentation, it looks like mongrel is the best
application server, and with the updates to the proxy functionality
(coming in next release), lighttpd is the best front end. This is what
I was planning on. I was also thinking about going with Ubuntu
(since 7.x is going to have KVM integrated) for the OS.

Nginx is a much better option for the front end webserver then lighty
or apache. Nginx beats bot lighty and apache at most benchmarks and
it uses way less resources then either apache or lighty. I have
hundreds of virtual machines running with nginx + mongrel_cluster and
it is the best way to go imho.

I’ve been using Solaris on my servers, but I’ve gotten pretty fed up
with the update/patching system, and the fact that it takes a fair
amount of fuss to get a lot of applications to work, so that’s why I’m
evaluating switching to Linux, simply from the “ease of use”
standpoint. FreeBSD was an option, but jails just seem kinda “hackish”
to me, at least in terms of administration. KVM seems to be the
closest to Solaris Zones I’ve been able to find.

I personally prefer Xen on linux. It’s the performance leader for
open source virtualization.

Well, I really do appreciate any input/comments/opinions you all could
provide. Some of this might be in documentation I missed, if so - feel
free to just tell me so (and I’d REALLY appreciate links.) Everything
else, I’m open to hearing any/all ideas. :slight_smile:

Thank you kindly,
David J. Orman

Good luck with building out your server farm. Virtualization is
definitely the way to go.

Cheers-
– Ezra Z.
– Lead Rails Evangelist
– [email protected]
– Engine Y., Serious Rails Hosting
– (866) 518-YARD (9273)