Proper rails deployment steps to DirectAdmin (or any hosting not focusing in apps) hosted server?

[southi...@gmail.com]

Hi,

 

With PHP applications (only experience I had before), all I needed to do is to FTP all required files, create MySQL username/pass & upload SQL structure, add this username/pass in any given config file of the php script and the app worked.

 

Can you tell me what are standard/proper steps required to deploy an app that I worked on my local Ubuntu machine and want to have it working on 'standard' web hosting company that does not specialize in Rails app hosting?

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

[Frederick Cheung]

While there are many ways of deploying rails applications, it's extremely unlikely that a non rails specialist will have installed/configured any of them. If you're looking for an easy way to deploy a rails app, it's hard to beat heroku for simplicity.

Fred


> Thanks,
>  
> Rob

[southi...@gmail.com]

What is most popular way to deploy apps on non-Heroku machine that has standard Apache/MySQL setup? I would like to be able to deploy my apps (as I learn Rails) to my own dedicated machines. I have already installed Ruby, & rails gem, and I'm able to create apps on that machine without any issues. It is when I develop something localy when I face issue as I don't know how to deploy it "properly"? Do I simply upload entire app folder structure over FTP, run bundle install, config database, and start the app OR is there a faster/easier way?

[Hassan Schroeder]

On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 12:26 PM, <southi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What is most popular way to deploy apps on non-Heroku machine that has
> standard Apache/MySQL setup?

One option: http://www.capistranorb.com/

--
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.s...@gmail.com
http://about.me/hassanschroeder
twitter: @hassan

[Tamara Temple]

On Jul 29, 2013, at 8:53 AM, southi...@gmail.com wrote:
> With PHP applications (only experience I had before), all I needed to do is to FTP all required files, create MySQL username/pass & upload SQL structure, add this username/pass in any given config file of the php script and the app worked.

Yes, deploying PHP is quite simple compared to Rails.

> Can you tell me what are standard/proper steps required to deploy an app that I worked on my local Ubuntu machine and want to have it working on 'standard' web hosting company that does not specialize in Rails app hosting?

I don't have anything written (which I should) but just googling around, here's a few:

* http://blog.sudobits.com/2013/01/07/how-to-deploy-rails-application-to-vps/
* http://rubysource.com/deploying-a-rails-application/
* http://tommy.chheng.com/2013/01/23/deploying-a-rails-app-on-nginxpuma-with-capistrano/

There's also a pragprog book: http://pragprog.com/book/cbdepra/deploying-rails which I haven't read.

If you hosting solution does not offer shell access, it's going to be very difficult, I think to do an effective deploy. Even moreso if your application requires gems that need to have native extensions compiled.

There are some great Rails-hosting PaaS out there: heroku, EngineYard, CloudFront, etc.

My most recent job, we used AWS to host our app, and deployed using Chef (opscode.com) which was really nice to work with.

[kaichanvong]

I've found Nitrous really nice for testing apps somewhere in the cloud: https://www.nitrous.io/join/WWm_3k15gFU

They encourage you to deploy apps (as others suggest) to heroku.

NB. I've no affiliation to Nitrious, but that link does include my referral code for more Nitrous points.

[Kamil]

I have a dedicated DirectAdmin server running on CentOS and what worked for me is the following:

(Please note I make assumption you have default DA config setup with Apache/MySQL)

1. Install Ruby, and Rails gem
2. Install passenger: gem install passenger --pre
3. Install apache server module: passenger-install-apache2-module
4. Read the output from (3) and add necessary to your /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. It will ask you to add few modules.
5. Create Rails app in some directory (ie. /home/SOME_USER/rails_app). This means: PROD config/database.yml has mysql config filled out, gem 'mysql2' is installed, bundle install, RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate, etc.
6. Modify respective  /usr/local/directadmin/data/users/SOME_USER/httpd.conf as per instructions from point (3):

- change path within <Directory ..... > to point to  /home/SOME_USER/rails_app/public and add these two conditions:

 AllowOverride all
 Options -MultiViews

- change DocumentRoot to point to /home/SOME_USER/rails_app/public

7. Restart Apache, and you are all set. You can now access your domain.com and your app is running. Steps 1-4 are one time setup only. Steps 5-7 when you want to run additional apps. Google for additional config / tuning.


Hopefully this helps,

Kamil