This means when you enable a module with a2enmod in Ubuntu it simply makes a symlink from mods-enabled -> mods-available and disabling a module (with a2dismod is just as easy. No more hunting in those .conf files.

So I wanted to keep things using the same idea of using the mods-enabled directory as opposed to using one large apache2.conf file.

Phusion Passenger Installation

Passenger is drop dead simple to install, here’s the steps.

Update the system

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2-prefork-dev

Now Install Phusion Passenger

sudo gem install passenger
sudo passenger-install-apache2-module

Passenger is now installed; let’s get it enabled.

Create the .load/.conf in mod-available

Create the .load file with sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.load and paste in the following:

LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.9/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so

Note: The version numbers I’ve used might not be what you have installed; Passenger will give you the correct version numbers on screen once installation is complete.

Create the .conf file with sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/passenger.conf and paste in the following:

<IfModule passenger_module>
   PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.9
   PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby1.8
</IfModule>

Enable Passenger

Enabling Passenger is as simple as:

sudo a2enmod passenger
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

And you will need to change your /etc/apache2/sites-available/default to read:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.rackapp.com
    DocumentRoot /webapps/rackapp/public
</VirtualHost>

And you’re done. You’re up and running with Phusion Passenger.

You can read more about configuring Passenger here

So how does Capistrano get access to the source code?

Turns out it’s not that hard, you just need to know the tricks. So open up your /config/deploy.rb file and add/modify the following lines:

set :scm, :none
set :respository, "."
set :deploy_via, :copy

Using Capistrano

Here’s my notes for getting Capistrano up and running. You need only run these steps the first time:

sudo gem install Capistrano
cd /your/project/directory
capify .

copy deploy.rb (listed below) over project/config/deploy.rb

cap deploy:setup
cap deploy:cold

Subsequent Capistrano usage needs only:

cap deploy

deploy.rb

Below is the deploy.rb I’ve used (many thanks to aussiegeek on twitter). You might not require the first line default_run_options[:pty] = true I had to add it for use on Ubuntu 9.10.

Also I’m using Phusion Passenger.

default_run_options[:pty] = true
 
set :application, 'projectName'
set :deploy_to, '/server/path/'
set :user, 'username'
set :use_sudo, false
 
role :web, "server.com"
role :db, "server.com", :primary => true
role :app, "server.com"
 
set :scm, :none
set :repository, "."
set :deploy_via, :copy
 
namespace :deploy do
  task :start, :roles => :app do
  end
 
  task :stop, :roles => :app do
  end
 
  task :restart, :roles => :app do
    run "touch #{current_path}/tmp/restart.txt"
  end
end

Update/upgrade system

sudo apt-get update

Install ruby, irb and rdoc

sudo apt-get install ruby irb rdoc

Install required Ubuntu packages

sudo apt-get install libopenssl-ruby build-essential ruby1.8-dev libpq-dev

Install rubygems

wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/60718/rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
tar -xvzf rubygems-1.3.5.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.5/
sudo ruby setup.rb
sudo gem update --system

Install Rails (with gem)

sudo gem install rails

If you need to install postgresql

sudo apt-get install postgresql

Create the postgres user
sudo su postgres
createuser

Need to create a postgres database?
createdb

Install the ruby to postgres driver

sudo gem install postgres

Finished

That’s it, Ruby on Rails should be installed along with Postgresql if you need it.

Credit goes to Peter Vandenabeele for the basis for these steps.