Mongrel users - Nov 2007 - Best practice Ruby on Rails on Windows configuration

Hi,

I have read many articles on the net today about configuring Ruby on Rails
on a Windows server. But there doesn''t seem to a one solution for all
on how
to configure a new Ruby on Rails server. So I can use some advise with this.

I am using a Windows 2003 server and don''t get many request a day. But
most
of the request are quite heavy. The main focus is on optimizing the
requests, instead of improving the amount of page requests.

Any advise is welcome,


Benjamin
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On Nov 14, 2007 2:03 PM, Benjamin van Eck <bvaneck at globaltrack.com>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have read many articles on the net today about configuring Ruby on Rails
> on a Windows server. But there doesn''t seem to a one solution for
all on how
> to configure a new Ruby on Rails server. So I can use some advise with
this.
> I am using a Windows 2003 server and don''t get many request a day.
But most
> of the request are quite heavy. The main focus is on optimizing the
> requests, instead of improving the amount of page requests.
>
There are many ways to respond your inquiry, and the options depends
on your "server" or business requirements.

<NOTE>
I''ll like to point that Mongrel isn''t Rails. Mongrel is a
webserver
that provides a easy hook to allow Rails run under the hood.

There are other web frameworks like Merb, Nitro and IOWA that uses
Mongrel, and each one has its pros and cons.
</NOTE>

- If you''re forced to IIS (Internet Information Server) it seems
latest IIS7 support FastCGI, so using libfcgi and ruby-fcgi works out
of the box

Hmn.. I shouldn''t mention that since we are in the Mongrel list ;-)

If you aren''t forced to use IIS, then Mongrel will be a good
alternative for this.

You mention low request per day, but heavy requests. Is there a way
you can improve and reduce the "penalty" each request faces?
Background process that parse and perform the heavy/intensive tasks?

I can confirm this, but creating a "cluster" with swiftiply [1] on
Windows could be achieved, but had no time to investigate it further.

If you don''t plan to serve static content (huge files downloads) or
file uploads, then Mongrel is a good solution.

For development and testing (staging) you can use mongrel +
mongrel_service to have a single instance and see if the solution fits
your needs.

HTH,

[1] http://swiftiply.swiftcore.org/
-- 
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that
is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi

i don''t really understand what you want to know.

 >> "main focus is on optimizing the requests, instead of improving  
the amount of page requests"

that sounds more like code optimization in your rails app, when your  
app doesn''t perform well enough you have to tweak your code or  
probably add more ram, faster disk and or a faster cpu. the deployment  
or server configuration won''t change that.

but if you want to know what software to use:

as an example i currently have a few windows installations with the  
following setup

apache 2.2.4 with mod_sspi authenticatiing users via NTLM against an  
Active Directory
and proxy balancing the requests to
6-12 mongrel_services
and a single DRb for Ferret searches running as a service for all  
mongrels
using a MS SQL 2005 DB on a dedicated server

the apache is configured to use memcache and bypass the proxy on all  
requests towards /images /stylesheets and /javascripts to not bother  
the mongrels for stuff that doesn''t need any server processing

if any performance issues arise i can easily scale by adding more  
mongrels on other machines.

cheers
ralf


Am 14.11.2007 um 18:03 schrieb Benjamin van Eck:
> Hi,
>
> I have read many articles on the net today about configuring Ruby on  
> Rails on a Windows server. But there doesn''t seem to a one
solution
> for all on how to configure a new Ruby on Rails server. So I can use  
> some advise with this.
> I am using a Windows 2003 server and don''t get many request a day.
> But most of the request are quite heavy. The main focus is on  
> optimizing the requests, instead of improving the amount of page  
> requests.
>
> Any advise is welcome,
>
>
> Benjamin
> _______________________________________________
> Mongrel-users mailing list
> Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users

> - If you''re forced to IIS (Internet Information Server) it 
> seems latest IIS7 support FastCGI, so using libfcgi and 
> ruby-fcgi works out of the box
I''ve tried out the FastCGI ISAPI module for IIS6 recently and still
experienced no joy getting it to play nicely with rails. Do you happen
to have any pointers to notes from anyone who''s gotten IIS and rails to
play well using FastCGI?

Myself, I run three mongrel instances behind a pen load balancer and use
the ISAPI Rewrite module to proxy it. It works great, but getting it up
and running on a new machine takes a bit of time and effort, and no
win32 McAdmin is ever going to be able to support it. Thus, I''m
inclined
to try to migrate to the IIS+FastCGI configuration as soon as it''s
viable.

- donald

On Nov 14, 2007 3:38 PM, Ball, Donald A Jr (Library)
<donald.ball at nashville.gov> wrote:
> > - If you''re forced to IIS (Internet Information Server) it
> > seems latest IIS7 support FastCGI, so using libfcgi and
> > ruby-fcgi works out of the box
>
> I''ve tried out the FastCGI ISAPI module for IIS6 recently and
still
> experienced no joy getting it to play nicely with rails. Do you happen
> to have any pointers to notes from anyone who''s gotten IIS and
rails to
> play well using FastCGI?
I was talking about IIS *7* ... clearly stated the version number :-)

There was a lot of improvement of FastCGI in IIS7

More information:

http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowToConfigureIIS7
http://forums.iis.net/t/1146576.aspx
> Myself, I run three mongrel instances behind a pen load balancer and use
> the ISAPI Rewrite module to proxy it. It works great, but getting it up
> and running on a new machine takes a bit of time and effort, and no
> win32 McAdmin is ever going to be able to support it. Thus, I''m
inclined
> to try to migrate to the IIS+FastCGI configuration as soon as it''s
> viable.
I know your pain, the bootstrap process is a real pain, even for windows :-P

-- 
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that
is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi

On Nov 14, 2007 10:19 AM, Luis Lavena <luislavena at gmail.com> wrote:
> I can confirm this, but creating a "cluster" with swiftiply [1]
on
> Windows could be achieved, but had no time to investigate it further.
I need to figure out the compiler toolchain issues so that I can build
a windows gem with the extensions, or I need to provide a pure ruby
implementation for the pieces being handled by extensions.  I''ll
probably end up providing pure ruby functionality in any event, but I
would really like to figure out how to get windows gems built with the
extensions.

Then it would be practical to use it for Mongrel clusters on Win*.


Kirk Haines

On Nov 14, 2007 3:58 PM, Kirk Haines <wyhaines at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Nov 14, 2007 10:19 AM, Luis Lavena <luislavena at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> > I can confirm this, but creating a "cluster" with swiftiply
[1] on
> > Windows could be achieved, but had no time to investigate it further.
>
> I need to figure out the compiler toolchain issues so that I can build
> a windows gem with the extensions, or I need to provide a pure ruby
> implementation for the pieces being handled by extensions.  I''ll
> probably end up providing pure ruby functionality in any event, but I
> would really like to figure out how to get windows gems built with the
> extensions.
>
> Then it would be practical to use it for Mongrel clusters on Win*.
Kirk, contact me off the list and we can talk about that ;-)

-- 
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that
is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi

On 11/14/07, Luis Lavena <luislavena at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> On Nov 14, 2007 3:38 PM, Ball, Donald A Jr (Library)
> <donald.ball at nashville.gov> wrote:
> > > - If you''re forced to IIS (Internet Information Server)
it
> > > seems latest IIS7 support FastCGI, so using libfcgi and
> > > ruby-fcgi works out of the box
> >
> > I''ve tried out the FastCGI ISAPI module for IIS6 recently and
still
> > experienced no joy getting it to play nicely with rails. Do you happen
> > to have any pointers to notes from anyone who''s gotten IIS
and rails to
> > play well using FastCGI?
>
> I was talking about IIS *7* ... clearly stated the version number :-)
>
> There was a lot of improvement of FastCGI in IIS7
>
IIS7 means running on Windows Vista or Server 2008 (which is still a beta
AFAIK). You can''t get IIS 7 on Windows Server 2003.

-- 
Andrei Maxim
http://andreimaxim.ro
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On Nov 15, 2007 10:19 AM, Andrei Maxim <andrei at andreimaxim.ro>
wrote:
> >
> > I was talking about IIS *7* ... clearly stated the version number :-)
> >
> > There was a lot of improvement of FastCGI in IIS7
> >
>
> IIS7 means running on Windows Vista or Server 2008 (which is still a beta
> AFAIK). You can''t get IIS 7 on Windows Server 2003.
>
Thank you, I wasn''t aware that beta is still running, neither the
system requirements (you know, I don''t use IIS at all).

Anyway, that''s one solution for FastCGI, there are other paths ;-)
> --
> Andrei Maxim
> http://andreimaxim.ro
> _______________________________________________
> Mongrel-users mailing list
> Mongrel-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/mongrel-users
>


-- 
Luis Lavena
Multimedia systems
-
Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort,
which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that
is worthwhile.
Vince Lombardi