Rails - May 2006 - FCGI and the never ending saga of deploying on Dreamhost

I''m trying to setup an app on Dreamhost and running into no end of
problems.

The app is running with edge rails and I''m currently getting the
dreaded
''Rails application failed to start'' white screen when trying
to access it.

I''ve gone through all the ''gotchas'' and
troubleshooting docs at
Dreamhost and the rails wiki to no avail.

Running script/console works fine.
Running script/server works fine (so I can access the site through port 
3000)

Running dispatch.* from command line results in 500 error, which is what 
is expected it it''s working as far as I can tell.

No entries are made in the rails logs, but in the Apache error log I get 
the following:

[Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI: comm 
with (dynamic) server 
"/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi" 
aborted: (first read) idle timeout (120 sec)
[Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI: 
incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server 
"/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"

 From this the problem would appear to stem from fcgi, but I have no 
idea what is wrong.

Any advice would be extremely welcome!

Thanks in advance.

-- 
R.Livsey
http://livsey.org

Sure.
Modify your public/dispatch.fcgi to prevent Dreamhost from killing your app.
The fix is really simple. Here''s the complete file which should work
nicely.
Check the first line though to make sure that you retain the correct shebang
(#!/usr/bin/ruby) line.

To improve performance, you should consider writing a cron task that will
periodically request a page from your site.

do

crontab -e

add this line

0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * curl -s
http://www.yourhost.com/your_non_cached_file/ > /dev/null

then save the file.   This should keep your site alive and healthy.
It''s
worked for me on Dreamhost for about 6 months now.


#!/usr/bin/ruby
#
# You may specify the path to the FastCGI crash log (a log of unhandled
# exceptions which forced the FastCGI instance to exit, great for debugging)
# and the number of requests to process before running garbage collection.
#
# By default, the FastCGI crash log is RAILS_ROOT/log/fastcgi.crash.log
# and the GC period is nil (turned off).  A reasonable number of requests
# could range from 10-100 depending on the memory footprint of your app.
#
# Example:
#   # Default log path, normal GC behavior.
#   RailsFCGIHandler.process!
#
#   # Default log path, 50 requests between GC.
#   RailsFCGIHandler.process! nil, 50
#
#   # Custom log path, normal GC behavior.
#   RailsFCGIHandler.process! ''/var/log/myapp_fcgi_crash.log''
#
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + "/../config/environment"
require ''fcgi_handler''

class RailsFCGIHandler
    SIGNALS = {
        ''TERM'' => :exit_now,
    }

    def exit_now_handler(signal)
        dispatcher_log :info, "ignoring request to terminate
immediately"
    end
end

RailsFCGIHandler.process!

# end of file




On 5/9/06, Richard Livsey <richard@livsey.org>
wrote:
>
> I''m trying to setup an app on Dreamhost and running into no end of
> problems.
>
> The app is running with edge rails and I''m currently getting the
dreaded
> ''Rails application failed to start'' white screen when
trying to access it.
>
> I''ve gone through all the ''gotchas'' and
troubleshooting docs at
> Dreamhost and the rails wiki to no avail.
>
> Running script/console works fine.
> Running script/server works fine (so I can access the site through port
> 3000)
>
> Running dispatch.* from command line results in 500 error, which is what
> is expected it it''s working as far as I can tell.
>
> No entries are made in the rails logs, but in the Apache error log I get
> the following:
>
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI: comm
> with (dynamic) server
> "/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
> aborted: (first read) idle timeout (120 sec)
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI:
> incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server
> "/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
>
> From this the problem would appear to stem from fcgi, but I have no
> idea what is wrong.
>
> Any advice would be extremely welcome!
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> R.Livsey
> http://livsey.org
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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Richard Livsey wrote:
> I''m trying to setup an app on Dreamhost and running into no end of
> problems.
> 
> The app is running with edge rails and I''m currently getting the
dreaded
> ''Rails application failed to start'' white screen when
trying to access
> it.
> 
> I''ve gone through all the ''gotchas'' and
troubleshooting docs at
> Dreamhost and the rails wiki to no avail.
> 
> Running script/console works fine.
> Running script/server works fine (so I can access the site through port
> 3000)
> 
> Running dispatch.* from command line results in 500 error, which is what
> is expected it it''s working as far as I can tell.
> 
> No entries are made in the rails logs, but in the Apache error log I get
> the following:
> 
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI: comm
> with (dynamic) server
> "/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
> aborted: (first read) idle timeout (120 sec)
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI:
> incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server
> "/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
> 
>  From this the problem would appear to stem from fcgi, but I have no
> idea what is wrong.
> 
> Any advice would be extremely welcome!
> 
> Thanks in advance.
I haven''t really got much to add to what Brian Hogan said above. Are
you
certain the "hashbang" line in your dispatch.fcgi script is pointing
to
the right copy of Ruby?

Log in via ssh, try to get to your site, then type "ps aux | grep 
dispatch" in the shell window. Does your dispatch process show up? If 
not, it''s somehow failing to start.

Like Brian, I''ve found it useful to ping my site periodically. I do it 
with a script on my desktop box, instead of via a cron job. This way, I 
know the frequency of errors, which seems to run about four a day. (User 
voodoo ahead!) I think that what this accomplishes is to prevent my FCGI 
process from getting swapped out. If it has to swap in to respond, it 
times out, and the server starts another one, which can take 15-20 
seconds.

Unlike Brian, I found that ignoring exit requests just led to a lot of 
spare FCGI processes that I had to kill manually.

I think the performance of my site has improved since I set up an svn 
repository on it, at which time it started being served by Apache 2.0 
instead of 1.3.

I started using Dreamhost about the time they first tried to upgrade to 
Rails 1.1. Having noted the stories of problems, and since I had plenty 
of space, I built and installed my own copies of all the software I was 
going to use. This may be overkill, but at least it doesn''t change out 
from under me!

It did take some hacking and close monitoring, but I seem to get 
reasonably acceptable performance now (on http://openprofile.net ).

Hope this helps! The first thing to do is to determine whether the FCGI 
process is getting started correctly!

--Al Evans

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

I forgot to mention..... start your app in production mode with WEBrick....
that works there.

ruby script/server -e production


Then go to your site in a browser (be sure to use port 3000!) and see if it
works there. At least then you know your site works on their servers and
it''s not something silly like a database connection problem or a
missing
Gem.


On 5/10/06, Al Evans <anejr@alevans.com> wrote:
>
> Richard Livsey wrote:
> > I''m trying to setup an app on Dreamhost and running into no
end of
> > problems.
> >
> > The app is running with edge rails and I''m currently getting
the dreaded
> > ''Rails application failed to start'' white screen
when trying to access
> > it.
> >
> > I''ve gone through all the ''gotchas'' and
troubleshooting docs at
> > Dreamhost and the rails wiki to no avail.
> >
> > Running script/console works fine.
> > Running script/server works fine (so I can access the site through
port
> > 3000)
> >
> > Running dispatch.* from command line results in 500 error, which is
what
> > is expected it it''s working as far as I can tell.
> >
> > No entries are made in the rails logs, but in the Apache error log I
get
> > the following:
> >
> > [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI: comm
> > with (dynamic) server
> >
"/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
> > aborted: (first read) idle timeout (120 sec)
> > [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI:
> > incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server
> >
"/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
> >
> >  From this the problem would appear to stem from fcgi, but I have no
> > idea what is wrong.
> >
> > Any advice would be extremely welcome!
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> I haven''t really got much to add to what Brian Hogan said above.
Are you
> certain the "hashbang" line in your dispatch.fcgi script is
pointing to
> the right copy of Ruby?
>
> Log in via ssh, try to get to your site, then type "ps aux | grep
> dispatch" in the shell window. Does your dispatch process show up? If
> not, it''s somehow failing to start.
>
> Like Brian, I''ve found it useful to ping my site periodically. I
do it
> with a script on my desktop box, instead of via a cron job. This way, I
> know the frequency of errors, which seems to run about four a day. (User
> voodoo ahead!) I think that what this accomplishes is to prevent my FCGI
> process from getting swapped out. If it has to swap in to respond, it
> times out, and the server starts another one, which can take 15-20
> seconds.
>
> Unlike Brian, I found that ignoring exit requests just led to a lot of
> spare FCGI processes that I had to kill manually.
>
> I think the performance of my site has improved since I set up an svn
> repository on it, at which time it started being served by Apache 2.0
> instead of 1.3.
>
> I started using Dreamhost about the time they first tried to upgrade to
> Rails 1.1. Having noted the stories of problems, and since I had plenty
> of space, I built and installed my own copies of all the software I was
> going to use. This may be overkill, but at least it doesn''t change
out
> from under me!
>
> It did take some hacking and close monitoring, but I seem to get
> reasonably acceptable performance now (on http://openprofile.net ).
>
> Hope this helps! The first thing to do is to determine whether the FCGI
> process is getting started correctly!
>
> --Al Evans
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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One thing which has bitten me is that 
#!/usr/bin/env ruby 
works fine from every command originating from the console and via CGI,
but only
#!/usr/local/bin/ruby 
works reliably under FastCGI.

-- Erlend

Are you using engines?  If so, DH''s upgrade to 1.1.2 might''ve
broken
your app.  You can fix it by commenting line 3 in engines.rb, which  
says "require ''rails_version''".

Jim


On May 9, 2006, at 8:31 AM, Richard Livsey wrote:
> I''m trying to setup an app on Dreamhost and running into no end of
> problems.
>
> The app is running with edge rails and I''m currently getting the  
> dreaded ''Rails application failed to start'' white screen
when
> trying to access it.
>
> I''ve gone through all the ''gotchas'' and
troubleshooting docs at
> Dreamhost and the rails wiki to no avail.
>
> Running script/console works fine.
> Running script/server works fine (so I can access the site through  
> port 3000)
>
> Running dispatch.* from command line results in 500 error, which is  
> what is expected it it''s working as far as I can tell.
>
> No entries are made in the rails logs, but in the Apache error log  
> I get the following:
>
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI:  
> comm with (dynamic) server "/home/rlivsey/thatsprogress.com/ 
> 2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi" aborted: (first read) idle timeout  
> (120 sec)
> [Tue May  9 06:29:01 2006] [error] [client 194.80.32.10] FastCGI:  
> incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server "/home/rlivsey/ 
> thatsprogress.com/2006.05.02/public/dispatch.fcgi"
>
> From this the problem would appear to stem from fcgi, but I have no  
> idea what is wrong.
>
> Any advice would be extremely welcome!
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -- 
> R.Livsey
> http://livsey.org
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

I have the same problem since a couple of weeks.
script/server works fine in production.
public/dispatch.cfgi run with my own build of ruby (500 internal error, good
html error page, no ruby errors or warnings).
This is not the problem of somr 500 error which comes once in a while because of
dreamhost fast-cgi garbadge collector : the app won''t even start.

Hi,
I''m running to the same problem trying to deploy Mephisto-0.7.3 with 
edge rails on Dreamhost.

Running in development mode works no problem.
Running in production mode via webrick @ port 3000 works no problem.
But darned if I can''t get it to run via fastcgi.

I''ve followed most of the guides out there, but to no avail.

I got a very basic rails app to run no problem via fastCGI as well, but 
not the Mephisto blog. Yet if I use the same .htaccess configuration and 
dispatch.fcgi, it won''t work.

I wonder if it might be a memory-size issue? Is Mephisto a particularly 
large rails app compared to others out there? It''s much larger than my 
own personal rails app.

Any further hints and help would be greatly appreciated...

John.

LaMoukat wrote:
> I have the same problem since a couple of weeks.
> script/server works fine in production.
> public/dispatch.cfgi run with my own build of ruby (500 internal error, 
> good html error page, no ruby errors or warnings).
> This is not the problem of somr 500 error which comes once in a while 
> because of dreamhost fast-cgi garbadge collector : the app won''t
even
> start.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

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