Hi folks, I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails server. I don''t want to start a flame-war about linux distros! I''m interested in the best distribution for these criteria: 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid support available) 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. However, I''m wondering what difficulties I will have getting the latest and greatest rails and ruby onto it... Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, Eric -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060513/8a0aaa90/attachment.html
On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote:> Hi folks, > > I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails server. I > don''t want to start a flame-war about linux distros! I''m interested in the > best distribution for these criteria: > > 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) > 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) > 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid support > available) > 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano > > I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. However, I''m > wondering what difficulties I will have getting the latest and greatest > rails and ruby onto it... Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, > > EricI''m using Debian stable ("Sarge") and I like it. You don''t have to worry about "getting the latest and greatest rails" since Rails itself is installed by gems, which is an autonomous packaging system unrelated to apt-get and the whole stable/unstable issue. I did however need to build Ruby 1.8.4 myself since it wasn''t available for Sarge and I wanted that. I also built PostrgesSQL 8.1.3 for the same reason. Looking back on it, I should have used http://backports.org/. Though I guess it would be a hassle anyway, particularly considering this is the production box and everything absolutely must work without glitches. So, the need to compile Ruby 1.8.4 and PostgresSQL were a con. I wish there was a simpler way: it took several hours, and after viewing all those build outputs whiz by, I came out of there with a strong sense of "what the hell happened there?!". But besides that, Debian treated me good. -- -Alder
One thing to consider when running a production server is that "latest and greatest" isn''t usually the best idea. I have found that when a new version of something is marked stable, it usually isn''t for the first few weeks or month. Rails 1.1 is a good example, after it was released as stable a few bugs were found and in the following weeks it saw its way up to 1.1.2. Back to the subject though I would agree that Debian or one of its variants would be the best idea. Ubuntu would be a good choice because they have Ruby 1.8.4, ruby-mysql, rmagick and imagemagick in their package repos. The company I work for hosts everything on Red Hat ESL. I would strongly recommend staying away from this one. I had to compile everything by hand because they only keep really old software in their repos (Ruby 1.6). My $0.02 Rob On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote:> > Hi folks, > > I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails server. I > don''t want to start a flame-war about linux distros! I''m interested in the > best distribution for these criteria: > > 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) > 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) > 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid support > available) > 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano > > I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. However, I''m > wondering what difficulties I will have getting the latest and greatest > rails and ruby onto it... Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, > > Eric > > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > >-- c++: the power, elegance and simplicity of a hand grenade http://www.migrob.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060513/5d8a555b/attachment.html
My experience with Debian sarge was similar. I believe it is the most simple distro to set up and to maintain. I first installed Xen and have my stuff runing on a virtual machine. Like this, if you need a second server to test out something, just start up another virtual machine and if it makes sense for you, you can even seperate DB and app server into different virtual machines. The biggest issue I had, was to set up Lighty 1.4.11configured as reverse proxy for dynamic content and with caching. (and mod_compress still doesn''t work in my setup for virtual domains). But there are backports, there is Google, and if everything fails, you can compile form source .. Roberto On 5/13/06, Alder Green <alder.green@gmail.com> wrote:> > On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi folks, > > > > I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails > server. I > > don''t want to start a flame-war about linux distros! I''m interested in > the > > best distribution for these criteria: > > > > 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) > > 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) > > 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid support > > available) > > 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano > > > > I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. However, I''m > > wondering what difficulties I will have getting the latest and greatest > > rails and ruby onto it... Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, > > > > Eric > > I''m using Debian stable ("Sarge") and I like it. You don''t have to > worry about "getting the latest and greatest rails" since Rails itself > is installed by gems, which is an autonomous packaging system > unrelated to apt-get and the whole stable/unstable issue. > > I did however need to build Ruby 1.8.4 myself since it wasn''t > available for Sarge and I wanted that. I also built PostrgesSQL 8.1.3 > for the same reason. Looking back on it, I should have used > http://backports.org/. Though I guess it would be a hassle anyway, > particularly considering this is the production box and everything > absolutely must work without glitches. > > So, the need to compile Ruby 1.8.4 and PostgresSQL were a con. I wish > there was a simpler way: it took several hours, and after viewing all > those build outputs whiz by, I came out of there with a strong sense > of "what the hell happened there?!". > > But besides that, Debian treated me good. > > -- > -Alder > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >-- Roberto Saccon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060513/f7688fe3/attachment-0001.html
Just an FYI - http://dev.centos.org has updated rpm''s for ruby (1.8.4) and can be installed easily on RHEL. Craig On Sat, 2006-05-13 at 09:40 -0600, Rob Merrell wrote:> One thing to consider when running a production server is that "latest > and greatest" isn''t usually the best idea. I have found that when a > new version of something is marked stable, it usually isn''t for the > first few weeks or month. Rails 1.1 is a good example, after it was > released as stable a few bugs were found and in the following weeks it > saw its way up to 1.1.2. > > Back to the subject though I would agree that Debian or one of its > variants would be the best idea. Ubuntu would be a good choice > because they have Ruby 1.8.4, ruby-mysql, rmagick and imagemagick in > their package repos. The company I work for hosts everything on Red > Hat ESL. I would strongly recommend staying away from this one. I > had to compile everything by hand because they only keep really old > software in their repos (Ruby 1.6). > > My $0.02 > > Rob > > On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails > server. I don''t want to start a flame-war about linux > distros! I''m interested in the best distribution for these > criteria: > > 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) > 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) > 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid > support available) > 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano > > I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. > However, I''m wondering what difficulties I will have getting > the latest and greatest rails and ruby onto it... Any help is > appreciated!!! Thanks, > > > Eric > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails > > > > > > -- > c++: the power, elegance and simplicity of a hand grenade > http://www.migrob.com > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
Unless you have a reason to use linux, you might also want to consider FreeBSD. I''ve never really been a system administrator, but have been successfully (by my criteria) managing my servers. I find that it''s really easy to get software installed using the ports system and the freebsd site has great documentation. Not to mention that FreeBSD is known to be stable. As for support, I''ve always found all my answers somewhere in the community and never looked into paid support, however good paid support is always available somewhere. -carl On May 13, 2006, at 6:36 AM, Eric Beland wrote:> Hi folks, > > I''m a linux noob, and I''m trying to pick a distro for my rails > server. I don''t want to start a flame-war about linux distros! > I''m interested in the best distribution for these criteria: > > 1 - Simplicity of getting ruby and rails set-up (gem updates) > 2 - Stability (it is a server, after all) > 3 - Support resources (community, and as a fall-back, paid support > available) > 4 - Ability to work with Capistrano > > I have been considering Debian because of it''s stability. However, > I''m wondering what difficulties I will have getting the latest and > greatest rails and ruby onto it... Any help is appreciated!!! Thanks, > > Eric > > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
Just a note on building Ruby-1.8.4 on Sarge. The good folks on Debian-Ruby list helped me with this and it worked like a charm for me. The steps are: - Add an unstable deb-src line to sources.list. - Update and get the source pkg (apt-get source ruby1.8). - Install the build-depends of ruby1.8 (apt-get build-dep ruby1.8). - Install devscripts. - cd ruby1.8; debuild -us -uc (don''t do this as root since bebuild will complain) - You get the following debs. irb1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb libtcltk-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb libdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb rdoc1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb libgdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ri1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb libopenssl-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-dev_1.8.4-2_i386.deb libreadline-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-elisp_1.8.4-2_all.deb libruby1.8-dbg_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-examples_1.8.4-2_all.deb libruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb - Install the debs (following the instructions in Debian Reference on installing local debs) -bakki On 5/13/06, Alder Green <alder.green@gmail.com> wrote:> On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote:...> So, the need to compile Ruby 1.8.4 and PostgresSQL were a con. I wish > there was a simpler way: it took several hours, and after viewing all > those build outputs whiz by, I came out of there with a strong sense > of "what the hell happened there?!".
On 5/14/06, Bakki Kudva <bakki.kudva@gmail.com> wrote:> Just a note on building Ruby-1.8.4 on Sarge. The good folks on > Debian-Ruby list helped me with this and it worked like a charm for > me. > > The steps are: > > - Add an unstable deb-src line to sources.list. > - Update and get the source pkg (apt-get source ruby1.8). > - Install the build-depends of ruby1.8 (apt-get build-dep ruby1.8). > - Install devscripts. > - cd ruby1.8; debuild -us -uc (don''t do this as root since bebuild > will complain) > - You get the following debs. > > irb1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb libtcltk-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > libdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb rdoc1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb > libgdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ri1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb > libopenssl-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-dev_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > libreadline-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-elisp_1.8.4-2_all.deb > libruby1.8-dbg_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-examples_1.8.4-2_all.deb > libruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > > - Install the debs (following the instructions in Debian Reference on > installing local debs) > > -bakki > > > > On 5/13/06, Alder Green <alder.green@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote: > ... > > So, the need to compile Ruby 1.8.4 and PostgresSQL were a con. I wish > > there was a simpler way: it took several hours, and after viewing all > > those build outputs whiz by, I came out of there with a strong sense > > of "what the hell happened there?!".Great. I''ll have a look at this the next time I need to build Ruby on Debian Stable (i.e. towards the end of this month [RoR is flourishing!] ;). Also, the OP - and anyone else deploying on Debian - should take a look at The Perfect Rails Stack kindly provided by Ezra Zygmuntowicz: http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html -- -Alder
Jon Gretar Borgthorsson
2006-May-14 18:33 UTC
[Rails] Which Linux flavor for a Rails server?
I have been using Centos for all my servers. Stable and good. On 5/14/06, Alder Green <alder.green@gmail.com> wrote:> On 5/14/06, Bakki Kudva <bakki.kudva@gmail.com> wrote: > > Just a note on building Ruby-1.8.4 on Sarge. The good folks on > > Debian-Ruby list helped me with this and it worked like a charm for > > me. > > > > The steps are: > > > > - Add an unstable deb-src line to sources.list. > > - Update and get the source pkg (apt-get source ruby1.8). > > - Install the build-depends of ruby1.8 (apt-get build-dep ruby1.8). > > - Install devscripts. > > - cd ruby1.8; debuild -us -uc (don''t do this as root since bebuild > > will complain) > > - You get the following debs. > > > > irb1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb libtcltk-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > > libdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb rdoc1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb > > libgdbm-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ri1.8_1.8.4-2_all.deb > > libopenssl-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-dev_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > > libreadline-ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-elisp_1.8.4-2_all.deb > > libruby1.8-dbg_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8-examples_1.8.4-2_all.deb > > libruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb ruby1.8_1.8.4-2_i386.deb > > > > - Install the debs (following the instructions in Debian Reference on > > installing local debs) > > > > -bakki > > > > > > > > On 5/13/06, Alder Green <alder.green@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 5/13/06, Eric Beland <ebeland@gmail.com> wrote: > > ... > > > So, the need to compile Ruby 1.8.4 and PostgresSQL were a con. I wish > > > there was a simpler way: it took several hours, and after viewing all > > > those build outputs whiz by, I came out of there with a strong sense > > > of "what the hell happened there?!". > > Great. I''ll have a look at this the next time I need to build Ruby on > Debian Stable (i.e. towards the end of this month [RoR is > flourishing!] ;). > > Also, the OP - and anyone else deploying on Debian - should take a > look at The Perfect Rails Stack kindly provided by Ezra Zygmuntowicz: > http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html > > -- > -Alder > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >-- -------------- Jon Gretar Borgthorsson http://www.jongretar.net/