Install Required Packages
First, make sure you have the universe repository enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Your file should resemble the following:
File excerpt: /etc/apt/sources.list
## main & restricted repositories deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted universe deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted universe
If you added universe to the the items in your list, you'll need to update your repository database:
apt-get update
Issue the following command to install packages required for Ruby on Rails.
apt-get install wget build-essential ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev irb1.8 rdoc1.8 zlib1g-dev \ libopenssl-ruby1.8 rubygems1.8 libopenssl-ruby libzlib-ruby libssl-dev
Create symbolic links to the installed version of Ruby:
ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/ruby ln -s /usr/bin/irb1.8 /usr/bin/irb
Install the rake gem:
gem install rake
Install Passenger and Nginx
Proceed to the Phusion Passenger site and locate the link for the current source code tarball. Download it as follows (substitute the link for the current version):
cd /root wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/59007/passenger-2.2.4.tar.gz cd /opt tar xzvf ~/passenger-2.2.4.tar.gz
Run the Phusion Passenger installer for Nginx:
cd passenger-2.2.4/bin ./passenger-install-nginx-module
You'll be greeted by the Phusion Passenger Nginx installer program. Press "Enter" to continue with the installation.
When prompted for the Nginx installation method, we recommend you choose "1" to allow the installer to automatically download, compile, and install Nginx for you. Unless you have specific needs that would necessitate passing custom options to Nginx at compile time, this is the safest way to proceed.
Please do not remove the Passenger files from opt after the install. They need to stay in place or your install will not function correctly.
Set up an Init Script for Nginx
Nginx is now installed in /opt/nginx, but we need a way of controlling it. Create a file called /etc/init.d/nginx and copy the following script contents into it:
File: /etc/init.d/nginx
#! /bin/sh ### BEGIN INIT INFO # Provides: nginx # Required-Start: $all # Required-Stop: $all # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5 # Default-Stop: 0 1 6 # Short-Description: starts the nginx web server # Description: starts nginx using start-stop-daemon ### END INIT INFO PATH=/opt/nginx/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin DAEMON=/opt/nginx/sbin/nginx NAME=nginx DESC=nginx test -x $DAEMON || exit 0 # Include nginx defaults if available if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then . /etc/default/nginx fi set -e case "$1" in start) echo -n "Starting $DESC: " start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \ --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS echo "$NAME." ;; stop) echo -n "Stopping $DESC: " start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \ --exec $DAEMON echo "$NAME." ;; restart|force-reload) echo -n "Restarting $DESC: " start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile \ /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON sleep 1 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile \ /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS echo "$NAME." ;; reload) echo -n "Reloading $DESC configuration: " start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \ --exec $DAEMON echo "$NAME." ;; *) N=/etc/init.d/$NAME echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2 exit 1 ;; esac exit 0
Run the following command to set system startup links:
chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f nginx defaults
You can now start, stop, and restart Nginx just like any other server daemon. For example, to start the server, issue the following command:
/etc/init.d/nginx start
The configuration file for Nginx is located at /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf. This is the file you'll need to edit to add support for your Rails applications. A default server is already configured in this file, and it also contains examples for alternate virtual host and SSL configurations.
Install MySQL Support (optional)
If your application uses MySQL, install the database server by following our MySQL on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) guide. Once it's installed and configured properly, issue the following commands:
apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev libmysql-ruby gem install mysql --no-rdoc --no-ri -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/bin \ --with-mysql-lib=/usr/lib/mysql --with-mysql-include=/usr/include/mysql
Congratulations!
You've successfully configured your server to use Passenger for Nginx to serve Ruby on Rails applications. Enjoy!