Novadays, you can get your own dedicated server up and running in a seconds. Once you get it up, do you really spent several hours to configure it for your application needs ? Do you really want to repeat the same steps with each new server ? In this article I will give you an idea on automated installation with Ansible, a Simple IT Automation toolkit and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server as box OS.
You would need basic understanding of ansible files syntax. if you did not play with Ansible yet, I would recommend to review some intro articles like http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro.html or perhaps one of the slideshares like http://www.slideshare.net/robertreiz/ansible-40167296?
We would need to deploy following components: Ruby, Web server with Passenger, your application itself. For purposes of the demo, we will install well known starter Devise https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-devise.git
I used to choose RMV previously, but recently I am a fan of chruby - it is lightweight, quick to understand and just works - avaiable at Github https://github.com/postmodern/chruby
Upon studiing installation instructions, we automate manual installation steps with Ansible, and get a bonus: reusable recipe to install the ch_ruby.
---
- name: Ruby | Check if chruby is present
shell: test -x /usr/local/bin/chruby-exec
when: ansible_system == "Linux"
ignore_errors: yes
register: chruby_present
tags: ruby
- name: Ruby | Download chruby distribution
get_url: url="http://github.com/postmodern/chruby/archive/v{{ chruby_version }}.tar.gz"
dest="/tmp/chruby-{{ chruby_version }}.tar.gz"
when: chruby_present|failed
tags: ruby
- name: Ruby | unpack chruby
command: tar xf "/tmp/chruby-{{ chruby_version }}.tar.gz"
chdir="/tmp"
when: chruby_present|failed
tags: ruby
- name: Ruby | chruby install target
command: make install
chdir="/tmp/chruby-{{ chruby_version }}"
become: yes
when: chruby_present|failed
tags: ruby
- name: Ruby | autoload script
template: src="{{role_dir}}/templates/ch_ruby.sh.j2" dest=/etc/profile.d/chruby.sh
become: yes
tags: ruby
Ruby-install is the second toolkit from the same author. At present moment, this approach is #1 choice for me when I need to install specific Ruby version. Tool is available at Github under address https://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install
Once we study ruby-install setup notes, we can automate this steps with series of ansible steps:
--- - name: Ruby | Check if ruby install is present shell: test -x /usr/local/bin/ruby-install when: ansible_system == "Linux" ignore_errors: yes register: rubyinstall_present tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Ruby install | package dependencies apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present force="yes" update_cache="yes" when: ansible_system == "Linux" with_items: - build-essential - libffi-dev - libgdbm-dev - libncurses5-dev - libreadline-dev - libreadline6-dev - libtinfo-dev - libyaml-dev become: yes tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Download rubyinstall get_url: url=http://github.com/postmodern/ruby-install/archive/v{{ ruby_install_version }}.tar.gz dest=/tmp/ruby-install-{{ ruby_install_version }}.tar.gz when: rubyinstall_present | failed tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Unpack ruby-install command: tar xf /tmp/ruby-install-{{ ruby_install_version }}.tar.gz chdir=/tmp when: rubyinstall_present | failed tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Run ruby-install install target command: make install chdir=/tmp/ruby-install-{{ ruby_install_version }} when: rubyinstall_present | failed become: yes tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Download list of rubies available command: ruby-install when: rubyinstall_present | failed become: yes tags: ruby
Now it is time to install Ruby. Small comment here: if you deploy saying on shared server, you most likely would like to have an ability to have multiple ruby versions and switch between them. From other hand, if you deploy your application to the dedicated host - usually I also replace default system ruby with the same ruby version.
With tools above, ruby installation recipe is compact & clear:
--- - name: Ruby | Find out if ruby_version is already installed stat: path={{rubies_location}}/ruby-{{ruby_version}} register: ruby_version_present tags: ruby - name: Ruby | Install ruby_version if necessary command: '/usr/local/bin/ruby-install ruby {{ruby_version}}' when: not ruby_version_present.stat.exists become: yes tags: ruby - debug: var="ruby_install_setsystem" - name: Ruby | Update SYSTEM ruby_version if necessary command: '/usr/local/bin/ruby-install --system ruby {{ruby_version}}' when: option_ruby_install_setsystem become: yes tags: ruby
Thanks to Phusion Passenger team, they did a great job to provide pre-built binaries for most of the popular platforms and configurations at https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/. This allows us to skip steps of compiling phusion passengers from source, recomplining webserver, etc & use pre-built binary instead.
Historically, I prefer Nginx over classic Apache, thus we will install pre-build Nginx with passenger:
--- - name: Nginx | Check if is present command: test -x /usr/sbin/nginx when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" ignore_errors: yes register: nginx_present tags: nginx - name: Passenger | Add GPG key to apt keyring apt_key: keyserver=keyserver.ubuntu.com id=561F9B9CAC40B2F7 when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: passenger become: yes - name: Passenger | Install needed packages apt: state=present pkg="{{item}}" with_items: - apt-transport-https - ca-certificates when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed become: yes tags: passenger - name: Passenger | Add nginx extras repository apt_repository: repo="deb https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger trusty main" state=present when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: passenger become: yes - name: Ruby | Install Nginx extra and Phusion Passenger apt: state=present update_cache=yes pkg="{{item}}" when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed with_items: - nginx-extras - passenger become: yes tags: passenger - name: Nginx | Create sites available/enabled directories file: path={{item}} state=directory mode=0755 with_items: - /etc/nginx/sites-available - /etc/nginx/sites-enabled when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: - nginx - passenger become: yes - name: Nginx | Configure include sites-enabled lineinfile: dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf regexp=".*sites-enabled.*" line=" include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;" insertbefore="}" state=present tags: - nginx - passenger when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed become: yes - name: Nginx | Disable default site file: path=/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default state=absent tags: - nginx - passenger when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed become: yes - name: Nginx | Uncomment server_names_hash_bucket_size lineinfile: dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf regexp="^(\s*)#\s*server_names_hash_bucket_size" line="\1server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;" backrefs=yes become: yes when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: - nginx - passenger - name: Nginx | Set ruby to system one lineinfile: dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf regexp="^(\s*)#\s*passenger_ruby" line="passenger_ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby;" backrefs=yes become: yes when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: - nginx - passenger - name: Nginx | Set ruby to system one lineinfile: dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf regexp="^(\s*)#\s*passenger_root" line="passenger_root /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini;" backrefs=yes become: yes when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: - nginx - passenger - name: Nginx | Reload service: name=nginx state=reloaded when: ansible_os_family == "Debian" and nginx_present|failed tags: - nginx - passenger become: yes
Several comments to installation script above, which might require changes in your own scenarios:
-
Task named "Create sites available/enabled directories" & the next one - it actually implements Apache like "sites-available / sites-enabled" folder structure for VHosts configs. If you prefer default setup - comment this out.
-
Specifiing ruby location to passenger with
lineinfile: dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf regexp="^(\s*)#\s*passenger_ruby" line="passenger_ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby;" backrefs=yes
As you see, replacement above assumes that system ruby is used. You might want to specifiy different ruby path here.
Goal of these two tasks is to take nginx.conf & set two parameters: passenger_root and passenger_ruby as per original instuctions in above comment.
## # Uncomment it if you installed passenger or passenger-enterprise ## passenger_root /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini; passenger_ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby;
How to validate that you've installed nginx with passenger right ?
Execute these commands and validate the setup:
sudo /usr/bin/passenger-config validate-install What would you like to validate? Use to select. If the menu doesn't display correctly, press '!' ‣ ⬢ Passenger itself ⬡ Apache ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Checking whether this Passenger install is in PATH... ✓ * Checking whether there are no other Passenger installations... ✓ Everything looks good. :-)
and /usr/sbin/passenger-memory-stats - you should see both - Nginx & passenger processes.
sudo /usr/sbin/passenger-memory-stats Version: 5.0.26 Date : 2016-03-18 11:17:57 +0200 ------------- Apache processes ------------- *** WARNING: The Apache executable cannot be found. Please set the APXS2 environment variable to your 'apxs2' executable's filename, or set the HTTPD environment variable to your 'httpd' or 'apache2' executable's filename. --------- Nginx processes ---------- PID PPID VMSize Private Name ------------------------------------ 8768 9991 138.1 MB 1.1 MB nginx: worker process 8769 9991 137.8 MB 0.9 MB nginx: worker process 8770 9991 137.8 MB 0.9 MB nginx: worker process 8771 9991 137.8 MB 0.9 MB nginx: worker process 9991 1 137.8 MB 0.9 MB nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx ### Processes: 5 ### Total private dirty RSS: 4.68 MB ---- Passenger processes ----- PID VMSize Private Name ------------------------------ 8742 436.3 MB 1.0 MB Passenger watchdog 8745 982.9 MB 2.0 MB Passenger core 8756 444.5 MB 1.1 MB Passenger ust-router 8806 387.1 MB 69.3 MB Passenger RubyApp: /var/www/public (production) ### Processes: 4 ### Total private dirty RSS: 73.47 MB slavko@ERM:/etc/nginx$
Let's define application parameters: in particular: required OS packages to build gems, app secret - to hash the passwords, application environment parameters, database connection details.
app_dependencies: - libsqlite3-dev - libmysqlclient-dev - libpq-dev - git - nodejs - npm app_short_name: app app_env: production app_domain: domain.local app_secret: 82d58d3dfb91238b495a311eb8539edf5064784f1d58994679db8363ec241c745bef0b446bfe44d66cbf91a2f4e497d8f6b1ef1656e3f405b0d263a9617ac75e app_repository: https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-devise.git # app_repository_keyname: id_rsa_app app_base_dir: /var/www app_www_root: "{{app_base_dir}}/public" app_env_vars: - {name: SECRET_KEY_BASE, value: "{{app_secret}}" } - {name: DATABASE_URL, value: "postgres://{{app_db_user}}:{{app_db_password}}@{{app_db_host}}/{{app_db_name}}"} - {name: RAILS_ENV, value: "{{app_env}}" } - {name: DOMAIN_NAME, value: "{{app_domain}}" } app_db_host: localhost app_db_user: app_user app_db_password: app_password app_db_name: app_database app_directories: - "{{app_base_dir}}"
And application provisioning script itself, which goes into stages: OS packages dependencies, Gem dependencies (for devise it is sqlite3), checking out the source code, patching Gem file so the ruby version matches the one installed on host + introducing production gems for uglifyjs (this is current app specifics), bundle install, patching database configuration, assets compilation, db migration, generating nginx site configuration, restarting the web server.
--- - name: APP STUB | Dependencies apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present force="yes" update_cache="yes" when: ansible_system == "Linux" with_items: "{{app_dependencies}}" become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Install gem dependencies shell: "gem install --no-rdoc --no-ri {{item}}" with_items: - sqlite3 become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Re-create base app directory file: path={{app_base_dir}} state=absent become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Create directories file: path={{item}} state=directory mode=0755 owner={{ansible_user_id}} group={{ansible_user_id}} with_items: "{{app_directories}}" become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Checkout app without key git: repo="{{app_repository}}" dest="{{app_base_dir}}" accept_hostkey="yes" force="yes" when: app_repository_keyname is not defined tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Install global rails gem shell: gem install --no-rdoc --no-ri rails become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Eliminate ruby req lineinfile: dest="{{app_base_dir}}/Gemfile" regexp="^(\s*)*ruby" line="ruby '{{ruby_version}}'" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | gem therubyracer - uglifyjs lineinfile: dest="{{app_base_dir}}/Gemfile" regexp="^(\s*)*gem 'therubyracer'" line="gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby" insertafter="^group :production do" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | gem execjs - uglifyjs lineinfile: dest="{{app_base_dir}}/Gemfile" regexp="^(\s*)*gem 'execjs'" line="gem 'execjs'" insertafter="^group :production do" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | gem pg lineinfile: dest="{{app_base_dir}}/Gemfile" regexp="^(\s*)*gem 'pg'" line="gem 'pg'" insertafter="^group :production do" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Run bundle install --path .bundle/gems --binstubs .bundle/bin shell: bundle install --path .bundle/gems --binstubs .bundle/bin args: chdir: "{{app_base_dir}}" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | database.yml template: src="{{root_dir}}/templates/app/database.yml.j2" dest="{{app_base_dir}}/config/database.yml" become: yes tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Precompile assets shell: bundle exec rake assets:precompile args: chdir: "{{app_base_dir}}" environment: RAILS_ENV: "{{app_env}}" DATABASE_URL: "postgres://{{app_db_user}}:{{app_db_password}}@{{app_db_host}}/{{app_db_name}}" SECRET_KEY_BASE: "{{app_secret}}" DOMAIN_NAME: "{{app_domain}}" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | DB Migrate shell: bundle exec rake db:migrate args: chdir: "{{app_base_dir}}" environment: RAILS_ENV: "{{app_env}}" DATABASE_URL: "postgres://{{app_db_user}}:{{app_db_password}}@{{app_db_host}}/{{app_db_name}}" SECRET_KEY_BASE: "{{app_secret}}" DOMAIN_NAME: "{{app_domain}}" tags: app_stub - name: APP STUB | Nginx conf template: src="{{root_dir}}/templates/nginx_app.conf.j2" dest="/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/{{app_short_name}}.conf" become: yes tags: app_stub - name: Nginx | Reload service: name=nginx state=reloaded become: yes tags: app_stub
In particular, we patch database config/database.yml with real connection details
# On Heroku and other platform providers, you may have a full connection URL # available as an environment variable. For example: # # DATABASE_URL="postgres://myuser:mypass@localhost/somedatabase" # # You can use this database configuration with: # production: url: <%= ENV['DATABASE_URL'] %>
and we patch Nginx app site config to provide app environment variables to ruby app with passenger_env_var instructions.
server { listen 80 default_server; passenger_enabled on; {% for envvar in app_env_vars %} passenger_env_var {{ envvar.name }} "{{ envvar.value }}"; {% endfor %} passenger_app_env {{app_env}}; root {{app_www_root}}; }
Let's execute provisioning & test it, for purposes of the demo - we will use local postgres as a DB
--- - hosts: www vars: - root_dir: .. roles: - { role: "sa-postgres", option_create_app_user: true } - { role: "sa-ruby", ruby_install_setsystem: true, ruby_version: 2.3.0, option_install_sampleapp: true, option_install_nginx_passenger: true }
Once application provisioning process is over:
TASK: [sa-ruby | Nginx | Reload] ********************************************** changed: [192.168.0.17] => {"changed": true, "name": "nginx", "state": "started"} PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************** 192.168.0.17 : ok=55 changed=46 unreachable=0 failed=0 Play run took 23 minutes
So, depending on network speed, you have your application installed.
Let's check by ip address:
Now you aware of another way to deploy your ruby applications.
Demo deployment script is available at https://github.com/Voronenko/devops-ruby-app-demo , recipes packed as ansible reusable role available at https://github.com/softasap/sa-ruby