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Run Ruby Applications

This article describes the recommended setup on how to run Ruby applications on Nine's managed servers.

Docker Container​

If you want to run your application in a container on a managed server, please refer to the manual about Podman.

Classic Setup​

1. Install rbenv Version Manager​

We recommend using a Ruby version manager like rbenv to be able to use different Ruby versions than provided by the distribution release of Ubuntu.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv-installer/raw/HEAD/bin/rbenv-installer | bash
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

2. Install Ruby Version​

Now we're able to install the desired Ruby version (here 3.0.2):

rbenv install 3.0.2

If you're application requires a global Gem, like Rails, you can also install it now:

rbenv exec gem install rails

3. Deploy Application​

The steps to deploy your application depend on your application. With rails, you'd need to compile the assets, then upload everything to the server and install the ruby dependencies:

Run those commands on your local machine

Compile assets:

RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile

Copy files to server:

rsync -a -v --delete --exclude='node_modules/*' --exclude='tmp/*' --exclude='vendor/*' --exclude='.git/*' ./ www-data@server.nine.ch:app/current

Ensure dependencies are installed:

ssh www-data@server.nine.ch 'cd ~/app/current && ENV=production rbenv exec bundle install'

4. Setup systemd Service​

To ensure a service keeps running, e.g. is restarted if it fails or on a system restart, we recommend using a systemd user service.

This example loads environment variables from ~/app/env and then executes rails server -b localhost --log-to-stdout in the directory ~/app/current.

The command depends on your setup. The above example assumes that you're running a rails app.

Create the service file in ~/.config/systemd/user/rails-app.service.

[Unit]
Description=Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=%h/app/current

Environment=RAILS_ENV=production
Environment=PORT=3000

EnvironmentFile=%h/app/env

ExecStart=/usr/bin/rbenv exec rails server -b localhost --log-to-stdout

TimeoutSec=15
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

And then start the service:

touch ~/app/env # ensure environment file exists
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable rails-app.service
systemctl --user start rails-app.service

Your application should now be registered as service and already running:

$ systemctl --user status rails-app.service
● rails-app.service - Application
     Loaded: loaded (/home/www-data/.config/systemd/user/rails-app.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2021-07-16 10:13:36 CEST; 5s ago
   Main PID: 3615317 (ruby)
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-33.slice/user@33.service/rails-app.service
             └─3615317 puma 5.3.2 (tcp://localhost:3000) [current]

Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: => Run `bin/rails server --help` for more startup options
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: Puma starting in single mode...
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: * Puma version: 5.3.2 (ruby 3.0.2-p107) ("Sweetnighter")
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: *  Min threads: 5
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: *  Max threads: 5
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: *  Environment: production
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: *          PID: 3615317
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: * Listening on http://127.0.0.1:3000
Jul 16 10:13:37 server rbenv[3615317]: * Listening on http://[::1]:3000
Jul 16 10:13:38 server rbenv[3615317]: Use Ctrl-C to stop

5. Configure Webserver​

The application is now running on the local port 3000. To configure the web server, we use the CLI tool nine-manage-vhosts (you can find more information in the dedicated support article).

For this use case, we created the templates proxy and proxy_letsencrypt.

To enable SSL/TLS, use the proxy_letsencrypt template.

To access your application via the existing webserver, you need to pass the PROXYPORT variable as parameter for --template-variable.

sudo nine-manage-vhosts virtual-host create example.com --template proxy --template-variable PROXYPORT=3000 --webroot ~/app/current/public
Virtual Host created: example.com
example.com
===========
              DOMAIN: example.com
                USER: www-data
             WEBROOT: /home/www-data/app/current/public
            TEMPLATE: proxy
  TEMPLATE VARIABLES: PROXYPORT
                      3000
             ALIASES: www.example.com
                      example.com.server.nine.ch

To see the configuration, use:sudo nine-manage-vhosts virtual-host show example.com

Afterwards, your application should be accessible via port 80 or 443.