Ruby on Rails runs on web server Webrick. But in order to deploy Ruby on Rails with Nginx server we will need Passenger too.

Install Passenger and Ngnix

First install PGP key

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 561F9B9CAC40B2F7

Create APT source file

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list

Insert following lines in the file:

deb https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger trusty main

Now in order to save the file, press Ctrl+x, then type y to save it and press Enter to confirm location.

Change owner and permissions of the file

sudo chown root: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list
sudo chmod 600 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list

Update the packages

sudo apt-get update

Now final step is to install Nginx and Passenger

sudo apt-get install nginx-extras passenger

Overwrite Ruby to an older version

sudo rm /usr/bin/ruby
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/ruby /usr/bin/ruby

Setup Web Server

Open the Configuration file by typing

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Find the following lines on Configuration file:

# passenger_root /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini;
# passenger_ruby /usr/bin/ruby;

Uncomment these lines:

passenger_root /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/phusion_passenger/locations.ini;
passenger_ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby;

Now lets deploy Ruby on Rails app with Nginx and Passenger

cd ~
sudo gem install --no-rdoc --no-ri rails
rails new testapp --skip-bundle
cd testapp
nano Gemfile
# gem 'therubyracer',  platforms: :ruby
gem 'therubyracer',  platforms: :ruby
bundle install

We need to disable Nginx configuration

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Find these lines:

listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;

Comment these lines

# listen 80 default_server;
# listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;

Save this file and create Nginx configuration file for our app:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/testapp

Add the following server block. The settings are explained below.

server {
  listen 80 default_server;
  server_name www.mydomain.com;
  passenger_enabled on;
  passenger_app_env development;
  root /home/rails/testapp/public;
}

Save the file (CTRL+x, y, ENTER).

Create a symlink for it:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/testapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/testapp

Restart Nginx:

sudo nginx -s reload

Now your app's website should be accessible. Navigate to your domain or IP address:

http://ip_address or http://locahost

Thats all!

Thanks for reading the blog