Proper way to start nginx/passenger (non-standalone) on Ubuntu with Rails 3?

Question

I configured my Rails 3 production app about 6 months ago on Ubuntu running nginx/passenger, using git and Capistrano for deployment.

Fast forward to last week - The data center I was using (DigitalOcean NYC) actually had a complete power failure (and the battery backup didn't work) - resulting in my server shutting completely down.

I did not set passenger or mysql to start on reboot, so when the hardware server restarted, my app was still down.

I really did not know much about what I was doing at the time when I launched it (since it was my first production server that I have worked with), and I followed a guide to get it up and running.

When I attempted to get the app running again, I managed to start mysqld no problem - but for the life of me couldn't remember how to get nginx/passenger running again.

Since time was of the essence (my client needed the app up and running ASAP), I ended up getting the app back up and running by navigating to my app directory (/current) and using the command:

passenger start -p 80 -e production

This did the trick but actually started Passenger Standalone. It seems to work fine (it is not a big or complicated app at all, maybe a few users at a time). I can navigate back to my directory and start and stop it using the above command (and passenger stop -p 80).

However, now my capistrano deploy (cap deploy) no longer restarts the server on a deploy (it is trying to run touch tmp/restart.txt) - which even if I try to run manually, does nothing since the server is running Passenger Standalone.

I can't remember how I got the server up and running in the first place because it was so long ago. I'm not using RVM - just the version of Ruby running directly on the server.

Does anyone know the correct command to start nginx/passenger (not standalone) on Ubuntu?

And even a step further - how I can get mysqld and nginx/passenger to automatically load on a hard server restart?

Answer 1

Capistrano does not restart the server because it actually creates a new app directory (/u/apps/.../releases/xxx), while Passenger Standalone is still running in the old app directory (/u/apps/.../releases/yyy). Therefore touching restart.txt doesn't work. Instead, you have to restart Passenger Standalone like this:

cd /path-to-previous-release && passenger stop -p 80
cd /path-to-current-release && passenger start -p 80 -e production

You mentioned you want to start nginx/passsenger. I assume that you mean the Nginx mode . Here's what you need to do:

1. Install Phusion Passenger using the official Passenger APT repository .
2. There is no step 2. If you did step 1, then the Ubuntu package will automatically configure Nginx to start at system boot, which will automatically start Passenger as well.

I don't understand why you ask how you can get mysqld to automatically start on a hard server restart. Mysqld is always started during system boot. You don't have to do anything.