•      
  • Garbage Burrito!An online internet web blog by Ben Kittrell
  • Blog
  • Tweets
  • Contact
  • Photos
  • Favorite Burrito
  • Burrito Shop
  • Cart
  • Login
  •      
 View Cart Register Login        

Garbage Burrito!

An online internet web blog by Ben Kittrell

  • Blog
  • Tweets
  • Contact
  • Photos
  • Favorite Burrito
  • Burrito Shop

 About Ben

Co-Founder of Doodlekit. Coder, Home Renovator, Enjoyer of Refreshing Beverages.

Sometimes I blog here, sometimes on Doodlekit, sometimes I tweet and now I podcast.

Most recently I've been doing software development strategy consulting for Kansas City businesses.  

 Doodlekit

Doodlekit is the easiest way for small businesses to create their own website.  Used by millions in over 180 countries.

Follow us for updates.

Doodlekit on Twitter
AngelList
LinkedIn
Facebook

160x600.gif

free website builder

 

 Blog Entries

  • Great Review of Doodlekit by Comparakeet
  • New Podcast Episode - Danny O'Neill - The Roasterie - Spare Room Radio
  • What I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Buying Podcast Equipment
  • Announcing Spare Room Radio - New Podcast
  • Google Fiber Experiment: Cloud Video Transcoding
more  

 Blog Comments

  • Newt Scamander Coat Replica: Great Review of Doodlekit by Comparakeet
  • status: Calling for a better HTML File Input
  • ASWIN: Doodlekit 2.0
  • special day: What I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Buying Podcast Equipment
  • Business management assignment: Save Some Code for Later with Ruby Procs
more  

 Links


  • website reviewer
  • live on - sharing memories
  • kids website builder
  • resume website
  • martial arts website builder
  • affiliate website builder
  • teacher website

 Login

 Forgot Password?
 Register

 Forum Posts

  • rajablogid: RE: Stupid Simple, Yet Effective
  • JohnFGlenn: RE: Stupid Simple, Yet Effective
  • Ben Kittrell : RE: Stupid Simple, Yet Effective
  • Ben Kittrell : RE: Stupid Simple, Yet Effective
  • Kevin Perdue: RE: Stupid Simple, Yet Effective
more  

 Custom Login

 Forgot Password?
 Register

 Back to Blog

Review: I Love My Rails Machine!

Ben Kittrell
 10/01/2006 03:12AM

I've had my Rails Machine for about two weeks now, just enough time for me to confirm that I am truly infatuated with it.  I really am impressed with the whole package from top to bottom, and it's a perfect match to the brilliance of the Rails framework and Capistrano .  Like Jamis said in the Capistrano Mailing List...

"I know I plugged them several times at RailsConf, but let me just say again: RailsMachine is the shining star against which all other 3rd party capistrano extensions should be measured. :) They're doing great stuff."

I couldn't agree more.  Here's a quick rundown of the good and bad of my experience thus far.

Setup

If I could give one piece of advice for setting up your Rails Machine , it would be to follow their instructions and conventions very closely.  I was stubborn and wanted to do things my way, but I quickly realized that this wasn't worth the effort.  This isn't just cause it's difficult to configure, but when you're asking for help you wont have to explain your own cockamamie setup.  

My first major problem came when I realized I deleted the original root password before I reset the MySql root password.  You see I was going through the security setup on my phone while waiting in line for pizza at D'Bronx, and I somehow managed to miss that last step.  It didn't take me long to find a way to reset the password, and be on my way.

All in all it went very well, and I had great support throughout.

Deployment

Capistrano is flat out awesome, and Rails Machine makes it even better.  Deployment is as easy as 'cap -a deploy'.  What it does is checks out the latest release to a new directory and symlinks it to a directory named 'current'.  It keeps the old releases so you can always 'cap -a rollback'.  

I quickly ran into a problem though.  You see I'm using file_column to upload images, and it stores these images in the public folder.  The problem is that since Capistrano checks the code out from Subversion each deploy, you lose the images.  Soon I found a block of code to add to my deploy.rb that allowed me to put these images in the shared directory, and it would automatically symlink link it in the current directory after deployment.  

I was happy with this solution but I was even happier when I found out from the Capistrano Mailing List, that the Rails Machine recipe allows "set :app_symlinks, %w{media}".  Damn, they already thought of it.

Performance

This has to be the best part of the whole deal.  It continues to impress me how fast everything is running.  They have come up with the perfect configuration for running Ruby on Rails applications.  The system is optimized to run 6 Mongrel instances, and you can run a single app on more than one.  It defaults to two instances, but I went ahead and bumped it up to 4.  This was super easy and seamless by the way.

I'm not sure what kind of pipe they're on, but it's fast enough that I don't have to.

Price

The price is probably the only downside.  I got the BantamVPS , which is reasonable, but I could get the same hardware setup for cheaper elsewhere.  I still went with Rails Machine because of their stack and their experience with deploying and running Ruby on Rails.  It's a VPS with root access, but it comes with MySql, Mongrel, Apache and Subversion already setup.  I setup my old server and it did the job, but there comes a time when you have to decide whether it's worth your time to be dorking around with this stuff.  

Support

Their superior support makes it worth every penny.  I've dropped into the Campfire Chatroom quite a few times and Bradley or David have been more than helpful.  I like being on a personal level with the guys that really know the servers.  I remember one time I had to call the support at 1and1, and I got some guy that could barely understand me and had no idea what I was talking about.  I'm very impressed with their responsiveness and level of knowledge in both Rails and System Administration in general.

Expandability

The reason I wanted a VPS is that we have no idea if DoodleKit is going to have 10 users, or 10 bagillion.  We can go with a modest setup for now, but if we get a good response and need more resources we can just upgrade the server without having to reconfigure everything.  Apparently they can upgrade from BantamVPS to the BigVPS in about 15 minutes.  They also offer a clustered setup and custom configurations, which is good to know for when we get 100 bagillion users.

Summary

I can't say it enough, I love my Rails Machine .  If you have a critical Rails application and are looking for the freedom of root access with the support of some dudes that really know what they're doing, then Rails Machine is for you. I'm excited about DoodleKit (coming soon), and Rails Machine gives me confidence that it now has the infrastructure it needs to succeed.  

Now I need a cool Rails Machine banner to put in my sidebar.

 Comments

 taco  10/19/2006 09:10PM 

How was it setting up things like email, is it all command line or do they have some type of control panel? Their site didn't mention a control panel or way to do basic things like this so I was just wondering.

thx for the review.

 Ben Kittrell  10/20/2006 04:56AM 

There's no control panel yet. It was really easy for me to install postfix and get it running though. I feel more comfortable at the command line anyway.

 TheFunded My Website  03/18/2007 09:45PM 

Are you still enjoying good service and no outages from the host? I am looking to switch... Please let me know. Thanks!

 Ben Kittrell  03/18/2007 10:52PM 

I'm still loving it. My current uptime is 78 days. Every time I have a question, Bradley is always there to help.

 showbox app My Website  04/06/2017 11:55AM 

Download showbox apk the best app for videos and tv shows download in HD.

 showbox download My Website  04/06/2017 11:55AM 

Get one of the best movies download android app name SHOWBOX.  

 Download Showbox App for Android My Website  04/06/2017 11:56AM 

If you want a hassle free movies downloading then you must need an app like showbox which may provide best ever user friendly interface. Download showbox from here

 Post a Comment



 Search

Follow On...

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feeds
  • Blog Posts,
  • Blog Comments,
  • Gallery Images,
  • Forum Topics

Copyright © 2006 Garbage Burrito. All Rights Reserved.
hosted by doodlekit™- free website builder

 

 powered by Doodlekit™ Free Website Builder