Configuring Apache 2 with mod_proxy and mongrel_rails on SuSe 9x

In the process of forcing helping a friend with his conversion from Coldfusion to Ruby on Rails, we had to get him set up with a way to run multiple rails apps from his hosting machine. Here is what I discovered when I investigated using Apache 2 and mod_proxy to host rails apps through mongrel_rails:

NOTE: the examples use su -, but I would recommend using sudo instead.

Apache 2 / mod_proxy

mod_proxy was already installed (with yast) and just needed some configuration:

1. su -
   
2. to file /etc/sysconfig/apache2, add:
   proxy proxy_ftp proxy_http proxy_connect
   to the APACHE_MODULES= line
   
   
3. create /etc/apache2/vhost.d/example.com.conf
   because apache isn't hosting any files, this is rather shorter than his apache/coldfusion vhost files
   
   

   
   <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
      ServerName www.example.com
   
      # if not specified, the global error log is used
      ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-error_log
      CustomLog /var/log/apache2/example.com-access_log combined
   
      # Avoid open your server to proxying
      ProxyRequests Off
   
      # Let apache correctly rewrite redirect
      ProxyPass / http://hishostname.com:8000/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://hishostname.com:8000/
   
      # Let apache pass the original host not the ProxyPass one
      ProxyPreserveHost On
   
      # don't lose time with IP address lookups
      HostnameLookups Off
   
      # needed for named virtual hosts
      UseCanonicalName Off
   
      # configures the footer on server-generated documents
      ServerSignature On
   </VirtualHost>
   

   
   

mongrel_rails

1. su -
   
2. gem install mongrel -y
   
3. export your source from version control to a likely directory (preferably as a non root user)
   
4. cd to your base rails directory
   
5. type something along the following lines:
   
mongrel_rails start -e production -d -p 8000 -l log/mongrel.log -n 20

   

anyway, thats it man. its freakin magnificent.
except the SuSe part. Get a useable server, yast sucks.

--Christopher