Wow, I started writing this and it does rely on a certain amount of linux and apache configuration. I've been impressed with RimuHosting's ability and willingness to help but it sounds like you need a shared host more than a VPS if you're just trying to get your feet wet with a single mongrel.
If you wanna keep going, people who help you will need to know what linux distro you selected and whether you asked for a rails stack to be installed.
Taylor Strait-2 wrote:
ssh is the first essential tool you will need. The syntax is:
ssh -p <port-num> user@host.tld
You can normally omit the -p argument. Since you are on Windows, consider OpenSSH:
http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/
Once you are on the server, you can set up your directories. One typical directory tree places all Web stuff in /var/www, so:
cd /var/www mkdir rails cd rails mkdir myfirstapp
Ok, you are good to go. Ctrl+D to exit.
Next, on your Windows box:
c:\some\place\you\develop: gem install capistrano c:\some\place\you\develop: cap --apply-to myfirstapp
Now read this:
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/Capistrano
If you are not using Subversion, you will have a much harder, uphill climb.
Finally, back on the linux box, edit (emacs or vim) /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and stick this at the end:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.myfirstapp.com ServerAlias myfirstapp.com DocumentRoot /var/www/rails/myfirstapp/current/public ProxyRequests off ProxyPass / http://localhost:10020/ ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:10020 ProxyPreserveHost on </VirtualHost>
Save it.
Now type:
apachectl -t
This will syntax check your apache configuration file. Assuming that's ok:
apachectl graceful
Now all that's left is to go to the directory where you put your rails app:
cd /var/www/rails/myfirstapp/current mongrel_rails start -p 10020 -e production -d
I probably forgot a few things, but this is a scratchpad version of how I typically set things up. You'll want to tweak your initialization sequence so the mongrel restarts at reboot, but that's a subject for another day.
As I said, you chose a complex topic.
Taylor Strait-2 wrote: