I have been given the unpleasant task of installing a Rails 3 app I have written on Windows Server 2008 (definitely not my choice - was promised a linux server but I.T. pulled the rug out at the last minute so please don't suggest a change in environment as a solution).
I followed the instructions on this blog post (with a few minor modifications) and now actually have my app up and running under Windows/IIS (proxying mongrel) after a great deal of frustration. The only thing remaining is to get mongrel running as a service.
Unfortunately the mongrel gem has not been kept up-to-date for Rails 3 and while I can get the app running under mongrel at the command line I am unable to use mongrel_service to get the app running as a service.
The solution to this appears to be to use the service_wrapper project on github which has been mentioned in this previous question. The project is not yet complete but apparently functional but comes without documentation/binaries. I have looked through the source-code and don't really understand what is it/how it works so was wondering if someone can point me in the right direction (or, even better, walk me through how) to get this installed.
So close, yet still so far.....
Alright I have this worked out (with a little help from luislavena himself - thanks).
Download service_wrapper-0.1.0-win32.zip from https://github.com/luislavena/service_wrapper/downloads and extract service_wrapper.exe from bin/. I extracted it to C:\service_wrapper.
Next set up a configuration file. I used the hello example and modified it for my app then placed it in the C:\service_wrapper directory.
; Service section, it will be the only section read by service_wrapper
[service]
; Provide full path to executable to avoid issues when executable path was not
; added to system PATH.
executable = C:\Ruby192\bin\ruby.exe
; Provide there the arguments you will pass to executable from the command line
arguments = C:\railsapp\script\rails s -e production
; Which directory will be used when invoking executable.
; Provide a full path to the directory (not to a file)
directory = C:\railsapp
; Optionally specify a logfile where both STDOUT and STDERR of executable will
; be redirected.
; Please note that full path is also required.
logfile = C:\railsapp\log\service_wrapper.log
Now just create the service with
sc create railsapp binPath= "C:\service_wrapper\service_wrapper.exe C:\service_wrapper\service_wrapper.conf" start= auto
(watch for the spaces after binPath= and start=. It won't work without them)
Then start it with
net start railsapp
And you're home and hosed!
I ought to contribute due to this article. For config of using bundle exec, use the following:
Note that I am setting up rubyCAS! it's a great OpenCAS authentication mechanism!!!
; Service section, it will be the only section read by service_wrapper
[service]
; Provide full path to executable to avoid issues when executable path was not
; added to system PATH.
executable = C:\Ruby\bin\ruby.exe
; Provide there the arguments you will pass to executable from the command line
arguments = D:\rubycas-server bundle exec rackup -s mongrel -p 11011
; Which directory will be used when invoking executable.
; Provide a full path to the directory (not to a file)
directory = D:\rubycas-server
; Optionally specify a logfile where both STDOUT and STDERR of executable will
; be redirected.
; Please note that full path is also required.
logfile = D:\rubycas-server\log\service_wrapper.log
