Debian + Ruby on Rails + Mongrel setup

I just got a clean VPS with debian installed and am setting it up to run my Ruby on Rails application. The setup is bare bones and only includes these base applications: Ruby, Rails, Mysql 5, Apache 2.2.3 (with mod_proxy_balancer) and Mongrel.

1. Base Debian setup
I just followed these excellent directions:

http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html

I replaced some outdate packages for some of the newer ones. Mysql 5 and dependiences being the biggest ones.

2. Mongrel setup
I just followed these excellent directions:

http://blog.codahale.com/

3. Apache 2.2.3 setup

As of the creation of this article Debian has Apache 2.2.3 built in the unstable tree. Grab this! It will make upgrading and bug fixes much easier.

To enable all the modules we need for mongrel – rails setup do this from /etc/apache2/mods-enabled:

# ln -s ../mods-available/rewrite.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/ssl.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/deflate.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/headers.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/proxy.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/proxy_http.load .
# ln -s ../mods-available/proxy_balancer.load .

Now restart Apache and it should be all ready to go.

4. SVN setup

I folowed this article to set up the Ruby on Rails project in SVN:

http://maniacalrage.net/past/2006/4/12/heres_how_i_create_a/

and this one to set up WebDAV and group access to the SVN:

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_subversion_websvn

That should be it for the inital setup. Go create and launch your application!