Rails Application Deployment Guide for Ubuntu

This guide walks through the complete setup of a Rails application on Ubuntu with PostgreSQL (including pgvector extension), Supervisor for process management, Nginx as a web server, and Let's Encrypt SSL certificates generated with Certbot.

Table of Contents

1. System Requirements
2. Initial Server Setup
3. Installing Dependencies
4. PostgreSQL Setup
5. Ruby and Rails Installation
6. Application Deployment
7. Environment Variables and Secrets
8. Nginx Configuration
9. SSL Configuration with Let's Encrypt
10. Supervisor Setup
11. Final Steps
12. Troubleshooting

System Requirements

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer
• At least 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• At least 20GB of disk space
• A domain name pointing to your server's IP address

Initial Server Setup

1. Update your system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Create a deployment user (optional but recommended):

sudo adduser deploy
sudo usermod -aG sudo deploy

3. Set up SSH keys for secure access (optional):

ssh-copy-id deploy@your_server_ip

4. Configure the firewall:

sudo apt install -y ufw
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw enable

Installing Dependencies

1. Install essential packages:

sudo apt install -y curl git build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev \
                    libpq-dev libffi-dev nodejs npm imagemagick

2. Install Yarn:

curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y yarn

PostgreSQL Setup

1. Install PostgreSQL:

sudo apt install -y postgresql postgresql-contrib

2. Install pgvector extension:

sudo apt install -y postgresql-server-dev-14  # Replace 14 with your PostgreSQL version
git clone https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector.git
cd pgvector
make
sudo make install
cd ..
rm -rf pgvector

3. Create a database user and database:

sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE USER your_app_name WITH PASSWORD 'your_password';"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE your_app_name_production OWNER your_app_name;"
sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER your_app_name WITH SUPERUSER;"  # Needed temporarily for pgvector

4. Enable pgvector extension:

sudo -u postgres psql -d your_app_name_production -c "CREATE EXTENSION vector;"

5. Remove superuser privileges (after extension is created):

sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER your_app_name WITH NOSUPERUSER;"

Ruby and Rails Installation

1. Install rbenv:

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
cd ~/.rbenv && src/configure && make -C src
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

2. Install ruby-build:

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git "$(rbenv root)"/plugins/ruby-build

3. Install Ruby:

rbenv install 3.2.6  # Replace with your Ruby version
rbenv global 3.2.6

4. Install Bundler and Rails:

gem install bundler
gem install rails

Application Deployment

1. Clone your application:

git clone https://github.com/SlimGee/machine.git /home/deploy/machine
cd /home/deploy/your_app_name

2. Install dependencies:

bundle install --deployment --without development test
yarn install --production

3. Configure database:

4. Edit the database.yml file:

vim config/database.yml

Update the production section:

VISUAL=vim rails credentials:edit -e production

Change the database password to your postgresql db username and password

5. Compile assets:

RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails assets:precompile

6. Run migrations:

RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:migrate

Environment Variables and Secrets

8. Set up RAILS_ENV in .bash_profile:

echo 'export RAILS_ENV=production' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Nginx Configuration

9. Install Nginx:

sudo apt install -y nginx

10. Create Nginx server block:

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_app_name

3. Add the following configuration:

upstream puma {
  server unix:///home/deploy/machine/shared/tmp/sockets/puma.sock;
}

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com;
  root /home/deploy/machine/public;

  # Allow uploads up to 100MB in size
  client_max_body_size 100m;

  location ^~ /assets/ {
    gzip_static on;
    expires max;
    add_header Cache-Control public;
  }

  try_files $uri/index.html $uri @puma;
  
  location @puma {
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_redirect off;
    proxy_pass http://puma;
  }

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  error_page 404 /404.html;
}

4. Enable the server block:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_app_name /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t  # Test the configuration
sudo systemctl restart nginx

SSL Configuration with Let's Encrypt

1. Install Certbot:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

2. Generate SSL certificates:

sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com

3. Follow the prompts and select the option to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

4. Set up auto-renewal:

sudo systemctl status certbot.timer  # Verify the timer is active

Supervisor Setup

1. Install Supervisor:

sudo apt install -y supervisor

2. Create a configuration file for your Rails application:

sudo vim /etc/supervisor/conf.d/machine.conf

3. Add the following configuration:

[program:machine]
command=/home/deploy/.rbenv/shims/bundle exec puma -C config/puma.rb - production
directory=/home/deploy/your_app_name
user=deploy
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stdout_logfile=/home/deploy/your_app_name/log/supervisor.log
stderr_logfile=/home/deploy/your_app_name/log/supervisor.error.log

4. Create directories for sockets and pids:

mkdir -p /home/deploy/your_app_name/shared/tmp/sockets
mkdir -p /home/deploy/your_app_name/shared/tmp/pids

5. Create or update config/puma.rb:

# config/puma.rb
directory '/home/deploy/machine'
environment ENV.fetch('RAILS_ENV') { 'production' }
threads_count = ENV.fetch('RAILS_MAX_THREADS') { 5 }
threads threads_count, threads_count

bind 'unix:///home/deploy/your_app_name/shared/tmp/sockets/puma.sock'
pidfile '/home/deploy/your_app_name/shared/tmp/pids/puma.pid'
state_path '/home/deploy/your_app_name/shared/tmp/pids/puma.state'

workers ENV.fetch('WEB_CONCURRENCY') { 2 }
preload_app!

plugin :tmp_restart

plugin :solid_queue

6. Reload and start Supervisor:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start machine

Final Steps

1. Verify that your application is running:

sudo supervisorctl status machine

2. Check the Nginx status:

sudo systemctl status nginx

3. Visit your domain in a browser to make sure everything is working.

4. Set up log rotation (optional but recommended):

sudo vim /etc/logrotate.d/your_app_name

Add:

/home/deploy/your_app_name/log/*.log {
  daily
  missingok
  rotate 7
  compress
  delaycompress
  notifempty
  copytruncate
}

Troubleshooting

If the application won't start:

1. Check Supervisor logs:

sudo supervisorctl tail -f your_app_name

2. Check Rails logs:

tail -f /home/deploy/your_app_name/log/production.log

3. Check Nginx logs:

sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

If you're having database connection issues:

sudo -u postgres psql -d your_app_name_production -c "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE your_app_name_production TO your_app_name;"

If pgvector extension is causing issues:

Make sure the extension is properly installed:

sudo -u postgres psql -d your_app_name_production -c "\dx"

If Certbot fails:

Check if port 80 is open and not blocked by a firewall:

sudo ufw status

And ensure Nginx is properly configured and running:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Restart everything after major changes:

sudo supervisorctl restart your_app_name
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Remember to replace placeholders like your_app_name, your-domain.com, your_password, and your_master_key with your actual values throughout this guide.

Adding Intial Data

At this point the system is empty without any data. To start importing data start the rails console:

rails c

Then run the following command to import the data:

ImportAssetsJob.perform_later

FeedIngestionJob.perform_later

FetchMaliciousDomainsJob.perform_later

AnalsysJob.perform_later

After this the system will start populating the database, analysis information maybe be available in a couple of days