0:00:17.160,0:00:19.800
BEN DIXON: OK. So, I'm Ben.

0:00:19.800,0:00:22.170
I'm a Rails developer and the author

0:00:22.170,0:00:26.150
of a book called Reliably Deploying Rails[br]Applications.

0:00:26.180,0:00:28.090
I spend a lot of people - a lot of people?

0:00:28.100,0:00:30.810
A lot of time teaching people Ruby at

0:00:30.810,0:00:32.259
MakeItWithCode dot com,

0:00:32.259,0:00:35.120
which is an online mentor-driven class

0:00:35.120,0:00:36.780
for people who are new to Ruby

0:00:36.780,0:00:39.000
but want to get started making things quickly.

0:00:39.000,0:00:41.200
I spend the rest of my time working with

0:00:41.200,0:00:43.680
the awesome guys at HelloSwimio, where we[br]make cool

0:00:43.680,0:00:46.110
tech for swimmers. So we make things like[br]the

0:00:46.110,0:00:49.310
time tabling system for the Olympic pool in[br]London,

0:00:49.310,0:00:52.010
the speedo swim tracking app, and the first[br]automatic

0:00:52.020,0:00:54.359
lap tracker for the Pebble smart watch.

0:00:54.360,0:00:57.750
So, before we get started, could you put your

0:00:57.750,0:01:00.451
hands up if you've deployed a Rails app of

0:01:00.460,0:01:05.209
some sort to Heroku. Awesome. Now keep your[br]hand

0:01:05.209,0:01:07.341
up if you've deployed a Rails app to a

0:01:07.341,0:01:11.610
server that you've set up yourself. Good.[br]That's less

0:01:11.640,0:01:12.570
people.

0:01:12.570,0:01:14.770
So if someone came to me and said, I

0:01:14.770,0:01:16.279
want to deploy my first Rails app, how should

0:01:16.280,0:01:18.571
I do it? I wouldn't think about it, I'd

0:01:18.580,0:01:22.150
just say use Heroku. And I'd say use Heroku,

0:01:22.150,0:01:25.530
because Heroku makes deploying apps incredibly[br]simple. You just

0:01:25.530,0:01:29.750
commit your code, Heroku create, git push[br]Heroku, and

0:01:29.780,0:01:32.660
magically, a couple of minutes later, your[br]application is

0:01:32.660,0:01:36.010
live, on the internet, for the world to see.

0:01:36.010,0:01:38.630
And because Heroku has made this process so[br]simple

0:01:38.630,0:01:40.860
and so easy, it's really easy to take that

0:01:40.860,0:01:42.220
server stuff and kind of put it in a

0:01:42.240,0:01:44.990
bucket of things we don't look at. Because[br]it's

0:01:44.990,0:01:48.500
complicated and Heroku makes it really easy,[br]so why

0:01:48.500,0:01:50.030
would we bother?

0:01:50.040,0:01:51.750
And what I'd like to demonstrate in this talk

0:01:51.750,0:01:53.850
is that, in the same way Rails makes building

0:01:53.850,0:01:57.070
web applications really, really easy, there[br]are lots of

0:01:57.080,0:01:59.080
great tools out there that make setting up[br]servers

0:01:59.080,0:02:02.050
for them and deploying to those servers really[br]easy.

0:02:02.060,0:02:03.600
And once you get the hang of these tools,

0:02:03.600,0:02:06.170
you can do some really cool stuff.

0:02:06.170,0:02:09.758
Before we get started, two important bits[br]of terminology,

0:02:09.759,0:02:12.931
which probably you already know. A PaaS, a[br]platform

0:02:12.940,0:02:15.260
as a service, and by that I mean something

0:02:15.260,0:02:18.030
like Heroku. So something that just abstracts[br]all of

0:02:18.030,0:02:19.420
your infrastructure away so that you don't[br]have to

0:02:19.420,0:02:20.610
worry about it.

0:02:20.610,0:02:23.060
On the other scale, you've got a VPS, a

0:02:23.060,0:02:26.120
Virtual Private Server, and for the purposes[br]of this

0:02:26.140,0:02:28.480
talk, I just mean some sort of Linux server

0:02:28.480,0:02:30.560
running the cloud. So the type of thing you

0:02:30.560,0:02:33.630
get from Linode or RackSpace or DigitalOcean.

0:02:33.630,0:02:36.370
So, to get started, I want to take a

0:02:36.380,0:02:38.730
little look at what's going on behind the[br]scenes

0:02:38.730,0:02:41.790
when you deploy a typical Rails application.[br]How do

0:02:41.790,0:02:44.570
we go from Rails S on our development machine

0:02:44.570,0:02:47.280
to a Rails app on a VPS somewhere serving

0:02:47.280,0:02:49.160
our application to the world?

0:02:49.160,0:02:52.450
So, here we've got a beautiful picture that[br]I've

0:02:52.460,0:02:55.660
drawn, because I'm new to Keynote. And the[br]black

0:02:55.660,0:02:57.900
box around the outside is our VPS. It's a

0:02:57.920,0:03:01.010
single VPS. And this is the first thing that

0:03:01.010,0:03:03.920
seemed to surprise lots of people. For a simple

0:03:03.920,0:03:07.510
production configuration, you only need one[br]VPS. In the

0:03:07.520,0:03:10.360
same way, in development, you can run your[br]entire

0:03:10.360,0:03:14.430
Rails application on your development machine.[br]For simple production

0:03:14.430,0:03:17.210
application, you can run everything on a single[br]VPS.

0:03:17.220,0:03:20.670
And that VPS will have three main components[br]on

0:03:20.670,0:03:23.339
it for almost all Rails applications. You're[br]gonna have

0:03:23.340,0:03:25.761
a web server, you're gonna have an app server,

0:03:25.761,0:03:29.650
and you're gonna have a database server. So,[br]when

0:03:29.660,0:03:31.830
someone types in the address of our website,[br]a

0:03:31.830,0:03:35.199
request comes in. It hits our VPS, and the

0:03:35.200,0:03:36.931
first place that request is gonna go is our

0:03:36.940,0:03:40.319
web server. Now, if that request was for a

0:03:40.320,0:03:42.781
static file, and by a static file, I basically

0:03:42.781,0:03:45.510
mean, anything that goes in the Rails asset[br]pipeline

0:03:45.510,0:03:47.520
or anything that you might find in the public

0:03:47.520,0:03:49.640
folder, the web server's gonna deal with that[br]directly.

0:03:49.640,0:03:51.880
It's gonna send that file straight back to[br]the

0:03:51.880,0:03:54.220
user for display in their browser and that's[br]the

0:03:54.220,0:03:55.390
end of it.

0:03:55.400,0:03:58.760
If, however, that request is for a dynamic[br]page,

0:03:58.760,0:04:02.970
so for a page in our Rails app, essentially,

0:04:02.970,0:04:05.830
that's gonna get passed back to an app server.

0:04:05.840,0:04:09.209
Now, when we run Rails S in development, what

0:04:09.209,0:04:12.840
we're starting is an instance of an app server.

0:04:12.840,0:04:15.491
So, the app server here is Rails S running

0:04:15.491,0:04:17.630
on our VPS. So the web server passes the

0:04:17.630,0:04:21.079
request back. The app server generates the[br]response and

0:04:21.079,0:04:24.041
then passes it back to the web server, which

0:04:24.041,0:04:26.220
then returns it to the user.

0:04:26.220,0:04:28.329
And in development, we're probably used to[br]the web,

0:04:28.329,0:04:31.271
the app server being something like Thin or[br]WebRick.

0:04:31.280,0:04:33.109
In production it might also be Thin or Webrick.

0:04:33.109,0:04:35.051
It might also be something a bit more advanced

0:04:35.060,0:04:37.470
like Puma or Unicorn.

0:04:37.470,0:04:40.880
Finally, for pretty much all Rails applications,[br]we're gonna

0:04:40.880,0:04:43.370
want some sort of database server. And that's[br]probably

0:04:43.380,0:04:47.230
gonna be PostGres or mySQL or Mongo. And,[br]again,

0:04:47.230,0:04:49.960
we don't need a separate database server.[br]This all

0:04:49.980,0:04:52.370
runs on our single VPS.

0:04:52.380,0:04:55.440
So, to recap, a request comes in and it

0:04:55.440,0:04:58.350
hits our web server. Probably EngineX or Apache.[br]If

0:04:58.350,0:05:00.520
it's for a static file, the web server deals

0:05:00.520,0:05:02.680
with it. If it's for part of our Rails

0:05:02.680,0:05:05.110
application, it gets passed back to the app[br]server,

0:05:05.110,0:05:07.640
which is basically Rails S, and the app server

0:05:07.640,0:05:10.420
may communicate with the database server,[br]read some data,

0:05:10.420,0:05:13.110
write some data, and then the app server constructs

0:05:13.110,0:05:14.810
the response, sends it back to the web server,

0:05:14.820,0:05:16.420
which serves it to the user.

0:05:16.420,0:05:19.600
So, you'd be forgiven for looking at that[br]and

0:05:19.600,0:05:22.890
thinking, well, that already looks more complicated[br]than Heroku.

0:05:22.890,0:05:24.880
Why on earth would you ever do that? Why

0:05:24.880,0:05:26.359
not just use Heroku?

0:05:26.360,0:05:28.351
Well, I started doing this, if I'm honest,[br]because

0:05:28.360,0:05:30.610
of cost. I had quite a lot of side

0:05:30.620,0:05:35.770
projects, and as you probably already know,[br]most past

0:05:35.780,0:05:38.050
solutions charge by the process. And a lot[br]of

0:05:38.050,0:05:41.890
my personal projects and side projects had[br]background jobs.

0:05:41.890,0:05:45.190
Now when you've got five or six side projects,

0:05:45.190,0:05:47.609
all of which would need two Heroku dynos,[br]suddenly

0:05:47.620,0:05:48.930
that bill at the end of the month starts

0:05:48.930,0:05:52.481
to get quite substantial.

0:05:52.481,0:05:53.960
And so I wanted to save money by deploying

0:05:53.960,0:05:57.210
to my own servers. And I did. It's worth

0:05:57.240,0:05:59.510
bearing in mind, if that's also your motivation,[br]that,

0:05:59.510,0:06:03.590
as with any new skill, you have to invert.

0:06:03.590,0:06:05.200
Invert? You have to put in a certain amount

0:06:05.220,0:06:07.850
of time to learn it. If you were to

0:06:07.850,0:06:09.510
account for the time I put into learning this

0:06:09.510,0:06:12.390
to begin with, at market rates, I'm fairly[br]sure

0:06:12.390,0:06:14.320
there would have been no saving at all. Personally,

0:06:14.340,0:06:16.740
they're my own projects. I wasn't paying myself[br]market

0:06:16.740,0:06:19.080
rates. And I was happy to treat it as

0:06:19.080,0:06:20.770
an investment which would pay off in the long

0:06:20.770,0:06:23.190
term, and it has.

0:06:23.200,0:06:26.800
Actually, it turned out, the biggest benefit[br]of learning

0:06:26.800,0:06:28.300
how to do this was nothing to do with

0:06:28.300,0:06:31.640
money. It was the infrastructure went from[br]being this

0:06:31.640,0:06:33.770
kind of necessary evil that I have to have

0:06:33.770,0:06:36.250
in order to run my Rails apps, to just

0:06:36.250,0:06:38.640
another tool that I could use for building[br]interesting

0:06:38.660,0:06:42.020
stuff. And the best example of that, for me,

0:06:42.040,0:06:44.830
is Make It With Code. We provide our students

0:06:44.830,0:06:47.840
with a cloud IDE that has Ruby pre-installed.[br]And

0:06:47.840,0:06:50.060
that means they can hit the ground running.[br]They

0:06:50.060,0:06:53.200
can start writing Ruby code really quickly.

0:06:53.200,0:06:54.700
And the techniques that we use setting those[br]up

0:06:54.700,0:06:57.480
automatically for all of our students are[br]exactly the

0:06:57.480,0:06:59.540
same techniques that I'm gonna cover in this[br]presentation

0:06:59.540,0:07:01.879
for setting up Rails apps. So it means that

0:07:01.880,0:07:04.481
our infrastructure has gone from being this[br]thing that

0:07:04.481,0:07:05.999
we have to have in the background, as like

0:07:06.000,0:07:09.201
a supporting thing, to something that actually[br]adds value

0:07:09.201,0:07:11.439
to our product in itself. It's a part of

0:07:11.440,0:07:13.171
our product.

0:07:13.180,0:07:14.830
So if you decide to give this a go,

0:07:14.830,0:07:16.920
I really, really urge you not to do it

0:07:16.920,0:07:19.580
even slightly like I did it originally. Because[br]it

0:07:19.580,0:07:21.450
was terrible. I started off by getting a VPS.

0:07:21.450,0:07:23.560
That bit was good. That bit worked. I Googled,

0:07:23.580,0:07:26.740
how do I set up a Rails VPS. I

0:07:26.740,0:07:28.810
found all these great tutorials that said,[br]type in

0:07:28.810,0:07:31.189
this command, then that command, then edit[br]this config

0:07:31.200,0:07:33.241
file. And I found loads of things on StackOverflow

0:07:33.241,0:07:34.759
that said, here's what to do when that goes

0:07:34.760,0:07:37.211
wrong and that goes wrong. And eventually[br]I had

0:07:37.211,0:07:38.439
this working server. And it was great.

0:07:38.440,0:07:40.671
And it broke a few times in the first

0:07:40.680,0:07:43.419
few weeks. But we fixed that when it happened.

0:07:43.420,0:07:47.700
And, by and large, it worked for quite awhile.

0:07:47.700,0:07:49.920
And it worked until it didn't work, and when

0:07:49.920,0:07:51.931
it didn't work, I was in France, on a

0:07:51.931,0:07:53.710
holiday with my family, and it was a fairly

0:07:53.720,0:07:56.610
rural bit of France, and we had, we had

0:07:56.610,0:07:58.409
a wifi connection. But it was only one wifi

0:07:58.409,0:08:02.701
connection for, basically, the village. And[br]to access that,

0:08:02.720,0:08:04.699
we, we could access it by sitting half in

0:08:04.700,0:08:08.181
a wardrobe on the top floor of the house,

0:08:08.181,0:08:09.979
which was nice.

0:08:09.980,0:08:12.461
And, so one morning I woke up and I

0:08:12.461,0:08:14.979
was sitting in the wardrobe with a coffee[br]and

0:08:14.980,0:08:17.230
checking my email, and I had a wonderful,[br]a

0:08:17.230,0:08:19.220
lovely email from my host to say, Dear Valued

0:08:19.220,0:08:20.931
Customer, your server is dead, you need to[br]make

0:08:20.940,0:08:23.580
a new one, Lots of love, from your hosts.

0:08:23.580,0:08:25.940
And I thought, good. Right. So I set up

0:08:25.940,0:08:28.250
a little desk in this wardrobe and for the

0:08:28.250,0:08:30.180
rest of the day, my family sat by a

0:08:30.180,0:08:35.490
river. They drank wine, ate cheese, mocked[br]me slightly,

0:08:35.490,0:08:37.590
and I sat in a roof, in a wardrobe,

0:08:37.600,0:08:40.009
in a heat wave, and pretty much followed the

0:08:40.009,0:08:42.601
same tutorials I employed the first time.[br]Made the

0:08:42.601,0:08:45.140
same mistakes that I'd made the first time,[br]and

0:08:45.160,0:08:47.110
I got the server back up, but it really

0:08:47.110,0:08:49.740
wasn't any easier the second time. And that[br]seemed

0:08:49.740,0:08:52.130
kind of wrong to me. That it seemed really

0:08:52.130,0:08:52.430
frustrating.

0:08:52.430,0:08:53.710
So I figured there must be a better way

0:08:53.740,0:08:56.290
of doing this. If I'm honest, actually what[br]I

0:08:56.290,0:08:58.320
thought was, I can't believe there isn't already[br]a

0:08:58.320,0:09:00.540
better way of doing this, I should invent[br]it

0:09:00.540,0:09:01.970
and then I'll be rich and famous and everyone

0:09:01.980,0:09:05.670
will love me. Luckily I took a step back

0:09:05.670,0:09:07.510
and thought, OK, this probably already exists.

0:09:07.520,0:09:11.180
And, of course, it did. And what I wanted

0:09:11.180,0:09:15.080
was a configuration management tool. And a[br]configuration management

0:09:15.080,0:09:17.360
tool is really simple. It allows you to define

0:09:17.360,0:09:19.330
and automate the commands that it takes to[br]set

0:09:19.330,0:09:22.300
up the server to do a particular thing. And

0:09:22.300,0:09:25.079
what's amazing about a configuration management[br]tool is once

0:09:25.080,0:09:27.281
you've done it once, doing it again and again

0:09:27.281,0:09:29.980
and again is completely trivial.

0:09:29.980,0:09:33.530
So, that time you put in to start with,

0:09:33.530,0:09:34.870
it will probably only be one command to set

0:09:34.920,0:09:37.639
up an identical server the next time. And[br]to

0:09:37.640,0:09:38.890
give you an idea of just how simple it

0:09:38.890,0:09:40.940
can be, I've got a brief demonstration of[br]the

0:09:40.960,0:09:43.101
process that I actually move, at the moment,[br]on

0:09:43.101,0:09:45.390
a pretty much weekly basis for setting up[br]new

0:09:45.390,0:09:45.960
servers.

0:09:45.960,0:09:49.120
At the end of this presentation, I'll link[br]to

0:09:49.120,0:09:51.060
tutorials of how to do this yourself and the

0:09:51.060,0:09:53.490
sample code. So please don't worry about following[br]it

0:09:53.500,0:09:54.730
step by step, I just want to give an

0:09:54.730,0:09:57.220
idea about how simple it can be.

0:09:57.220,0:10:02.210
So, here you can see, on the left, your

0:10:02.220,0:10:04.300
left, there is a list of servers that I've

0:10:04.300,0:10:07.779
deployed in the past. And I'm using my configuration

0:10:07.780,0:10:11.161
management tool of choice, Chef Solo, which[br]uses JSON

0:10:11.161,0:10:14.910
files for defining what should go onto a particular

0:10:14.910,0:10:15.500
type of server.

0:10:15.500,0:10:17.100
And on the bottom you can see I've got

0:10:17.100,0:10:18.470
a couple of web servers for Make It With

0:10:18.470,0:10:20.650
Code, which at the moment is running a selection

0:10:20.650,0:10:23.429
of Rails and Sinatra apps. And I want to

0:10:23.440,0:10:25.781
write a new one. And to do this, I

0:10:25.781,0:10:28.390
just create a new JSON file, web3 dot makeitwithcode

0:10:28.390,0:10:31.510
dot com. I save it, and then this server,

0:10:31.520,0:10:33.400
it's gonna be pretty much the same as web2.

0:10:33.400,0:10:35.069
It's just running Rails apps.

0:10:35.080,0:10:36.311
So I just copy all the JSON from my

0:10:36.320,0:10:39.720
previous server, but it into the new one,[br]and

0:10:39.720,0:10:40.899
the bit I want to draw your attention to

0:10:40.900,0:10:43.351
is, if you look at the bottom of that,

0:10:43.351,0:10:44.699
you've got this run list with a list of

0:10:44.700,0:10:47.311
things that are being called roles. And pretty[br]much

0:10:47.320,0:10:50.820
all configuration management systems have[br]some sort of analogous

0:10:50.820,0:10:55.940
concept to this, which, kind of individual[br]components that

0:10:55.940,0:10:58.260
you can mix and match to define what should

0:10:58.260,0:11:00.490
go onto this server that you're setting up.

0:11:00.490,0:11:02.980
So I've defined in the past, what goes on

0:11:02.980,0:11:04.850
an internet server. What goes on a PostGres[br]server.

0:11:04.850,0:11:06.700
And now if I want that, I can just

0:11:06.720,0:11:08.320
drop that role in, and I know that it

0:11:08.320,0:11:09.769
will be set up in exactly the way that

0:11:09.769,0:11:12.491
I want it. So on this server I want

0:11:12.500,0:11:14.450
Redis. I didn't on the previous one. So I

0:11:14.450,0:11:17.930
can just uncomment it. Uncomment it, yeah.[br]And I'll

0:11:17.940,0:11:20.870
get exactly the Redis configuration I want.

0:11:20.870,0:11:22.780
The good bit, the fun bit, is once I've

0:11:22.780,0:11:25.310
done this, I can type on command - knife

0:11:25.310,0:11:27.069
solo bootstrap - and then the address of the,

0:11:27.069,0:11:31.051
the VPS I've created. Presenter. And then[br]leave it

0:11:31.060,0:11:33.640
for about twenty minutes, go and get a coffee,

0:11:33.660,0:11:36.420
and the output that will scroll through, it[br]will

0:11:36.420,0:11:39.269
tell me what commands it's applying. It will[br]show

0:11:39.269,0:11:42.010
me diffs of any configuration files that it's[br]changing.

0:11:42.020,0:11:43.611
And if it goes wrong, which it doesn't very

0:11:43.611,0:11:45.400
often, it will tell me exactly what it was

0:11:45.400,0:11:47.000
doing when it went wrong, so I can fix

0:11:47.000,0:11:47.509
it.

0:11:47.509,0:11:49.771
And at the end of this process, I will

0:11:49.780,0:11:52.710
have a Rails server which is identical the[br]last

0:11:52.710,0:11:54.590
one I set up, and the one before that,

0:11:54.600,0:11:56.360
and I can check that this works. I can

0:11:56.360,0:11:58.639
fire up a web browser. I can go to

0:11:58.640,0:12:00.760
web3 and the address that I gave it, and

0:12:00.760,0:12:03.421
I'll get this wonderful Welcome to EngineX[br]page, which

0:12:03.421,0:12:05.910
says, that server is set up and it's ready

0:12:05.910,0:12:06.759
to use.

0:12:06.780,0:12:10.261
So, what I'm trying to demonstrate with that[br]figure

0:12:10.261,0:12:14.790
is that configuration management is basically,[br]don't repeat yourself

0:12:14.790,0:12:17.050
for setting up servers. If you think back[br]to

0:12:17.060,0:12:20.050
the first time you used, say, Devise, for[br]example,

0:12:20.050,0:12:21.590
the first time I used Devise, it took me

0:12:21.590,0:12:24.210
ages to get all_auth and things like that[br]working.

0:12:24.210,0:12:26.619
And then, six months later, I came back to

0:12:26.640,0:12:28.441
it, and didn't really remember any of the[br]stuff

0:12:28.441,0:12:31.069
that I'd done to get it to work. But

0:12:31.080,0:12:32.330
I could go back to the code I wrote

0:12:32.330,0:12:34.381
the first time, I could look at that code,

0:12:34.381,0:12:37.220
copy bits of it, and it was much quicker.

0:12:37.220,0:12:41.470
Now, the problem with just copying commands[br]or entering

0:12:41.470,0:12:44.140
commands manually when setting up the server[br]is there

0:12:44.160,0:12:46.769
is no natural audit trail of what did I

0:12:46.769,0:12:49.091
do to make this work the first time. So

0:12:49.100,0:12:50.810
there's a good chance, the second time you're[br]gonna

0:12:50.810,0:12:52.630
do it, you'll make the same mistakes as the

0:12:52.640,0:12:53.680
first time.

0:12:53.680,0:12:56.680
With a configuration management utility, you[br]naturally create this

0:12:56.680,0:12:59.959
audit trail as you go along. So that, in

0:12:59.960,0:13:02.301
time, that time you invest up front, it goes

0:13:02.301,0:13:05.250
much, much further in the long run.

0:13:05.250,0:13:08.920
So, hopefully that's shown that the bit where[br]people

0:13:08.920,0:13:11.400
often trip up, getting a server setup, it[br]doesn't

0:13:11.400,0:13:12.889
need to be that difficult, and I'll give you

0:13:12.889,0:13:14.801
the exact sample code at the end, which you

0:13:14.820,0:13:17.240
can use if you want a head start.

0:13:17.240,0:13:20.180
But something like Heroku, it doesn't just[br]make setting

0:13:20.180,0:13:23.290
up a server really easy. It makes deploying[br]to

0:13:23.290,0:13:25.590
one incredibly easy. Git push heroku. It pretty[br]much

0:13:25.600,0:13:28.290
couldn't be easier. And I think it's fair[br]to

0:13:28.290,0:13:29.889
say that the first time I used Heroku, it

0:13:29.889,0:13:31.760
was completely revolutionary.

0:13:31.780,0:13:34.411
So I came to Rails from Python/Jengo, and[br]before

0:13:34.411,0:13:37.380
that, PHP, and I'd used a whole range of,

0:13:37.380,0:13:40.819
kind of, home grown deployment systems, which[br]ranged from

0:13:40.820,0:13:42.861
trying to remember what files you've changed[br]and FTP

0:13:42.861,0:13:47.230
them across to all sync things and custom[br]shell

0:13:47.230,0:13:49.160
scripts. And the one thing they all had in

0:13:49.180,0:13:52.320
common was they were flaky and deployment[br]was something

0:13:52.320,0:13:54.339
you didn't want to do, because it would probably

0:13:54.340,0:13:56.701
break. So you maybe deployed a couple of times

0:13:56.701,0:13:57.709
a week.

0:13:57.709,0:13:59.361
So I used Heroku for the first time and

0:13:59.361,0:14:02.370
it was amazing. Suddenly I could apploy. Apploy?[br]Deploy

0:14:02.370,0:14:05.619
ten times a day. And it was just fitted

0:14:05.620,0:14:06.711
into my normal workflow.

0:14:06.720,0:14:09.060
So I was really keen that if I was

0:14:09.060,0:14:11.060
deploying to my own servers, it had to be

0:14:11.060,0:14:12.600
as simple as that. It had to be one

0:14:12.600,0:14:15.660
command to deploy. And luckily, as is often[br]the

0:14:15.660,0:14:18.040
case in the Rails community, loads of very[br]clever

0:14:18.040,0:14:20.360
people wanted exactly the same thing, and[br]so have

0:14:20.360,0:14:23.220
developed some awesome tools, some awesome[br]gems, to make

0:14:23.220,0:14:25.720
it really simple to set that up.

0:14:25.720,0:14:27.569
In the Rails community, I think the best known

0:14:27.580,0:14:30.411
of these is probably Capistrano, which I'll[br]talk about

0:14:30.411,0:14:34.680
a bit more towards the end of the presentation.

0:14:34.680,0:14:37.210
But, first, another brief demo of how simple[br]it

0:14:37.220,0:14:40.200
is to add Capistrano into an existing, in[br]this

0:14:40.200,0:14:43.769
case, Rails 4.1 application. Again, at the[br]end, I'll

0:14:43.769,0:14:46.880
give details of step by, a step by step

0:14:46.880,0:14:49.351
tutorial and the ensemble code for doing this.[br]So

0:14:49.360,0:14:51.190
please don't worry about the individual steps.[br]I just

0:14:51.190,0:14:55.030
want to give an idea of what's involved.

0:14:55.040,0:15:00.970
So, to get started, Rails 4.1 application.[br]I just

0:15:00.970,0:15:04.780
drop in the Capistrano gem and a few supporting

0:15:04.780,0:15:08.019
helper gems. Save that, and then add it to

0:15:08.020,0:15:11.520
git and, sorry, bundle and add it to Git.

0:15:11.520,0:15:13.941
Under the hood we're still using Git to deploy

0:15:13.941,0:15:15.900
in the same way Heroku does, so it's important

0:15:15.900,0:15:18.259
to make sure changes like that are committed.

0:15:18.260,0:15:20.411
And then running cap install, which just generates[br]some

0:15:20.420,0:15:23.339
basic configuration files. The first one of[br]these is

0:15:23.340,0:15:25.661
a cap file. This is just a rake file

0:15:25.661,0:15:28.540
for capistrano. And here, I'm just telling[br]it that

0:15:28.540,0:15:30.720
I want to use those helper gems that I

0:15:30.720,0:15:32.490
included in the first step. So I'm telling[br]it

0:15:32.490,0:15:34.319
that I want to use rbenv to manage what

0:15:34.320,0:15:36.461
Ruby version I'm using. I want it to install

0:15:36.461,0:15:39.600
gems for me, compile assets for me, and apply

0:15:39.600,0:15:42.079
migrations. All the normal stuff you do when[br]setting

0:15:42.080,0:15:43.140
up a Rails app.

0:15:43.140,0:15:45.940
We've then got our main config file, just[br]deploy

0:15:45.940,0:15:48.471
dot rb. And here I'm just giving the app

0:15:48.480,0:15:50.580
a name, telling it which Git repository to[br]deploy

0:15:50.580,0:15:53.190
from, and getting rid of the load of the

0:15:53.190,0:15:56.831
boilerplate for the simple application. I'm[br]not gonna use

0:15:56.840,0:15:58.920
it. Uncommenting out a few other bits of boilerplate.

0:15:58.920,0:16:02.480
And then finally I'm gonna add an rbenv specific

0:16:02.480,0:16:05.290
block that tells it to always use a particular

0:16:05.290,0:16:08.100
Ruby version. I think, in this case, 2 point

0:16:08.100,0:16:10.360
1 point 1, when deploying this app.

0:16:10.360,0:16:13.270
Finally, we have stage configuration files,[br]so if you

0:16:13.270,0:16:15.679
have a production server and a staging server,[br]and

0:16:15.700,0:16:17.931
here I'm just telling it that the production[br]server

0:16:17.940,0:16:20.630
is going to be web3 dot makeitwithcode dot[br]com,

0:16:20.630,0:16:21.710
which is the server we set up in the

0:16:21.720,0:16:24.279
first demo. And then that should be made available

0:16:24.280,0:16:28.371
to the public at, imaginatively, web3 dot[br]makeitwithcode dot

0:16:28.371,0:16:28.970
com.

0:16:28.970,0:16:32.990
Then, firing up a console, running a command[br]called

0:16:32.990,0:16:35.640
setup config, and you can think of this like

0:16:35.660,0:16:38.379
heroku create. This is just telling that server,[br]or

0:16:38.380,0:16:41.330
preparing that server for a new application.[br]It's generating

0:16:41.330,0:16:44.190
a few config files, it's creating a new database

0:16:44.190,0:16:48.211
yml and telling EngineX that it needs to serve

0:16:48.220,0:16:50.920
a new site. Then running another helper task[br]that

0:16:50.940,0:16:55.639
I added this time. Create database. This is[br]just,

0:16:55.640,0:16:57.770
create a new database on that server. Making[br]sure

0:16:57.770,0:17:00.130
there's a user that has permission to access[br]that

0:17:00.130,0:17:00.570
server.

0:17:00.570,0:17:03.651
And this is the important command. Cap production[br]deploy.

0:17:03.660,0:17:06.970
And this, if we're using capistrano, is our[br]equivalent

0:17:06.980,0:17:10.449
to git push heroku. And if you look at

0:17:10.449,0:17:12.780
the output, it's doing some pretty standard[br]stuff. It's

0:17:12.780,0:17:16.910
applying migrations, compiling assets and[br]restarting the app server.

0:17:16.920,0:17:18.871
And once that completes, we can fire up the

0:17:18.880,0:17:21.089
web browser, visit it, and you can see we've

0:17:21.089,0:17:23.420
got a simple, if utterly useless Rails application.

0:17:23.420,0:17:26.020
And it has access to the database, it can

0:17:26.020,0:17:27.980
read and write, and now we can iterate on

0:17:27.980,0:17:30.420
that, and every time we want to make a

0:17:30.420,0:17:34.410
change, we can just make that change, commit[br]it,

0:17:34.410,0:17:37.811
cap production deploy, and it really is as[br]simple

0:17:37.820,0:17:40.710
as deploying it to heroku.

0:17:40.720,0:17:43.080
So one thing that we haven't looked at yet

0:17:43.080,0:17:46.389
is, it's very easy to set this stuff up,

0:17:46.389,0:17:48.191
but the other great thing about using a path

0:17:48.200,0:17:50.720
like heroku is that when it breaks at 2

0:17:50.720,0:17:53.239
AM, it kind of isn't our problem. They have

0:17:53.240,0:17:55.260
engineers and they get woken up at 2 AM.

0:17:55.260,0:17:57.821
And they go and fix it. And our application

0:17:57.821,0:17:59.759
just comes back up online again.

0:17:59.760,0:18:04.050
And we can't get around that completely. It's[br]now

0:18:04.050,0:18:06.380
our problem when it breaks at 2 AM. But

0:18:06.380,0:18:09.610
luckily there are lots of tools out there[br]which

0:18:09.620,0:18:11.510
mean we can minimize the number of times this

0:18:11.510,0:18:15.201
will happen. If you think in a typical production

0:18:15.201,0:18:19.999
Rails application, you probably got some exception[br]handling. You

0:18:20.000,0:18:22.100
know some exceptions will happen from time[br]to time,

0:18:22.100,0:18:23.691
and so you've got to have your begin and

0:18:23.700,0:18:26.359
rescues in that. And then hopefully you've[br]also got

0:18:26.360,0:18:29.351
some sort of exception notification. And that[br]means that

0:18:29.351,0:18:32.219
when an exception that you haven't planned[br]for happens,

0:18:32.220,0:18:34.050
you get an email and you know that you

0:18:34.050,0:18:35.441
can go in, you should go in and fix

0:18:35.441,0:18:36.080
it.

0:18:36.080,0:18:38.959
So, there are an analogous set of tools when

0:18:38.980,0:18:41.601
you're setting up your own servers. And these[br]are

0:18:41.601,0:18:45.009
called monitoring tools, and they're really,[br]really simple. They're

0:18:45.009,0:18:47.431
essentially just a list of checks that say,[br]here's

0:18:47.440,0:18:50.029
how something ought to behave. If it's not[br]behaving,

0:18:50.029,0:18:52.441
here's a command that you can run to try

0:18:52.441,0:18:55.879
and fix it. If it's still not working, here's

0:18:55.880,0:18:57.660
the person to notify and how to notify them

0:18:57.660,0:18:58.890
there's a problem.

0:18:58.890,0:19:02.051
And that might sound a little bit daunting.[br]So

0:19:02.060,0:19:03.499
every time you set up an application you're[br]gonna

0:19:03.500,0:19:05.990
have to think about all these checks. In practice,

0:19:06.000,0:19:08.640
this is where configuration management comes[br]in. So, if

0:19:08.640,0:19:10.941
you remember in that first demonstration,[br]when I uncommented

0:19:10.941,0:19:14.330
that Redis role, as part of that Redis role,

0:19:14.330,0:19:16.639
when I originally wrote it, probably a year[br]or

0:19:16.640,0:19:19.380
a couple of years ago, I included the monitoring

0:19:19.380,0:19:22.980
configuration for it, which basically says,[br]is Redis working?

0:19:22.980,0:19:25.331
If no, restart it. If it's still not working,

0:19:25.340,0:19:25.840
email me.

0:19:25.840,0:19:28.950
And now that will get automatically setup[br]every time

0:19:28.950,0:19:31.210
I include that Redis role. So there really[br]isn't

0:19:31.210,0:19:33.889
that much duplication. Configuration management[br]just does all of

0:19:33.900,0:19:35.931
this for us.

0:19:35.940,0:19:38.919
So to get a bit more practical, if you

0:19:38.920,0:19:41.831
decide to, to go ahead and try this. This

0:19:41.831,0:19:44.060
is the stack that I end up using, probably

0:19:44.060,0:19:48.729
99% of the time. For a web server, EngineX,

0:19:48.729,0:19:50.571
really popular in the Rails community. There's[br]lots of

0:19:50.580,0:19:54.060
really great Rails-specific documentation[br]out there.

0:19:54.060,0:19:56.550
For an app server, Unicorn. This probably[br]isn't what

0:19:56.560,0:19:58.359
you're using in development at the moment.[br]That's more

0:19:58.380,0:20:01.191
likely to be Thin or Webrick. Unicorn's a[br]little

0:20:01.191,0:20:04.259
bit more complicated. But, for that little[br]bit of

0:20:04.260,0:20:07.760
extra complexity, you get some really nice[br]features. In

0:20:07.760,0:20:09.900
particular, it's very easy to set up what's[br]called

0:20:09.900,0:20:13.650
zero-downtime deployment, which you may already[br]be familiar with.

0:20:13.650,0:20:16.860
Essentially what this means is, the simplest[br]way to

0:20:16.880,0:20:21.120
deploy an application is to deploy your new[br]code,

0:20:21.120,0:20:23.560
stop the existing application, and then start[br]it again

0:20:23.560,0:20:25.260
with the new code. The problem is, if you've

0:20:25.260,0:20:27.060
got a big Rails application, it can take two

0:20:27.060,0:20:29.211
or three minutes to start up. And that means

0:20:29.211,0:20:30.680
that, for two or three minutes, every time[br]you

0:20:30.680,0:20:33.969
deploy, your app's offline, which is pretty[br]bad for

0:20:33.980,0:20:36.750
your customers if you're doing this five,[br]six times

0:20:36.750,0:20:37.571
a day.

0:20:37.580,0:20:39.309
With Unicorn, you can set it up so that

0:20:39.309,0:20:42.260
when you deploy new code, it will start up

0:20:42.260,0:20:44.090
your app in the background, and only once[br]it's

0:20:44.090,0:20:46.410
ready will it switch it over and stop the

0:20:46.410,0:20:51.041
previous version, so your customers don't[br]notice an interruption.

0:20:51.060,0:20:53.599
For a database, I typ, by default go with

0:20:53.600,0:20:56.420
PostGres. Again, you've probably all heard[br]of it. Very

0:20:56.420,0:20:59.260
popular in the Rails community. I recommend[br]it to

0:20:59.260,0:21:01.420
people, because if you're on the Heroku free[br]plan,

0:21:01.420,0:21:05.500
it's probably what you're using already, because[br]it's their

0:21:05.500,0:21:06.590
default database.

0:21:06.600,0:21:09.010
The only controversial item on this list,[br]because all

0:21:09.010,0:21:11.081
lists should have at least one controversial[br]item, is

0:21:11.081,0:21:14.239
probably Monit. And it's a bit controversial[br]because there

0:21:14.240,0:21:16.321
are some amazing monitoring tools out there[br]which are

0:21:16.321,0:21:20.710
written using Ruby syntax for defining rules.[br]I keep

0:21:20.710,0:21:24.560
coming back to Monit because it's tiny. Its[br]syntax

0:21:24.580,0:21:25.980
isn't quite as nice to work with as some

0:21:26.000,0:21:27.721
of the others, some of the others, but it

0:21:27.721,0:21:30.450
uses absolutely no memory, and once you set[br]it

0:21:30.450,0:21:32.169
up, it just stays out of the way and

0:21:32.169,0:21:35.500
works, which is pretty much what I look for

0:21:35.520,0:21:37.290
in a monitoring tool.

0:21:37.290,0:21:39.211
For setting up your server, so your server[br]provisioning

0:21:39.220,0:21:43.259
tool, I recommend getting started with Chef[br]Solo. Chef

0:21:43.260,0:21:44.721
Solo is the tool you saw me using in

0:21:44.721,0:21:49.989
the first demonstration. And it's designed[br]for deploying individual

0:21:49.989,0:21:53.211
servers from your development machine. What's[br]really nice about

0:21:53.220,0:21:56.499
Chef Solo is it's built on top of a

0:21:56.500,0:21:58.941
much bigger piece of software called Chef[br]Server. And

0:21:58.941,0:22:00.509
Chef Server is designed for when you need[br]to

0:22:00.509,0:22:03.831
deploy lots of servers in complicated configurations.

0:22:03.840,0:22:06.190
So, if you need, eventually, to move on from

0:22:06.190,0:22:10.619
your simple single-box configuration to much[br]more complicated ones,

0:22:10.620,0:22:13.811
almost everything you've learnt using Chef[br]Solo will be

0:22:13.820,0:22:15.399
applicable to Chef Server.

0:22:15.400,0:22:21.020
I mentioned, previously, there were lots of[br]deployment tools,

0:22:21.020,0:22:24.221
automation tools out there for Rails. Probably[br]the best-known

0:22:24.221,0:22:28.239
one is Capistrano. At the moment, there are[br]two

0:22:28.240,0:22:31.331
stable versions of Capistrano out in the wild.[br]There

0:22:31.331,0:22:36.129
is Capistrano 2 and Capistrano 3. Most of[br]the

0:22:36.140,0:22:39.760
documentation and tutorials that you find[br]will probably be

0:22:39.760,0:22:43.201
for Capistrano 2.

0:22:43.201,0:22:45.950
Despite that, I recommend starting off with[br]Capistrano 3,

0:22:45.950,0:22:48.359
if you are starting from a blank slate. The

0:22:48.360,0:22:50.961
reason for this is that version 3 was a

0:22:50.961,0:22:55.080
complete ground-up rewrite of version 2. In[br]particular, it's

0:22:55.080,0:22:58.700
just a rake application. So Capistrano 3 is[br]just

0:22:58.700,0:23:03.549
a, a layer on top of rake that provides

0:23:03.549,0:23:07.020
deployment-specific functionality. And that[br]means that any knowledge you've

0:23:07.040,0:23:09.000
already got of how to write rake tasks and

0:23:09.000,0:23:10.640
how to interact with rake tasks and how to

0:23:10.640,0:23:13.920
debug them is directly applicable to Capistrano[br]3. And

0:23:13.920,0:23:16.071
that just makes the learning curve that little[br]bit

0:23:16.071,0:23:19.129
shallower.

0:23:19.129,0:23:21.311
So next steps, if you're gonna give it a

0:23:21.320,0:23:23.830
go. I suggest you go and get a VPS.

0:23:23.830,0:23:26.779
I suggest starting off with a one gig one.

0:23:26.800,0:23:28.640
You can run a Rails app on a 512

0:23:28.640,0:23:31.250
meg VPS. You can also spend a huge amount

0:23:31.250,0:23:33.340
of time troubleshooting out of memory hours,[br]which I

0:23:33.340,0:23:36.711
think is the least enjoyable thing possible.[br]You can

0:23:36.720,0:23:39.289
get a one gig VPS for about ten dollars

0:23:39.289,0:23:42.970
a month at DigitalOcean, I think. They're[br]also a

0:23:42.970,0:23:45.760
sponsor, and they're really generous with[br]free credit. So

0:23:45.780,0:23:47.370
if you corner them in a booth, I imagine

0:23:47.370,0:23:48.800
you can get at least a few months of

0:23:48.800,0:23:50.331
experimentation for free.

0:23:50.340,0:23:54.009
So, the url at the top there, talkingquickly[br]dot

0:23:54.009,0:23:58.850
co dot uk slash deploying_rails. That's a[br]page specific

0:23:58.850,0:24:02.250
to this presentation, and it contains links[br]to two

0:24:02.250,0:24:06.110
key tutorials. The first one goes through[br]step-by-step how

0:24:06.110,0:24:08.430
to set up a Rails server in the way

0:24:08.460,0:24:10.650
I did in the first video, and the second

0:24:10.660,0:24:13.430
one is how to set up Capistrano with a

0:24:13.430,0:24:16.170
new or existing Rails application, as per[br]the second

0:24:16.180,0:24:17.591
video.

0:24:17.591,0:24:20.619
They also include the complete sample code[br]that I'm

0:24:20.620,0:24:23.270
actually using in production, pretty much[br]every day, for

0:24:23.280,0:24:27.571
deploying new Rails apps. So, hopefully, the[br]fairly large

0:24:27.571,0:24:29.119
amount of time I put in originally trying[br]to

0:24:29.120,0:24:31.290
work out how to get a working configuration[br]management

0:24:31.290,0:24:33.030
set up, you can take that as a starting

0:24:33.030,0:24:35.880
point and get it started very quickly. It[br]should

0:24:35.900,0:24:37.821
take maybe an hour and a half to get

0:24:37.821,0:24:40.169
your first server set up and an app deployed

0:24:40.180,0:24:41.010
to it.

0:24:41.010,0:24:43.470
I mentioned at start, I've also written a[br]book

0:24:43.480,0:24:46.081
about this. Reliably Deploying Rails Applications.

0:24:46.081,0:24:46.960
This was basically

0:24:46.960,0:24:48.879
the reference that I wish I'd had when I

0:24:48.880,0:24:51.961
started doing this. It uses exactly the same[br]sample

0:24:51.961,0:24:56.269
code as those tutorials. So if you start off

0:24:56.269,0:24:58.441
using those and find you want to do more

0:24:58.441,0:24:59.789
complicated things,

0:24:59.800,0:25:01.010
hopefully that will be a useful reference.

0:25:01.010,0:25:03.740
And there's a discount code, et cetera, for[br]RailsConf

0:25:03.740,0:25:06.811
attendees on that link.

0:25:06.820,0:25:10.619
Finally, I'll be in the AirPad Pit at 4:30

0:25:10.620,0:25:12.150
today. So if anyone wants to give this a

0:25:12.150,0:25:14.821
go for real and wants a hand setting stuff

0:25:14.821,0:25:17.219
up, I'd be very happy to help out. Yeah.

0:25:17.220,0:25:19.720
Thank you so much for coming to the talk.

0:25:19.720,0:25:22.920
I've really enjoyed doing this. Let's have[br]some questions.