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Let's update an existing Rails app so we can deploy it to a server using Capistrano.
- In
Gemfile:- Delete commented-out
capistrano-railsentry - Add at top of
:developmentgroup:
- Delete commented-out
gem 'capistrano-bundler', '~> 1.2.0'
gem 'capistrano-rails', '~> 1.2.2'
gem 'capistrano-rbenv', '~> 2.1.0'
In your terminal, change to the Rails app directory and run:
bundle install
bundle exec cap install
Uncomment in Capfile:
require "capistrano/rbenv"
require "capistrano/bundler"
require "capistrano/rails/assets"
require "capistrano/rails/migrations"
config/deploy.rb:
set :application, "guestbook"
set :repo_url, "YOUR GIT URL HERE"
set :deploy_user, "deploy"
set :deploy_to, "/home/#{fetch :deploy_user}/#{fetch :application}"
To set up a Git repo to deploy from, download this video's project files, and initialize it as a Git repo. Then create a new remote repo on a Git host (like GitHub), and follow the directions on the Git host to add a new remote repo to your local repo.
No further steps should be needed for a public repo. If you need to deploy from a private repo, see the info on authentication in the official Capistrano documentation.
Edit config/deploy/production.rb:
server "<YOUR SERVER ADDRESS>", user: "deploy", roles: ["app", "db", "web"]
Bundler needs to be installed on the remote server. Just in case it isn't already, connect to it via ssh and run gem install bundler.
Then, from your local terminal, run bundle exec cap production deploy.
The deploy will fail while running deploy:migrate with 'database "guestbook_production" does not exist'. We'll fix that later.
But it will create the basic deployment structure on the server, which you can read more about here.
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Here in my editor,
I have our Guest Book Rails app open.
0:04
It's a simple app we created
in a prior workshop that lets
0:07
visitors leave signatures.
0:10
See the teachers notes for
0:12
info on obtaining a copy of
the latest code for yourself.
0:13
We're going to set this app up to use
Capistrano to deploy the production.
0:16
So the first thing we're going to need
to do is install Capistrano itself.
0:19
So I'm gonna go into the Gemfile
just like we did on the prior stage.
0:23
And there's a line here that lets
you use Capistrano for deployment.
0:29
It enables the Capistrano rails gem, but
0:33
Capistrano rails all by itself
isn't going to work for this app.
0:36
So I'm gonna delete this line, and
instead here at the top of our development
0:39
gem group,
I'm gonna add three different gems.
0:44
I'm just going to paste in
the lines that require them.
0:47
First is the capistrano-bundler gem
which will use bundler on the remote
0:50
server to install other gems
that our app depends on.
0:54
Next up is capistrano-rails itself,
which will deploy our rails app, and
0:58
the third is capistrano-rbenv.
1:03
Since we're using rbenv
on the remote server,
1:06
we're going to need to invoke all our
commands using the rbenv environment.
1:08
Having this gem installed will
automatically take care of using that
1:12
environment for us.
1:15
We've also got particular versions for
1:16
each of these gems that
we're locking them down to.
1:18
Okay, let's save our
changes to the gem file and
1:21
go back to our directory with
the rails app here in the terminal and
1:23
we're going to run bundle
install to install everything.
1:27
Now we need to set up all the Capistrano
configuration files just like we did in
1:32
the previous stage.
1:36
So I'm going to run bundle exec
1:37
cap install to set up
those configuration files.
1:41
Okay, Capistrano has added
its configuration files to
1:45
our rails at forest.
1:48
Now I'm going to go into one of
those configuration files that
1:50
can't file here in
the brewed of our project.
1:53
Within the Capfile you can require other
libraries that Capistrano might need
1:56
to deploy your app.
2:01
There's a bunch of require
statements already present here but
2:03
they been common to doubt.
2:05
I'm gonna uncommon the ones we need.
2:06
So we're gonna need capistrano/rbenv,
capistrano/bundler,
2:10
capistrano/rails/assets for
pre compiling our CSS and
2:14
JavaScript and
capistrano rails migrations for
2:18
running our database migrations I'll
save my changes there and close that.
2:21
Next we need to edit the main Capistrano
deployment file here in the config
2:26
directory.
2:30
This is where we're going to set
the variables that get used else where in
2:31
the deployment scripts.
2:34
It's already got one for the application
name which i'm going to go ahead and
2:36
change here.
2:39
I'll change that from its
default to guest book.
2:40
Next it wants the URL of
a git repository that
2:43
the remote server is going to
download the rails code from.
2:46
I'll just paste that in here.
2:50
This URL refers to my personal git
repo that holds the guest book code.
2:51
You'll need to set up a repo of your own
on GitHub or some other git server and
2:55
use that URL instead.
2:59
See the teacher's notes for more info.
3:00
Next I'm going to set up a new
variable called deploy_user, and
3:02
that's gonna have the username that we're
going to use to deploy the actual app.
3:07
That will become deploy.
3:12
Then down here, it has an example of
a value for the deploy_to variable.
3:17
The default Capistrano scripts
use this variable as the path
3:23
that it should actually
install the Rails app code to.
3:27
So, I'm gonna create a double
quoted string here, and
3:31
am going to interpolate a couple
variable values into it.
3:33
So, it's going to be home,
within the root directory.
3:37
Then am gonna interpolate
in the value fetch.
3:41
With the symbol, deploy user.
3:46
What the fetch method does is it fetches
the value of a Capistrano variable.
3:52
So, we have deploy_user set up here, and
this will actually retrieve that value and
3:56
include it down here in
the path we're deploying to.
4:01
So this will create a path to the deployed
users' home directory and then within that
4:04
directory, I'm going to create a sub
directory with the application name.
4:08
So, I'll fetch the value of
the application variable from above,
4:13
which will be guest book, and then
I'll create a guest book sub directory
4:17
within my deployed users' home directory.
4:22
I'll save and close this.
4:25
The last file we need to configure
is the parameters specific to
4:27
the production server which
is here config subdirectory,
4:32
deploy subdirectory,
in a file named production.rb.
4:36
Here we have several example
configuration lines common to doubt.
4:41
Below that we need to add a new line
where we call the server method and
4:44
pass it a string with the address,
whether that be a domain name or
4:48
an IP address, for
a server that we're going to deploy to.
4:52
Following that string with the address,
4:57
we can pass several key word arguments
with several values we need to set up.
4:59
Here we set up the name of
the user that we're going to be
5:04
using on the remote server,
again this is going to be the deploy user.
5:07
And then we have several roles that
the server is going to fulfill.
5:11
Here we use the standard roles
that Capistrano supports.
5:14
This is going to be both an app server,
a database server and a web server.
5:19
So we include a rake and
a rake with all three of those values.
5:24
So with that set up we
can close out of that.
5:27
Okay, we're just about ready to deploy.
5:29
But there's one more detail that
you may need to take care of.
5:31
If your server is brand new it may not
have bundler installed on it just yet.
5:35
So lets SSH out to that server then
I'll log in as my deployed user and
5:38
send the IP address that
we're connecting to.
5:44
And I just need to run the gem
install bundler command.
5:51
That'll ensure that bundler is
installed in case it's not already.
5:56
And it'll be ready for
Capistrano to use during the deployment,
5:59
so we don't get any errors.
6:02
Okay, so let's exit off the server and
back to our local machine.
6:04
And now we're ready to run the command for
the deployment, bundle exec
6:08
cap, the stage that we're
going to deploy to,
6:14
that's production and the command
we're going to run which is deploy.
6:18
It'll print off the names of
the tasks as it completes them.
6:25
So it'll download the Rails
app from GitHub for
6:28
me, then it'll run bundle install within
that app on the remote server to ensure we
6:31
have all the gems we need.
6:35
This step can take quite a while.
6:36
When it returns you to your shell prompt
you'll know your deployment is complete.
6:40
Unfortunately there's an error
at the end of the deployment.
6:44
If we'll scroll up we can
see what the problem is.
6:47
It looks like there was an error while I
was trying to run the database migrations.
6:53
The problem is that the database
guestbook_production doesn't exist.
6:56
So, that's something we
are going to need to fix, but
7:01
before we do let's look what they get
the point successfully under the server.
7:03
So, I'm gonna ssh back
to the server there.
7:07
And change into the guestbook directory.
7:11
And you can see that our app deployment
directory did get created successfully.
7:18
Because that guestbook directory is
here in our deploy users home directory.
7:21
Capistrano has also created
several sub-directories for us.
7:26
Here in the releases
directory subsequent releases
7:29
will get downloaded each time you
deploy a new version of your app.
7:32
The repo directory is the getrepo
that your app will be downloaded to.
7:37
So, new code is downloaded to repo
sub-directory and staged there prior to
7:42
copying to the releases sub-directory The
shared subdirectory is where configuration
7:47
files that will be used across multiple
versions of your app will be stored.
7:52
And finally after a successful deployment
there'll be a fourth subdirectory here
7:56
named current, that'll be a link to
the most current version of your app.
8:00
So our app is getting cloned
at the server successfully but
8:04
the deployment fails while
setting up the database.
8:07
We'll look at how to fix this next.
8:10
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