🌵
黄野CrabCanon ! !

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

Blogs

sort / date
sort / categories
sort / tags

Projects

sort / date

Contact

about me

Recent Projects

About me

Setting up Ruby on Rails with VirtualBox & SSHFS

18 Jun 2014 - by @黄野

1. Introduction

As a web developer, setting up a local development environment is the first issue that needs to be done before you truly start. In many cases, we have to deal with different types of tech-stacks, such as the most popular MEAN(MongoDB, Express, AngularJS & Node.js), React-fullstack(React.js, Redux, Express, MongoDB, Babel, Webpack, etc.), LAMP(Apache, MySQL & PHP), LEMP(Nginx, MySQL & PHP-FPM), Ruby on Rails and so on. Actually, most top cloud platforms nowadays have provided very easy to use “cloud launcher” that allows you to deploy apps with just a few clicks or commands. For example, Google Cloud Platform - Cloud Launcher, AWS Marketplace - Application Development, Heroku Platform - Buildpacks and DigitalOcean - DISTROS & 1-CLICK APPS. However, sometimes we still have to setup everything from the beginning in our local computers. For example, if you are going to launch apps on some servers without the support of “cloud launcher”. In this tutorial, I will show you how to setup a complete development environment for an existing Ruby on Rails webapp (the main tech-stack is made up of Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Apache, Nginx and Ubuntu Server) on Mac OS.

2. Step by step

2.1. Part One - Install and start Ubuntu Server on VirtualBox

2.2. Part Two - Install dependencies on Ubuntu Server

$ sudo apt-get install git-core configuration
$ git config —global user.email "your email"
$ git config —global user.name "your username"
  • Clone the remote app repository and switch to the target branch
$ mkdir repository
$ cd repository
$ git clone your-username@server-url.git
$ git fetch --all
$ git checkout -b <branch> --track <remote>/<branch>

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install curl
$ \curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
$ source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm
$ rvm requirements
$ rvm install ruby
$ rvm use ruby —default
$ rvm rubygems current
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
$ gem install rails
  • Install MySQL & MySQL client development libraries
$ sudo apt-get install mysql-client mysql-server
$ sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
  • Install ZeroMQ lightweight messaging kernel
$ sudo apt-get install libzmq-dev

$ sudo apt-get install nodejs
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node

$ sudo apt-get install emacs

$ sudo apt-get install apache2
$ sudo a2enmod rewrite
$ sudo rm /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/*
$ cd repository/your-repository-name
$ sudo cp apache/your-apache-configure-file /etc/apache2/sites-available/
$ sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-apache-configuration-file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

$ sudo apt-get install nginx
$ sudo apt-get install awstats
  • Configure Nginx
$ sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
$ cd repository/your-repository-name
$ sudo cp nginx/sites-available/* /etc/nginx/sites-available/
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your-nginx-configuration-file /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/awstats /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
  • Configure AWStats
$ sudo rm /etc/awstats/awstats.conf
$ cd repository/your-repository-name
$ sudo cp awstats/awstats.* /etc/awstats/
$ sudo mkdir /var/www/awstats.your-app-name.com
$ sudo htpasswd -c /etc/awstats/awstats.your-app-name.com.htpasswd Admin
  • Install gems of your Rails webapp
$ gem install thin
$ cd repository/aemdee
$ bundle install
  • Update MySQL database by the existing database dump file
$ mysql -u username -p password your-db < your-dump-file-name.sql
  • Start server
$ emacs -nw config/environments/development.rb
$ emacs -nw config/database.yml
$ thin start --ssl

2.3. Part Three - Connect virtual Ubuntu Server with your Mac OS and develop/test the webapp on the local IDE/browsers based on SSH and SSHFS

Because we are not able to develop or test the webapp in a place (Ubuntu Server) where IDEs and browsers don’t exist, we have to connect the virtual Ubuntu Server with Mac OS so that all the resources of our computer can be utilized. For example, how to use your favourite RubyMine, Sublime Text or Atom installed on your Mac to develop a webapp deployed on the virtual Ubuntu Server and meanwhile how to preview or test it on local browsers such as Safari, Chrome or Firefox? This is actually a pretty tricky issue if you don’t have any experience before. But by following the instruction below, you can easily get out of the woods for sure.

  • Install SSH on Ubuntu Server and then shutdown the server
$ sudo apt-get install opens
$ sudo apt-cache ssh
$ sudo apt-cache search ssh
$ sudo apt-cache search ssh  |  grep server
$ sudo apt-cache search ssh  |  grep server  |  grep open
$ sudo apt-get install opens-server
$ sudo shutdown -h now

  • Activate the Network Adapter 2 of Ubuntu Server in VirtualBox Manager

    • Open the VirtualBox settings of your Ubuntu Server
    • Click “Network”
    • Click “Adapter 2”
    • Select “Host-only Adapter” for “Attached to: “
    • Select “Allow All” for “Promiscuous Mode: “

  • Restart Ubuntu Server, configure the “dhclient” and check IP address of the server (These need to be done on Ubuntu Server)

$ sudo dhclient eth1
$ ip a
//You will find two IP addresses: one is 127.0.0.1 and the other is something like 192.168.xx.xxx which will be our target.
  • Connect Ubuntu Server to Mac OS via SSH and start your Ruby on Rails app in Mac Terminal

Open Mac Terminal and input:

$ ssh -l username-of-your-ubuntu-server -Y 192.168.xx.xxx

// If you get this problem: "WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!", you can resolve it by commands below:

$ ssh-keygen -R 192.168.xx.xxx
$ Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

// After you successfully connect to Ubuntu Server, navigate to the root of your code package(in this example, the path is /repository/your-repository-name):

$ cd repository/your-repository-name
$ rails s
=> Booting Thin
=> Rails 3.2.12 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Call with -d to detach
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server
   Thin web server (v1.5.1 codename Straight Razor)
   Maximum connections set to 1024
   Listening on 0.0.0.0:3000, CTRL+C to stop

  • Open browsers and input URL 192.168.xx.xxx:3000 to preview(please remember you actually start a remote rails app via your Mac Terminal. Though it shows “Listening on 0.0.0.0:3000, CTRL+C to stop”, you still have to replace 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.xx.xxx which is a public IP address of the remote server)

  • Using SSHFS to mount the remote file system (your webapp code package on Ubuntu Server) over SSH

    • Download and install SSHFS on your Mac
    • We are going to mount the remote file system to for example ~/Desktop/mountpoint folder (PS: No need to create this folder before). Open your Mac Terminal and input command (for more detailed information, please check here):
$ sshfs -p 22 username@host:repository/your-repository-name/ ~/Desktop/mountpoint -oauto_cache,reconnect,defer_permissions,noappledouble,negative_vncache,volname=xxx
  • Open the mountpoint (~/Desktop/mountpoint) in your favourite IDE and you can now start the amazing development journey! (PS: all changes or updates will be automatically synchronized on the virtual Ubuntu Server!)
Back to top Go to bottom