Passenger (mod_rails) vs Apache/Mongrel
Having been a long time advocate of the Apache/Mongrel Rails ever since Coda Hale blessed us with it some time ago, I’ve not since paid a huge amount of attention to the alternative Rails deployment options that have come and gone. Not, that is, until the arrival of Passenger (aka mod_rails).
In my humblest of opinions, the deployment of Rails is not as straightforward as it could be. It’s always been something of a chore, and more recently has become a little overwhelming in terms of the number of software configurations available to do the job, each setup apparently faster and more scalable than the last.
PHP developers have enjoyed mod_php for many years now, and whilst not without its issue, it certainly makes for straightforward deployment of PHP applications. If Passenger lives up to its promise, Rails developers can now enjoy the same blissful roll-out of their own applications.
In the ever-useful Ruby Inside blog, Peter Cooper provides a useful collection of passenger resources that will surely help with the adoption of this upcoming technology. I’m still running Apache, Mongrel et al at the moment, but am very keen to see if Passenger can make my life easier. I’m also considering a move from VPS hosting to Amazon EC2 in the very near future, so perhaps I can kill two birds with one stone…