Ruby

Upsun supports deploying any Ruby application. Your application can use any Ruby application server such as Unicorn or Puma and deploying a Rails or a Sinatra app is very straight forward.

Supported versions

You can select the major and minor version.

Patch versions are applied periodically for bug fixes and the like. When you deploy your app, you always get the latest available patches.

Ruby MRI

Specify the language

To use Ruby, specify ruby as your app’s type:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    <APP_NAME>:
        type: 'ruby:<VERSION_NUMBER>'

For example:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'

Unicorn based Rails configuration

This example uses Unicorn to run a Ruby application. You could use any Ruby application server such as Puma or Thin.

Configure the .upsun/config.yaml file with a few key settings as listed below. A complete example is included at the end of this section.

Specify the language of your application (available versions are listed above):

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'

Setup environment variables.

Rails runs by default on a preview environment. You can change the Rails/Bundler via those environment variables, some of which are defaults on Upsun.

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        variables:
            env:
                BUNDLE_CACHE_ALL: '1'
                BUNDLE_CLEAN: '1' # /!\ if you are working with Ruby <2.7, this doesn't work well
                BUNDLE_DEPLOYMENT: '1'
                BUNDLE_ERROR_ON_STDERR: '1'
                BUNDLE_WITHOUT: 'development:test'
                DEFAULT_BUNDLER_VERSION: "2.2.26" # in case none is mentioned in Gemfile.lock
                EXECJS_RUNTIME: 'Node'
                NODE_ENV: 'production'
                NODE_VERSION: v14.17.6
                NVM_VERSION: v0.38.0
                RACK_ENV: 'production'
                RAILS_ENV: 'production'
                RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT: '1' # log to /var/log/app.log
                RAILS_TMP: '/tmp'

The SECRET_KEY_BASE variable is generated automatically based on the PLATFORM_PROJECT_ENTROPY variable. You can change it.

Build your application with the build hook.

Assuming you have your dependencies stored in the Gemfile at your app root, create a hook like the following:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        ...
        hooks:
            build: |
                set -e

                echo "Installing NVM $NVM_VERSION"
                unset NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX
                export NVM_DIR="$PLATFORM_APP_DIR/.nvm"
                # install.sh automatically installs NodeJS based on the presence of $NODE_VERSION
                curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/$NVM_VERSION/install.sh | bash
                [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

                # we install the bundled bundler version and fallback to a default (in env vars above)
                export BUNDLER_VERSION="$(grep -A 1 "BUNDLED WITH" Gemfile.lock | tail -n 1)" || $DEFAULT_BUNDLER_VERSION
                echo "Install bundler $BUNDLER_VERSION"
                gem install --no-document bundler -v $BUNDLER_VERSION

                echo "Installing gems"
                # We copy the bundle directory to the Upsun cache directory for
                # safe keeping, then restore from there on the next build. That allows
                # bundler to skip downloading code it doesn't need to.
                [ -d "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle/" vendor/bundle/
                mkdir -p "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle"
                bundle install
                # synchronize updated cache for next build
                [ -d "vendor/bundle" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete vendor/bundle/ "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle/"

                # precompile assets
                echo "Precompiling assets"
                # We copy the webpacker directory to the Upsun cache directory for
                # safe keeping, then restore from there on the next build. That allows
                # bundler to skip downloading code it doesn't need to.
                mkdir -p "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker"
                mkdir -p "$RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker"
                [ -d "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker/" $RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker/
                # We dont need secret here https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/32947
                SECRET_KEY_BASE=1 bundle exec rails assets:precompile
                rsync -az --delete $RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker/ "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker/"                
            deploy: bundle exec rake db:migrate

These are installed as your project dependencies in your environment. You can also use the dependencies key to install global dependencies. These can be Ruby, Python, NodeJS, or PHP libraries.

If you have assets, it’s likely that you need NodeJS/yarn.

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        ...
        dependencies:
            nodejs:
                yarn: "*"

Configure the command to start serving your application (this must be a foreground-running process) under the web section:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        ...
        web:
            upstream:
                socket_family: unix
            commands:
                start: "bundle exec unicorn -l $SOCKET"

This assumes you have Unicorn as a dependency in your Gemfile:

# Use Unicorn as the app server
gem "unicorn", "~> 6.0", :group => :production

Define the web locations your application is using:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        ...
        web:
            locations:
                "/":
                    root: "public"
                    passthru: true
                    expires: 1h
                    allow: true

This configuration sets the web server to handle HTTP requests at /static to serve static files stored in /app/static/ folder. Everything else is forwarded to your application server.

Create any Read/Write mounts. The root file system is read only. You must explicitly describe writable mounts.

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    # The app's name, which must be unique within the project.
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        ...
        mounts:
            "/log":
                source: tmp
                source_path: log
            "/storage":
                source: storage
                source_path: storage
            "/tmp":
                source: tmp
                source_path: tmp

This setting allows your application writing temporary files to /app/tmp, logs stored in /app/log, and active storage in /app/storage.

You can define other read/write mounts (your application code itself being deployed to a read-only file system). Note that the file system is persistent and when you backup your cluster these mounts are also backed up.

Then, setup the routes to your application in .upsun/config.yaml.

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    ...

routes:
    "https://{default}/":
        type: upstream
        upstream: "app:http"

Complete app configuration

Here is a complete .upsun/config.yaml file:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'

        dependencies:
            nodejs:
                yarn: "*"

        relationships:
            database: "database:mysql"

        variables:
            env:
                BUNDLE_CACHE_ALL: '1'
                BUNDLE_CLEAN: '1' # /!\ if you are working with Ruby<2.7 this doesn't work well
                BUNDLE_DEPLOYMENT: '1'
                BUNDLE_ERROR_ON_STDERR: '1'
                BUNDLE_WITHOUT: 'development:test'
                DEFAULT_BUNDLER_VERSION: "2.2.26" # in case none is mentioned in Gemfile.lock
                EXECJS_RUNTIME: 'Node'
                NODE_ENV: 'production'
                NODE_VERSION: v14.17.6
                NVM_VERSION: v0.38.0
                RACK_ENV: 'production'
                RAILS_ENV: 'production'
                RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT: '1'
                RAILS_TMP: '/tmp'

        hooks:
            build: |
                set -e

                echo "Installing NVM $NVM_VERSION"
                unset NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX
                export NVM_DIR="$PLATFORM_APP_DIR/.nvm"
                # install.sh will automatically install NodeJS based on the presence of $NODE_VERSION
                curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/$NVM_VERSION/install.sh | bash
                [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"

                # we install the bundled bundler version and fallback to a default (in env vars above)
                export BUNDLER_VERSION="$(grep -A 1 "BUNDLED WITH" Gemfile.lock | tail -n 1)" || $DEFAULT_BUNDLER_VERSION
                echo "Install bundler $BUNDLER_VERSION"
                gem install --no-document bundler -v $BUNDLER_VERSION

                echo "Installing gems"
                # We copy the bundle directory to the Upsun cache directory for
                # safe keeping, then restore from there on the next build. That allows
                # bundler to skip downloading code it doesn't need to.
                [ -d "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle/" vendor/bundle/
                mkdir -p "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle"
                bundle install
                # synchronize updated cache for next build
                [ -d "vendor/bundle" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete vendor/bundle/ "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/bundle/"

                # precompile assets
                echo "Precompiling assets"
                # We copy the webpacker directory to the Upsun cache directory for
                # safe keeping, then restore from there on the next build. That allows
                # bundler to skip downloading code it doesn't need to.
                mkdir -p "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker"
                mkdir -p "$RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker"
                [ -d "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker" ] && \
                    rsync -az --delete "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker/" $RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker/
                # We dont need secret here https://github.com/rails/rails/issues/32947
                SECRET_KEY_BASE=1 bundle exec rails assets:precompile
                rsync -az --delete $RAILS_TMP/cache/webpacker/ "$PLATFORM_CACHE_DIR/webpacker/"                
            deploy: bundle exec rake db:migrate

        mounts:
            "/log":
                source: tmp
                source_path: log
            "/storage":
                source: storage
                source_path: storage
            "/tmp":
                source: tmp
                source_path: tmp

        web:
            upstream:
                socket_family: unix
            commands:
                start: "bundle exec unicorn -l $SOCKET"

            locations:
                "/":
                    root: "public"
                    passthru: true
                    expires: 1h
                    allow: true

routes:
    "https://{default}/":
        type: upstream
        upstream: "app:http"

services:
    ...

Configuring services

This example assumes there is a MySQL instance. To configure it, create a service such as the following:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    ...

routes:
    ...

services: 
    database:
        type: mysql:11.2

Connecting to services

Once you have a service, link to it in your app configuration:

.upsun/config.yaml

applications:
    app:
        type: 'ruby:3.3'
        relationships:
            database: "database:mysql"
        ...

routes:
    ...

services: 
    database:
        type: mysql:11.2

By using the following Ruby function calls, you can obtain the database details.

require "base64"
require "json"
relationships= JSON.parse(Base64.decode64(ENV['PLATFORM_RELATIONSHIPS']))

This should give you something like the following:

{
   "database" : [
      {
         "path" : "main",
         "query" : {
            "is_master" : true
         },
         "port" : 3306,
         "username" : "user",
         "password" : "",
         "host" : "database.internal",
         "ip" : "246.0.241.50",
         "scheme" : "mysql"
      }
   ]
}

For Rails, you can use the standard Rails config/database.yml with the values found with the snippet provided before.

Other tips

To speed up boot you can use the Bootsnap gem and configure it with the local /tmp:

config/boot.rb
```
Bootsnap.setup(cache_dir: "/tmp/cache")
```
For garbage collection tuning, you can read this article and look for discourse configurations
New images are released on a regular basis to apply security patches. To avoid issues when such updates are performed, use ruby "~>3.1" in your Gemfile.

Troubleshooting

By default, deployments have BUNDLE_DEPLOYMENT=1 to ensure projects have a Gemfile.lock file. This is safer for version yank issues and other version upgrade breakages.

You may encounter an error like the following during a build:

W: bundler: failed to load command: rake (/app/.global/bin/rake)
W: /app/.global/gems/bundler-2.3.5/lib/bundler/resolver.rb:268:in `block in verify_gemfile_dependencies_are_found!': Could not find gem 'rails (= 5.2.6)' in locally installed gems. (Bundler::GemNotFound)

To resolve this error:

Run bundle install with the same ruby and bundler versions defined in your .upsun/config.yaml file.
Push the Gemfile.lock to your repository.

Bonus

Integrated environments

Supported environments

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Upsun Beta access

Supported versions

Ruby MRI

Specify the language

Unicorn based Rails configuration

Complete app configuration

Configuring services

Connecting to services

Other tips

Troubleshooting

Is this page helpful?