I’ve just migrated the server that runs my blog, and some internal apps to mod_rails.

It is extremely simple to deploy compared to apache+mongrel like I was using previously, and more memory effecient for the seldom used apps I keep on this server.

I was warned of some potential gotchas in regards to rewrite rules, but no issues here, altough I am only using rewrites to redirect feed requests to FeedBurner.

My config for this virtual host in all its gory detail:

              <VirtualHost *>

              ServerName aussiegeek.net

              DocumentRoot /srv/www/alanblog/current/public

                                

              RewriteEngine On

                                

              RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner

                                

              RewriteRule ^/posts\.xml$ http://feeds.feedburner.com/alanharper [R=301,L]

        
        

I’ve written a tiny module for Vlad to deploy to Passenger (mod_rails). It’s available from http://github.com/aussiegeek/vlad

To use it, just update your Rakefile where Vlad.load is called, and update it like so:

Vlad.load :app => 'phusion'