Ruby on rails with subdomain question

[Matthew B Dowell]

I have root access on the following environment:
Bluehost VPS - WHM 70, CentOS 6.1(kvm), Apache2.4(EasyApache4) /SSL enabled
Bluehost cPanel seems to indicate deprecating adding a rails app function, so I'm avoiding using it.
"Application Manager" does not appear to be showing at all in cPanel even though it is marked as enabled in WHM.

What I want to do is host a Ruby on Rails app as a subdomain of my primary domain.

When I run rails server -e development, it begin listening on 0.0.0.0:3000 or localhost:3000: so,

example.com -> php website(Wordpress). xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 (I assuming port 80)
subdomain.example.com -> ruby on rails app. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3000

In the Ubuntu/Apache world, I would simply create a virtualhost config for the ruby app so when users visit subdomain.example.com it loads the ruby on rails app.

Listen 3000
<VirtualHost *:3000>
ServerName subdomain.example.com
ServerAlias www.subdomain.example.com
DocumentRoot /public_html/ruby_app
XSendFile On
XSendFilePath /public_html/ruby_app/public/system
</VirtualHost>

It seems like WHM/cPanel EasyApache4 has some special approach, that is not obvious to me.

This thread seems to indicate that there's no way of configuring port-specific virtualhosts?
how to add multiple ports for apache + add some custom vhost with easyapache

Here's documentation I've reviewed:

Advanced Apache Configuration
Advanced Apache Configuration - EasyApache - cPanel Documentation

Modifying Virtualhost Containers with Include Files
Modify Virtualhost Containers With Include Files - EasyApache - cPanel Documentation

I've been able to include conf changes using the Individual Hosts Instructions for Apache 2.4 (with SSL) -> /usr/local/apache/conf/userdata/ssl/2_4/$user/$domain/$includename.conf

Trying to declare:

Listen 3000
OR
<VirtualHost *:3000>
#whatever
</VirtualHost>

within this .conf file both result in httpd build errors like ... <VirtualHost> cannot occur within <VirtualHost>

Apache 2.4 configuring multiple name-based vhosts
VirtualHost Examples - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4


I've been working on this for 2-days trying to crack this nut. This should IMO be something that is more obvious in the cPanel/WHM world than it seems right now. If anyone could provide some input as to how to finish configuring this thing, I'd appreciate it.

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hi @Matthew B Dowell

It sounds like you're missing the ea-ruby24-mod_passenger module. That's the only reason I can think of you wouldn't be seeing the application manager rather than it not being included in the featurelist for your package. The documentation here: Application Manager - Version 72 Documentation - cPanel Documentation goes over this. Can you double check that the RPM's are present and that the feature is present in your featurelist? I think it would make the entire process a easier for you as opposed to adding everything manually.

Thanks!

 

[Matthew B Dowell]

Hi @Matthew B Dowell

It sounds like you're missing the ea-ruby24-mod_passenger module. That's the only reason I can think of you wouldn't be seeing the application manager rather than it not being included in the featurelist for your package. The documentation here: Application Manager - Version 72 Documentation - cPanel Documentation goes over this. Can you double check that the RPM's are present and that the feature is present in your featurelist? I think it would make the entire process a easier for you as opposed to adding everything manually.

Thanks!

Thanks for the response, I think I've made some progress based on your feedback.

I've played around with it. I know I have all the appropriate packages installed, and the "Application Manager" is enabled for cPanel in WHM Feature Manager.

My Hosting package - a Bluehost VPS/w root access, has some sort of redirect on cPanel so it redirects to their Bluehost "cpanel" interface.
To get to the FULL cPanel interface, and access Application Manager, I had to go to the "Account List" in WHM and click the cPanel logo link, it takes me to my full cPanel, and I have to then hit the "stop load" button on my browser before the Bluehost interface loads and cripples my options. Fortunately, I can access Application manager from the partially loaded page and it does not seem disabled as far as I know.

This seems like a very unstable workaround, dealing with a potentially hostile hosting company. Any suggestions that could be done within the VPS server root to regain full control over cPanel? (IE. like hosting a default cPanel under another subdomain or something? Is that even possible?)

I'll come back in a bit to take a stab at launching my rails app from the Application Manager in the morning.

 

[cPanelLauren]

HI @Matthew B Dowell

That doesn't sound like a viable workaround - at least not a convenient one. Since you have root access to the server I wonder if their modifications are just a custom theme for cPanel. If you go to WHM>>Account Functions>>Modify An Account is the theme that's listed Paper Lantern or something else? The hard part here is I don't know how they're making their customizations to your panel though if I am correct I believe it's just a theme/style change.


Thanks!