Deploying Ruby on Rails on DomainIndia Hosting (cPanel Passenger, DirectAdmin, VPS)

# Deploying Ruby on Rails on DomainIndia Hosting (cPanel Passenger, DirectAdmin, VPS) ## Choosing a plan Rails needs persistent Ruby processes. On shared hosting our Passenger integration handles this. For heavier sites (>1,000 concurrent users, Sidekiq workers, ActionCable WebSockets), go with a VPS. ## Option A — Rails on shared cPanel with Passenger cPanel ships with Passenger built in. The "Setup Ruby App" tool gives you a point-and-click setup. ## Option B — Rails on DirectAdmin with Passenger DirectAdmin also supports Ruby via Passenger. Pre-check: ask our support to confirm Passenger is enabled on your server. ## Option C — Rails on VPS (recommended for production) With a VPS you get full control — any Ruby version, any database, Sidekiq workers, WebSockets, etc. Typical stack: Ruby 3.3 + Rails 8 + PostgreSQL + Redis + Puma + nginx + Let's Encrypt SSL. ## Database setup On **shared hosting**, create MySQL DB via cPanel → MySQL Databases. Rails `config/database.yml`: ```yaml production: adapter: mysql2 host: localhost database: cpanel_user_rails_prod username: cpanel_user_railsusr password: <%= ENV['DB_PASSWORD'] %> pool: 5 ``` On **VPS with PostgreSQL**: ```bash sudo -u postgres createdb rails_prod sudo -u postgres createuser deploy sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER deploy WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'secret';" sudo -u postgres psql -c "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE rails_prod TO deploy;" ``` `config/database.yml`: ```yaml production: adapter: postgresql database: rails_prod host: localhost username: deploy password: <%= ENV['DB_PASSWORD'] %> pool: 5 ``` ## Asset pipeline — propshaft + importmaps (Rails 7+) Rails 7+ ships with **propshaft** (simpler than sprockets) and **importmaps** (no Node required). On shared hosting this is gold — no webpack, no esbuild, no Node.js setup needed. ```bash bundle exec rake assets:precompile RAILS_ENV=production ``` outputs to `public/assets/` with fingerprinted filenames. Passenger + nginx serve these directly. For apps that need Node (React via esbuild, Tailwind JIT), you need the Node.js build to run somewhere — either locally before git push (commit `public/assets/` to repo) or on a VPS with Node installed. ## Common pitfalls ## FAQ