[section_title title=Before You Begin]
Introduction
Capistrano is excellent tool for deploying Rails applications. In essence it’s just a command processor that does what you tell it to do, over and over, for each deployment server that you define. Even though I have only worked in cases where there is one deployment server, Capistrano shines the most when you have multiple servers that host your application. For more detailed information about the what and whys of Capistrano, check out the Capistrano introduction on the Ruby on Rails site. So, without further ado, let’s dive in and deploy our first Rails Application.
Before You Begin
In order do deploy your application using Capistrano, you first need have some administrative tasks done for your account. These steps involve work on Site5’s part, so my suggestion is be to read this section, do your part, submit a Site5 helpdesk ticket, and then come back tomorrow to continue once Site5 has performed their parts. Site5 is generally very responsive, so you might not have to wait very much, but that’s basically what I did.
First you have to enable Shell access to your account. I have the Site5 MultiSite Dynamite service, so I just go to MultiAdmin through Backstage, where it shows an icon to enable shell access for each domain that I have. Click that icon to enable access. Once you have enabled access, open up your favorite SSH program (may I suggest putty for Windows) and using your normal user name log in to your account. If you are able to login then congratulations, you are one step closer to the deployment heaven!
Now comes the part where you will have to wait. Create a Site5 helpdesk ticket and request them to do the following things for you:
- Change your shell from jailshell to bash
- Give you SVN access. In my case the Site5 person forgot to put my user in the trusted user group so I had to submit two tickers for this, so I would suggest pointing this out to them.
The above two things are what I had to tell them; hopefully this is all you will need to do. Let me know if there was anything extra that you had and I will add it to this list.
Now that you have submitted the helpdesk ticket, you have the option of glancing over the next steps, but you won’t be able to continue until Site5 has completed its part.