Apache + Passenger vs. Nginx + Passenger which is best? Lai

Apache + Passenger vs. Nginx + Passenger which is best? Read on for the clear winner…

Ok, I admit it. I am a Mongrel cluster user. Yes, I am familiar with Passenger and Thin and most of the other deployment options. Yes, I am aware they are supposedly better or faster or stronger or whatever when compared to a Mongrel cluster. However, up until now we have taken the safe and proven deployment strategy of using Mongrel clusters for our production projects (with all the challenges that entails…).

I have been interested in Apache + Passenger since Hongli Lai announced it because of the supposedly easier configuration and its good performance. I was impressed with the performance increase of Passenger + REE relative to Mongrel just like everyone else. When Passenger was announced we started examining it. We even went as far as deploying it on our staging servers and internal servers with good success. However, for various reasons, we never deployed our main production applications using Passenger.

Well, the recent introduction of Nginx + Passenger has caused us to examine our deployment options again. Nginx has long been regarded as using less memory and having better performance with cached content than Apache. There have been countless articles purporting that one option is better than another.

I don’t like speculation when it comes to deployment options. I prefer proof. In addition, keep in mind that this article is for my own benefit. Whatever option I find to be the best (for me) will be the option we use in the future. So, I have an interest in doing a thorough evaluation.

In this article, I make a very careful analysis comparing the performance of Nginx + Passenger to Apache + Passenger.

Engine Yard Solo vs. EC2onRails: Pay Engine Yard extra or do it yourself?

Engine Yard is well known in the Rails community for their expertise in deploying and scaling Rails applications. When Engine Yard recently introduced Engine Yard Solo, I was very interested since I have been using the open source project EC2onRails. In particular, I wondered if you should pay Engine Yard for the Solo product when you can get EC2 running on your own for free. (excluding Amazon EC2 charges.)

After hours of testing and analysis, I have decided that the answer depends upon your skill level. Read on for the details.

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Performance Testing, Rails Amazon EC2, EC2, EC2onRails, Engine Yard, Nginx, Passenger, Performance Testing, Rails, Ruby on Rails

EC2onRails - 2 Small Instances or 1 High-CPU Medium Instance?

I recently watched the excellent RailsLab videos on tuning and optimizing Rails applications. One of the videos suggests that a great way to scale a Rails application is to separate the web and database components onto separate machines. We have been happily using Amazon’s EC2 system for about a year. Amazon’s recent introduction of the High-CPU Instance (High-CPU) made me curious how it would perform when compared against two Small Instances in a cluster (Cluster), since they would cost the same.

You will be happy to know that after hours of rigorous testing, I have identified a clear winner. Read on for the details.

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