Which of these would be the best Rails server setup?

Question

Here are my choices:

• Apache2 and Passenger
• Nginx and Mongrel Cluster
• Nginx and Passenger

It's a linux vps with 256 ram. So, which do you guys recommend?

Answer 1

Nginx and Mongrel is supposed to be the tried and true setup.

However, Passenger is supposed to be more memory friendly.

Answer 2

I would be going with Apache2 and Passenger as it's super simple to setup and scales well. Also grab the Ruby Enterprise Edition if you're concerned about memory and speed.

Answer 3

nginx uses less memory than Apache, given the size of your setup I would definately recommend that. Mongrel is ok but a little dated, and a pain to keep it under control and controlling it's memory size. Passenger is a great way to run Rails apps so I would recommend that also. nginx and Passenger, definately the way to go. My latest business application is running great in production with nginx and passenger so it is definately production ready. An added bonus is that nginx serves static and cached content even faster than Apache.