How to Deploy a Ruby App (Sinatra or Ruby on Rails)

This guide shows how to host a Ruby web application on OpenPanel - a small Sinatra app or a full Ruby on Rails project. The app runs in its own Ruby container, and OpenPanel's web server forwards your domain to it with free SSL.

How It Works​

• Your code lives in the domain folder, e.g. /var/www/html/example.com/.
• OpenPanel runs an official ruby container with that folder as the working directory.
• On every start it can run bundle install, then your startup command.
• The web server proxies your domain to the port your app listens on - the app must bind to 0.0.0.0.

Sinatra​

app.rb:

require 'sinatra'
set :bind, '0.0.0.0'
set :port, 3000

get '/' do
  'Hello from Sinatra on OpenPanel!'
end

Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.org'
gem 'sinatra'
gem 'puma'
gem 'rackup'

Create the app in OpenPanel → Websites → Install App → Setup Ruby Application:

Ruby on Rails​

Prepare the project​

In config/environments/production.rb, make sure Rails trusts the proxy and serves static files:

config.assume_ssl = true          # OpenPanel terminates SSL in front of the app
config.force_ssl = true
config.public_file_server.enabled = true
config.hosts << "example.com"

Configure the database in config/database.yml (production) - the host is the service name, not localhost:

production:
  adapter: mysql2        # or postgresql
  host: mysql            # "mariadb" for MariaDB, "postgres" for PostgreSQL
  database: user_myapp
  username: user_myapp
  password: <%= ENV["DATABASE_PASSWORD"] %>

Create the database and user first in OpenPanel → MySQL → Database Wizard.

Environment variables​

Create a .env file in the project folder (loaded with the dotenv gem) or set the values in config/credentials:

RAILS_ENV=production
SECRET_KEY_BASE=generate-with-bin-rails-secret
DATABASE_PASSWORD=strong-password

Create the application​

Asset precompilation on every start makes restarts slower. For bigger apps, precompile assets locally or in CI, upload public/assets, and remove assets:precompile from the command.

Deploy from Git​

Enter an https:// Git repository URL when creating the app. On every start, the container fetches the latest commit of the default branch - push your changes, then Restart the app.

Managing the App​

In OpenPanel → Websites → Sites, click Manage to start, stop or restart the app, view Logs, edit the Gemfile and run Bundler under Install Packages, and change the Ruby version, startup command and resource limits under Overview.

More: Ruby applications.

Troubleshooting​

Related​

• Deploy a Node.js app
• Deploy a Django app
• Deploy a Java app