The goal of this article is to create a "Production-Quality" Rails Server. Thus, the best possible technologies (strictly my opinion) have been selected at the time of this writing to achieve this goal.

Unlike other developers, I prefer to install my Rails Applications under Web Subdirectories, such as http://www.not404.com/MyRailsApp, instead of running it as a Root Application of a Web Root, such as http://MyRailsApp.not404.com/. These instructions are geared for how I lay things out, but will let you know what to adjust in order to run your Rails Apps as traditional Web-Root Applications.

You may also notice that these instructions are SQLite3-oriented. This is intentional. IMHO, it's better to use the simplest-case database to prove that everything else is properly stitched together. Then, once you're satisfied that everything is properly locked down and performance-tuned, you can focus your attention on tying your Rails Application to a real database.

I fully admit it:  I really hate deploying the Apache Webserver.  It's a convoluted mish-mash of modules and versions that miraculously get bundled up into a source-code tarball for developers to work with.  Seriously, who's got the time to deal with lengthy manuals and fine-tuning all the gory details?  While the Apache Webserver is considered the big 800-Pound Gorilla in this industry, a developer needs to ask:  how many websites and software projects really need all that powerful configurability?

Thankfully, there are a lot of slimmer, light-weight alternatives that simply do the job of serving static webpages, and are still capable of proxying dynamic content requests to Web Applications.  Lighttpd is one such alternative, and is the favorite of many active Ruby on Rails developers in the Rails Community.

There's still a lot that could be added to Lighttpd in order to make it a REALLY appealing lightweight replacement for the Apache Webserver, and these are some of the modules I'd like to see built in order to make that a reality some day.  If I have the time and resources, I'd like to personally explore options and build some of these modules:

NTLM Authentication (aka "Integrated Windows Authentication") 

Lighttpd needs to behave well in a Microsoft environment, and silently accept the User's Credentials.  This is particularly important for web applications that have some sort of Access Control or Audit Trail.

 Subversion-compatible WebDAV Operations 

There is partial WebDAV support in Lighttpd that (I believe) is just enough to support tools like Microsoft FrontPage.  (Good grief, is anyone still using that atrocity in this day and age?  Yikes!!)  Subversion is a fantastic revision-control suite, in which the repositories can be served via Apache WebServer and the Subversion-specific extensions to their WebDAV module.  For me, Lighttpd's inability to natively host a Subversion Repository is the only reason why I continue to keep Apache Webserver around on some of my Internet Servers.