Ruby On Rails with IIS 7 - Reloaded

Article
06/17/2009

In my last post I mentioned getting into Ruby and making MABUILD and rake work together.
I think I found a better way to do the same with PowerShell integration, which I will
write up sometime this week.

Now, it is inevitable that Ruby leads to Ruby On Rails. I needed to get RoR work on my dev machine with VISTA SP1 and IIS7.
I was little surprised to find that there are very few articles on this. A few I found were outdated. Then I landed on Ruslan's post.
It got me to a point but then I was stuck. So I walked to Ruslan's office and we discussed this quite a bit. I went back to my office and researched this some more.
I finally got this working after about 3 days of stumbling around. So here is the post that builds on Ruslan's
post and clarifies a few things. Mostly I wanted to make sure that even folks like me, who are beginners in the Ruby universe,
could follow the steps to get RoR and IIS 7 working.

I am starting here with a clean system with VISTA SP1.

Step 1: INSTAL IIS AND CGI

Go to control panel, Programs and Features and then select "Turn features on or off". You can get there quicker
by typing appwiz.cpl on a command prompt and then selecting "Turn features on or off " from the left side

From the features select World Wide Web Services
and make sure that you select the following

REQUIRED: CGI. This is the same as the FastCGI support
REQUIRED: IIS Management Console
OPTIONAL: Custom HTTP Features: Static Content, etc
[We will use this to check if IIS is installed correctly]
OPTIONAL : Other health and diagnostics info as
Shows in the picture below

Click OK and let the Windows install IIS and FastCGI for you.

Step 2: VERIFY THAT IIS IS WORKING

Once installed you can verify that the IIS is installed by going to the
https://localhost/iisstart.htm

Please note: If you did not enable STATIC CONTENT feature when you installed, you will get a 404 NOT FOUND.
You see the file right there but you still get 404 NOT FOUND. Security aside, it would be great
if there is a more easier way to diagnose this, I ended up researching this for more than 3 hours wondering
why am I getting the 404 not found. Anyway, now you know and you don't need to waste those hours.
Again, enable the static content feature to be able to see this static content page.

Step 3: INSTALL RUBY

Navigate to Ruby 1.8.6 One-Click Installer and install RUBY
CAUTION: DONT INSTALL TO A FOLDER that has SPACES in the name or its path. like "C:\program Files\Ruby"
I had strange errors and I had to reinstall RUBY. It is best to stick with the C:\Ruby.
As a side and tangential note, what's up with installing to C:\Ruby? Aren't the people in that
alternate universe hate installing to root directories like C:\? Why can't it default to C:\Program Files\Ruby?
RUBY is supposed to make you HAPPY!! Huh!

Step 4: VERIFY RUBY IS IN THE PATH

RUBY Installation should have added the C:\ruby\bin [or whatever the path you gave] to the path.
Open a command prompt; type "SET PATH" and look at the path. You should see the ruby\bin in the path.
If not, no big deal, add ruby to the path in the System Variables.
Type ruby -help to see that you get some help on the screen. This verifies that Ruby is indeed installed.

Step 5: INSTALL RAILS

on a command prompt, type "Gem Install Rails". [The dependencies are already
included, contrary to popular belief that suggests the -includedependencies option
is required to do so]
Once installed, do "gem list" to list the gems locally installed. You should see
something like this - which should include rails.

C:\Windows\system32>gem list

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.2)
actionpack (2.3.2)
activerecord (2.3.2)
activeresource (2.3.2)
activesupport (2.3.2)
fxri (0.3.6)
fxruby (1.6.16)
hpricot (0.6.164)
log4r (1.0.5)
ptools (1.1.6)
rails (2.3.2)
rake (0.8.7, 0.8.1)
ruby-opengl (0.60.0)
test-unit (2.0.1)
win32-api (1.2.1, 1.2.0)
win32-clipboard (0.4.4)
win32-dir (0.3.2)
win32-eventlog (0.5.0)
win32-file (0.5.5)
win32-file-stat (1.3.1)
win32-process (0.5.9)
win32-sapi (0.1.4)
win32-sound (0.4.1)
windows-api (0.2.4)
windows-pr (0.9.3)

Step 6: Install FASTCGI Update for IIS7
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=19600729-8470-4956-a276-200450d814bd&displaylang=en&Hash=CUX9vrzjILBL3AghMTxtsgswXdorhJT4JhGOGHeRvFL9AQlhlkUkNtnVcQflyQD7VwtQyh51gAxTnsa4f4OlBA%3d%3d

I am not quite sure if this is a general update for FastCGI or just for PHP. To avoid hitting my head against a wall, I installed this anyway.

Step 7: Pretend that you are hosting a website called RoRIIS7

Add a HOST Entry so that the name resolver won't go out to the DNS Server.
Don't forget to use an administrative command prompt from which you
launch notepad. edit Windows\System32\Driver\Etc\Hosts like below.

Step 8 Add a new Website to IIS

Go to C:\InetPub [or where ever you installed the inetpub to]

create a directory called RoRIIS7. We are not touching the wwwroot directory for this experiment.
i will post an update dealing with default web site later.

Open MMC, Add the Internet Services Manager to the MMC Console.
Expand the IIS Manager. It will show the local web server.
Click on Add WebSite to add a website like below

Here we are adding a new WebSite RoRIIS7
mapped to the physical directory C:\Inetpub\RoRIIS7
Please note that the HostName we are usingRoRIIS7
AND that I am using port 8080

The website should start.

Step 9 Verify that the new website is working

To verify that the website is working, copy the IISSTART.HTM and the
welcome.png files into the RoRIIS7 directory.
Then navigate to https://RoRIIS7/iisstart.htm
You should see a page similar to step 2.

Step 10 Generate a RAILS APP

NOTE: When you generate the Rails app, make sure that
you use -D option. -D option generated the dispatchers
for CGI and FastCGI

Luanch CMD prompt as administrator

cd C:\inetpub\RoRIIS7rails -D MyAppcd MyAppruby script\generate Controller Test Index

Step 11 Generate a RAILS APP

Modify the app\controllers\test_controller.rb like below
This will enable it to display some test when we navigate to this URL

class TestController < ApplicationController
   def index
      render :text=>"The index action"
   end
   def about
      render :text=>"The about action"
   end
end

Step 12 Hook up IIS to Ruby

So far, we have IIS Setup and a Ruby App Setup
We need to hook them together now.

Go to the MMC/Internet Services Manager, Go to the site RoRIIS7 in the
MMC snapin. We are now going to add a module mapping

We are mapping * ==> All requests To the FastCGI Module.
The executable we use is of course the ruby interpreter.
But then there you see a PIPE character and the path to the
dispatch.fcgi. The reason is that Ruby by iteself does not handle
the FCGI. The FCGI handling is provided by the Rails
Dispatcher.

Once you add the mapping go to
C:\windows\system32\inetsrv\config and open
applicationhost.config
In this config file you should see a section for fast cgi

<fastCgi>
    <application fullPath="C:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe" arguments="C:\inetpub\RoRIIS7\MyApp\public\dispatch.fcgi" />
</fastCgi>

and another section for
the module mapping.

</system.webServer>
<location path="RoRIIS7">
    <system.webServer>
        <handlers>
            <add name="RubyFastCGI" path="*" verb="*" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="C:\ruby\bin\ruby.exe|C:\inetpub\RoRIIS7\MyApp\public\dispatch.fcgi" resourceType="Unspecified" />
        </handlers>
    </system.webServer>

These sections are created for you when you added the module mapping
through the GUI above. Now, you could directly edit the file yourself if you wanted to.

Sensing the smell of completion you go to https://roriis7/test/about
but then you are greeted by the

Step 13 Fixing Permissions

When working with IIS, I always turn on the security audit.
Turning the security audit on can it self be somewhat of a challenge.
Without going into detail, what is required apparently is to
grant NETWORK Service Account permissions to the RoRIIS7 Folder.
Since Ruby will write some logfiles etc to that dir. You could
possibly fine tune this later if you needed to.

Do an IISRESET and go visit https://roriis7:8080/test/about
OOPS! What went wrong now?

Apparently the RAILS needs SQLITE and it is not happy that it can't find SQLLite

Step 14 Installing SQLITE and the SQLLITE GEM

Download SQLITE-3.6.15 ZIP file and place the exe in the Ruby\Bin directory
this is the command line config tool

Download SQLITEDLL-3.6.15 ZIP and place the dll in the system32 directory.
This is the engine for SQLITE.

Now we need to install the GEM

https://blog.anlek.com/2008/09/installing-updating-sqlite3-on-windows/ has the
tip on getting this done

gem install --version 1.2.3 sqlite3-ruby

Step 14 COMPLETE!!!

Now you navigate to https://roriis7:8080/test/about

and you should see

There you go ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ruby On Rails with IIS7

Comments

Anonymous
August 12, 2009
Hi, I was wondering if there's any reason why this would not work on Server 2008? I followed all the steps to a T, but can't get past the 500.0 error message. I've double and triple checked all the permissions, but no change. Any help, or troubleshooting steps you may be able to provide would help. thanks, -Steve H.
Anonymous
August 18, 2009
If you're wanting an setup on Windows for development, check out BitNami stacks - they've got a Ruby one - http://bitnami.org/stack/rubystack - and a JRuby one - http://bitnami.org/stack/jrubystack I've not had any issues with it yet. But I'm not sure if it's suitable for production environments or not. Daf >>> Thanks Daf. I do have the dev environment. I am looking for
deployment via IIS
Anonymous
September 06, 2009
I had to add the IIS_USRS group to the RoRIIS7 dir and give full control to get the 500 error to go away.
Anonymous
September 06, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 24, 2009
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
October 27, 2009
I am also stuck on the http 500 error using Server 2008 x64, has anybody solved this ?
Anonymous
October 28, 2009
I am installing redMine (RoR based ticketing system) with this guide and it works great. however, there is still a small problem with this configuration. In redmine , if there is a new row of data created (regardless is new issue , new follow-up , new tracker or etc) . After record create, redMine will redirect to show the record. It will show the 500 error at first. If I refresh it , it will load the page correctly. It seems like IIS could not find the new record when it is created , but later it will work. I suspect is the caching problem of dispatch.fcgi or URL Rewrite or Module Handler setting . Anybody encounter this problem , any solution ? IIS7 + RoR 2.2.2 (RedMine) + URL Rewrite 1.1
Anonymous
December 07, 2009
Hi I'm using server 2008 and your simple example is running fine. The problem comes when expanding the site to handle images and css. None of the files will be forwarded. Rails log errors like "ActionController::RoutingError (No route matches "/stylesheets/main.css" with {:method=>:get}): public/dispatch.fcgi:24" You build your post on Ruslan's post about URL rewriter. but it's not used in your example? Is Ruslan's proposed solution for displaying static files the way to go to get it working?
Anonymous
December 08, 2009
To get it working with regular rails view helpers like <%= stylesheet_link_tag 'main' %>, <%= javascript_include_tag :defaults %> and normal tags like <img src="images/pict.gif"> that all works well running the application on webrick. I added the URL revrite feature to my IIS7 site, imported the rules from Ruslan's solution, and changed the C:windowssystem32inetsrvconfig and open applicationhost.config handler section path"*" to path="dispatch.fcgi" Finally I added virtual directories to my site having alias images,stylesheets and javascripts.
Anonymous
December 27, 2009
I've followed all the instructions and am on Windows 2008. Has anyone solved this error: HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error c:rubybinruby.exe - The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly
Anonymous
February 18, 2010
The comment has been removed
Anonymous
February 19, 2010
I have the same problem with c:rubybinruby.exe - The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly I set permission both to ruby and my ruby site folders. =(((
Anonymous
March 14, 2010
Me Too. Premissions set and still getting error. I even tried using the latest FastCGI Update as well and it didn't work either.
Anonymous
April 09, 2010
Yep same problem here Win Server 2008 x64, permissions all triple checked, and still get the blasted 500 error. Anyone out there solved this on x64?
Anonymous
April 09, 2010
Wow...should have paid closer attention to the rest of the comments.... September 06, 2009 11:35 AM by Steve H. posted the correct answer to the 500 error. Adding permissions for IIS_IUSR group to appfolder and ruby folder cleared this error right up...good job Steve!
Anonymous
April 12, 2010
Ok, so I can get the app running on Win64 - 2008, but if I navigate to app/login and enter Uname and PWD, I get another Internal 500 error and the app log says this: Log Name: Application Source: Application Error Date: 4/12/2010 11:20:52 AM Event ID: 1000 Task Category: (100) Level: Error Keywords: Classic User: N/A Computer: WMSTUTGIS02.WILLIAMS.com Description: Faulting application name: ruby.exe, version: 1.8.6.0, time stamp: 0x48a0d73f Faulting module name: msvcrt-ruby18.dll, version: 1.8.6.0, time stamp: 0x48a0d73e Exception code: 0x40000015 Fault offset: 0x000267f4 Faulting process id: 0xf80 Faulting application start time: 0x01cada5c14ce5fac Faulting application path: c:Rubybinruby.exe Faulting module path: c:Rubybinmsvcrt-ruby18.dll Report Id: 5cb4e26f-464f-11df-a76b-001a64635a3a Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System> <Provider Name="Application Error" /> <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> <Level>2</Level> <Task>100</Task> <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-04-12T16:20:52.000000000Z" /> <EventRecordID>959</EventRecordID> <Channel>Application</Channel> <Computer>WMSTUTGIS02.WILLIAMS.com</Computer> <Security /> </System> <EventData> <Data>ruby.exe</Data> <Data>1.8.6.0</Data> <Data>48a0d73f</Data> <Data>msvcrt-ruby18.dll</Data> <Data>1.8.6.0</Data> <Data>48a0d73e</Data> <Data>40000015</Data> <Data>000267f4</Data> <Data>f80</Data> <Data>01cada5c14ce5fac</Data> <Data>c:Rubybinruby.exe</Data> <Data>c:Rubybinmsvcrt-ruby18.dll</Data> <Data>5cb4e26f-464f-11df-a76b-001a64635a3a</Data> </EventData> </Event> Any ideas?
Anonymous
July 19, 2010
I'm stack on step 14. Installing SQLite doesn't help, the window with the "We're sorry.." still remain. But fixing permission for IIS_USRS group help!
Anonymous
August 22, 2010
blog.anlek.com/.../installing-updating-sqlite3-on-windows link dows not work and i am stuck on step 14 ... so either I havent installed sqlite properly or something else but I am still getting the "we're sorry..." message
Anonymous
August 29, 2010
Hi, I am able to get a basic test-app running on Windows 7 with IIS 7 and Ruby 2.3.x. However, I keep getting a 500.0 error as soon as I try to set up my actual application. This app has many plugins and gems and I am beginning to think that this may be the problem. I have checked permissions a 100 times and I currently allow full control to both NETWORK SERVICE as well as IIS_IUSRS. I am at the end of my rope.
Anonymous
January 27, 2011
Great thanks to you for this tutorial
Anonymous
March 17, 2011
Server Error in Application "RUBY" Internet Information Services 7.5 Error Summary HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error <handler> scriptProcessor could not be found in <fastCGI> application configuration Detailed Error Information Module FastCgiModule Notification ExecuteRequestHandler Handler RubyFastCGI Error Code 0x80070585 Requested URL http://ruby:81/ Physical Path C:inetpubRuby Logon Method Anonymous Logon User Anonymous Most likely causes: IIS received the request; however, an internal error occurred during the processing of the request. The root cause of this error depends on which module handles the request and what was happening in the worker process when this error occurred. IIS was not able to access the web.config file for the Web site or application. This can occur if the NTFS permissions are set incorrectly. IIS was not able to process configuration for the Web site or application. The authenticated user does not have permission to use this DLL. The request is mapped to a managed handler but the .NET Extensibility Feature is not installed. Things you can try: Ensure that the NTFS permissions for the web.config file are correct and allow access to the Web server's machine account. Check the event logs to see if any additional information was logged. Verify the permissions for the DLL. Install the .NET Extensibility feature if the request is mapped to a managed handler. Create a tracing rule to track failed requests for this HTTP status code. For more information about creating a tracing rule for failed requests, click here. Links and More Information This error means that there was a problem while processing the request. The request was received by the Web server, but during processing a fatal error occurred, causing the 500 error. View more information » Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles: 294807
Anonymous
March 17, 2011
Ok, here is the thing. If I remove a parameter to Ruby interpreter, so instead of this: handlers> <add name="RubyFastCGI" path="" verb="" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="d:ruby192binruby.exe|C:inetpubRubymyApppublic dispatch.fcgi" resourceType="Unspecified" requireAccess="Script" /> </handlers> I would have: handlers> <add name="RubyFastCGI" path="" verb="" modules="FastCgiModule" scriptProcessor="d:ruby192binruby.exe" resourceType="Unspecified" requireAccess="Script" /> </handlers> then I am getting this: Server Error in Application "RUBY" Internet Information Services 7.5 Error Summary HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error d:Ruby192binruby.exe - The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly Detailed Error Information Module FastCgiModule Notification ExecuteRequestHandler Handler RubyFastCGI Error Code 0x00000001 Requested URL http://ruby:81/ Physical Path C:inetpubRuby Logon Method Anonymous Logon User Anonymous Most likely causes: IIS received the request; however, an internal error occurred during the processing of the request. The root cause of this error depends on which module handles the request and what was happening in the worker process when this error occurred. IIS was not able to access the web.config file for the Web site or application. This can occur if the NTFS permissions are set incorrectly. IIS was not able to process configuration for the Web site or application. The authenticated user does not have permission to use this DLL. The request is mapped to a managed handler but the .NET Extensibility Feature is not installed. Things you can try: Ensure that the NTFS permissions for the web.config file are correct and allow access to the Web server's machine account. Check the event logs to see if any additional information was logged. Verify the permissions for the DLL. Install the .NET Extensibility feature if the request is mapped to a managed handler. Create a tracing rule to track failed requests for this HTTP status code. For more information about creating a tracing rule for failed requests, click here. Links and More Information This error means that there was a problem while processing the request. The request was received by the Web server, but during processing a fatal error occurred, causing the 500 error. View more information » Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles: 294807 I have checked the permissions 1000000000000000000000000000 times. But the real question is whether I need to use the parameter. Do I?
Anonymous
June 14, 2011
Hi, I recommend to take a look at www.helicontech.com/zoo which has Ruby on Rails support on IIS7 and IIS Express.
Anonymous
June 19, 2011
Please try Helicon Zoo to easily configure Ruby on Rails for IIS 7 - www.helicontech.com/zoo
Anonymous
July 29, 2011
just so others are aware. in Step 12: Hook up IIS to Ruby you can find the "Add Module Mapping" link from the Actions section of the "Handler Mappings" icon on the home screen.
Anonymous
September 10, 2011
Hello All, I had installed Ruby on Rails with www.helicontech.com/zoo still its not working Best Regards, Jalpesh
Anonymous
February 14, 2012
Hello. I have this error. HTTP Error 500.0 - Internal Server Error C:Ruby187binruby.exe - The FastCGI process exited unexpectedly Thanks.
Anonymous
February 08, 2015
There is a way to run RoR on IIS 8 via HttpPlatformHandler - described by Scott Hanselman in his post "Announcing: Running Ruby on Rails on IIS8 (or anything else, really) with the new HttpPlatformHandler" www.hanselman.com/.../AnnouncingRunningRubyOnRailsOnIIS8OrAnythingElseReallyWithTheNewHttpPlatformHandler.aspx
Anonymous
November 12, 2015
If I didn't install rails with the -d and have an existing app, is there a way to install the dispatchers after the fact? thanks chris

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Ruby On Rails with IIS 7 - Reloaded

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