From: Sharon Phillips <phillipsds@...>
Date: 2007-07-08T08:22:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Oh the pain! Distributing Ruby apps

> argggh, of all db, why oracle?? ora is too big. try postgres (i  
> know mysql/sqlite, but i am bias for postgres =).
I'd love to use postgres, and I used to do a lot of work with  
Firebird at one stage, but I'm stuck with Oracle. We also use DB2 and  
Terradata.

> arggh, first the big db, now a gui?? this will tax your monitored  
> clients and will skew your observations (mem/cpu/etc); consider  
> heizenberg principle
I work in a classified environment, so I can't give too much detail  
about what I do, so here's a vague outline:
I work as part of a small team that supports a number of  
applications, most of which run on unix boxes. These applications are  
reasonably complex and busy.
I'm not interested in CPU or mem usage (we have unicentre and other  
dedicated teams to monitor and manage these) but rather specifics  
within the system. Can't give examples. Sorry.
There are times when things break and we have little warning, if any,  
but some type of dashboard would have given us the ability to preempt  
some of these. That's what I'm trying to build.
Nothing can be added to the servers. I'm proposing something that  
runs on our machines.

> a web app, like rails, is less resource hogger than oracle.
> if rails is "big" for you, try nitro or iowa or webrick.
> run a drb server on the central node, the clients will run drb  
> clients.
I don't have a problem with Rails, but I prefer the style of Camping  
better. Not much experience (as in close to zero) with either.

Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions too.
I think I'll have a closer look at JRuby. This seems the best fit  
currently, and I understand it can bridge to Java? That would be useful.

Cheers,
Dave