Question

I am using the Rubber gem to deploy on Amazon ec2.
It deploys and configures the ubuntu instance well but I need to install additional modules (not ruby modules) on the server. how can I run additional scripts using rubber during the deployment?
A code sample would be appreciated since This is the first time I am doing this kind of thing.

Answer 1

I had a similar issue with wanting to install the NewRelic server monitor on all of my EC2 instances. I ended up creating a new role (‘newrelic’) and adding it to all of my servers.

Making a custom role is straightforward:

1. Create a config/rubber/deploy-[rolename].rb (by copying an existing one)
   • Change the task namespace
   • Alter the :install, :bootstrap, and :start/:stop/:restart tasks as required for your module
2. Create a config/rubber/rubber-[rolename].rb
   • Add any variables you need to reference in your deploy file
3. If necessary, create a config/rubber/role/[rolename] directory and add any required files (such as [rolename]-upstart.conf)
4. Add the role to your server(s) by running cap rubber:add_role

It’s easiest to start by copying an existing role and tweaking it to do what you want.

Jury is still out on whether a custom role is the right way to do this. It makes some sense for newrelic, since that installs a daemon that needs to get monitored, but it feels very heavyweight for most custom configuration.