[Mongrel] hi, can someone explain to me backgroundrb and mongrel?

[Jens Kraemer]

Hi!

On Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 03:36:47AM +0100, Bbq Plate wrote:
[..]
> rails can handle 1 request at a time and can buffer to a certain extent?

Rails doesn't do the buffering, it's the Server running it (i.e.
Mongrel) that delivers requests one at a time to Rails. To distribute
requests across multiple Mongrel instances you need some additional
piece of software, i.e. Apache's mod_proxy_balancer.

> when mongrel instances are created, a copy of the rails app is loaded
> into each mongrel instance's memory space?

exactly.

> these mongrel instances can read and write to the mysql database
> simultaneously?

yes. Each Mongrel instance is a separate independent process.

> the middleman of backgroundrb, is he on his own thread outside the rails
> app or is he using a mongrel instance?

the middleman is just a handle to access the backgrounDRb server, which
is running in a separate process outside of Rails and the Mongrels.

> how about the middleman's workers, are they on their own thread outside
> the rails app or would they be working with a mongrels instance?

The workers are running in separate threads inside the DRb server
process. In fact that's the whole point of backgrounDRb - free up the
Mongrel processes from having to handle long-running tasks.

Cheers,
Jens


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Jens Krämer
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