How To Scale Up Your Ruby on Rails App In 8 Steps
Ruby on Rails is an excellent framework for startups. However, when a startup project becomes too big, people frequently discuss Rails scaling concerns. The capacity of an application developed using a framework to expand and handle additional incoming requests per minute (RPM) in the future. Scalability is the first quality that comes to mind when considering any technology or framework’s main advantages. It is crucial to consider scalability when selecting any technology or framework to develop your application with additional features over time.
The project you are doing has a significant role when choosing any technology. Ruby is the language used to create the server-side framework known as ROR. When talking specifically about Ruby on Rails, there are a few factors to keep in mind. In addition to supporting MVC design, it has a default database, web services, and a web structure.
When you hire Ruby on Rails developer who knows software engineering principles and practices and active record patterns, the framework supports convention over configuration. The use cases for this framework, mainly for web application development, include all types of websites and online platforms. Because more libraries and gems are available, which act as building blocks for various types of applications, the number of websites created with Ruby on Rails is rising. Can Ruby on Rails apps scale? This is the issue that now emerges.
Ways to scale Ruby on Rails application
The Ruby on Rails application may be scaled using a variety of techniques. Most database management systems can relate to ROR. The following methods of scaling the Ruby on Rails application make all this feasible with the proper optimization.
Vertical Scalability
Vertical scaling is one of the easiest ways to improve a server’s performance. Along with improving the server’s processor, this entails increasing RAM. Performance improvement is the primary goal of these optimization approaches, which are often employed. You may eventually reach a point where it is technically impossible to make any further changes or improvements.
Horizontal Scalability
Scalability entails increasing the number of resources that are available to prevent performance degradation and resource limitations. Our software can now utilize additional servers, containers, and virtual machines thanks to horizontal scalability by increasing the number of available instances. Converting a single application server architecture into a three-tier MVC architecture is called ROR application horizontal scaling. In this configuration, the database, application, and server instances run on different servers with evenly distributed mild loads.
Nginx
A server program called Nginx may function as an HTTP Cache, load balancer, mail proxy, and reverse proxy. It was built to emphasize scalability and minimal resource utilization for high availability and widely used services. In ROR applications, it is often utilized. Nginx needs only a tiny amount of processing power to operate normally under high loads. Filtering and distributing the load over several servers is the only goal.
Rails App Instance
More than one server is needed to execute the application instances separately from the Nginx server. Unicorn, Passenger, Puma, and Phusion are the most widely used application servers. Each of them is linked to a different application instance to continue handling user requests. These procedures include input and output.
Database Instances
The Ruby application database may be scaled using several methods. The database can be set up on a similar server as the application. Even though it represents a considerable saving, there are some cons. The data for the whole program is spread over numerous machines when each instance of the application stores and retrieves data from its respective database instance. Users of the website who may have their traffic diverted by Nginx to an example of an application other than the one where their data is kept find this highly inconvenient.
Because of this, you might be unable to log in, for instance. Building a robust architecture is another goal of separating the database servers from other servers. The database ought to be migrated to its server because of this. The database may consist of many machines running the databases, or it may be a single server with a single database accessed by all program instances.
Updates to data are made across all databases via data replication. Database replication can take many different shapes. Master0-slave database replication and multi-masterrepetition are two widely used techniques for ensuring our data layer reliability across several databases.Additionally, when a database gets a considerable quantity of data, it must act rapidly to preserve it, update its status, and deliver new data back to the user. Instead of using the usual MySQL database, it scales the application using PostgreSQL or MongoDB to store massive volumes of data.
Using Cache
Cache data at the client and send data to the browser as needed using Ajax libraries like jQuery. Cache HTTP answers at your website using gateway / reverse proxy caches, and become familiar with expiry and ETag. Make the most of the action, page, and fragment caching that Rails includes. Put results that you would usually fetch from your database into Memcached.
Segregate Data and Data Serving
Sit down and sincerely discuss with your DBA whether a relational data architecture is necessary for all your data stores. For convenience, avoid dumping all your data storage into one database. Independent datasets ought to be placed in their databases. Use CDN like Akamai or anAmazon S3 to serve static files, or serve them from a different tier of your application. Although it costs more, scaling is made simpler.
Relational databases scale up, not out. If your data is essential enough, you might be able to get away with key-value data storage. Since it has clients for Ruby, Hadoop can scale the analysis and storage of massive volumes of unstructured data.Additionally, be aware of any file system’s scalability restrictions. If you need to report a lot of data, use a clone of your primary database rather than your production database!
Inevitable relational data
Ensure the MySQL database is sharded at times of high scalability levels. Datasets are divided up using sharding. Sharding for Rails apps focused on the customer is based on userids. Therefore, the following questions should be asked the next time you need to decide whether to grow your technology instead of asking, “does my app scale”:
- How long would I be able to use the Rails application without getting stuck?
- What tool would be the most effective for my app to complete the task?
- Your pledge to our investors, “My app will scale,” is it true? Never deceive yourselves here.
- The more important question is: Create scalability for a hypothetical future or have your application functioning in front of actual people?
Conclusion
The result may not be all that surprising, but the sort of project you intend to create affects how scalable a Ruby on Rails application will be. The use of RoR in your program must be carefully evaluated since, like other technologies, it may not be appropriate for all kinds of applications. However, you can hire dedicated developers to leverage the several benefits offered by Ruby on rails. As a result, it is vital to analyze to identify the best options early on. Many issues may be resolved with the abundance of Ruby on Rails gems and frameworks, but it also takes the proper, competent engineers.
Author Bio
Ronak Patel is a CEO and Founder of Aglowid IT Solutions, an ever-emerging Top Web and Mobile Development company with a motto of turning clients into successful businesses. He believes that Client’s success is company’s success and so that he always makes sure that Aglowid helps their client’s business to reach to its true potential with the help of his best team with the standard development process he set up for the company.
