Configuring a remote sphinx server with Thinking Sphinx

deploy.rb

# deploy.rb

namespace :ts_remote do
  task :conf do
    run <<-CMD
      cd #{current_release}
      &&
      RAILS_ENV=#{rails_env} rake ts:conf
      &&
      rsync --progress #{current_release}/config/#{rails_env}.sphinx.conf sphinxsearch@db-server:/home/sphinxsearch/
      &&
      ssh sphinxsearch@db-server "searchd -c /home/sphinxsearch/#{rails_env}.sphinx.conf --stop
        ; searchd -c /home/sphinxsearch/#{rails_env}.sphinx.conf"
    CMD
  end
end

sphinx.rake

# sphinx.rake

namespace :ts_remote do
  desc 'Update indexes on the remote sphinx server'
  task :reindex do
    system "ssh sphinxsearch@db-server indexer --config ./#{ENV['RAILS_ENV']}.sphinx.conf --all --rotate"
  end
end

sphinx.yml

# sphinx.yml

development:
  port: 9312
test:
  port: 9312
staging:
  port: 9312
  address: db-server
  sql_host: localhost
  pid_file: /home/sphinxsearch/searchd.staging.pid
  searchd_file_path: /home/sphinxsearch/searchd-staging
  sql_sock: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
  searchd_log_file: "/home/sphinxsearch/log/staging.searchd.log"
  query_log_file: "/home/sphinxsearch/log/staging.query.log"
production:
  port: 9313
  address: db-server
  pid_file: /home/sphinxsearch/searchd.production.pid
  searchd_file_path: /home/sphinxsearch/searchd-production
  sql_sock: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
  searchd_log_file: "/home/sphinxsearch/log/production.searchd.log"
  query_log_file: "/home/sphinxsearch/log/production.query.log"

I think you need to use an RSA key that will allow your Rails server to connect to the Sphinx server without needing a password

See my fork for making the default RAILS_ENV=development

@benmoss @roganartu is this still relevant with ThinkingSphinx > v3.0 as far as you know?

bump