Using Cloudfront CDN with a rails app

README.md

Using Cloudfront CDN with a Rails app

Stop serving assets from your own nginx instance. Instead, let Cloudfront CDN do it for you.

Steps:

1. Read http://ryantownsend.co.uk/post/13126016608/cloudfront-cdn-on-rails
2. Set up your nginx virtual host according to the snippet I've included in nginx_vhost.conf
3. Set up your rails app to use an asset host as described in the article. I've included my config in production.rb
4. Deploy your app and restart your nginx.

Enjoy!

nginx_vhost.conf

#
# Paste this near the bottom of your existing virtual host file
#
# config["host"] - your naked domain name i.e. hopper.io
# config["app_name"] - the name of your app i.e. hopper

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name assets.<%= config["host"] %>;

  root /var/applications/<%= config["app_name"] %>/public/;

  access_log /var/applications/<%= config["app_name"] %>/log/access-assets.log;
  error_log /var/applications/<%= config["app_name"] %>/log/error-assets.log;

  location / {
    deny all;
  }

  location ^~ /assets/ {
    allow all;
    gzip_http_version 1.0;
    gzip_static  on;
    expires      365d;
    add_header   Last-Modified "";
    add_header   Cache-Control public;
  }
}

production.rb

  # Enable serving of images, stylesheets, and JavaScripts from an asset server
  # config.action_controller.asset_host = "http://assets.example.com"
  config.action_controller.asset_host = "//dleunmbl874bp.cloudfront.net"