Cannot Start Passenger 3.0.18 Using Mountain Lion (OS X Server) and RVM

Question

I recently did a clean install of Mountain Lion on my Mac Mini Server.

I installed version 3.0.18 using a gem according to the directions on http://www.phusionpassenger.com with no errors that I could see.

rvmsudo gem install passenger-enterprise-server-3.0.18.gem
rvmsudo passenger-install-apache2-module

Here are my entries in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf with my username masked:

LoadModule passenger_module /Users/username/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327/gems/passenger-enterprise-server-3.0.18/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /Users/username/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p327/gems/passenger-enterprise-server-3.0.18
PassengerRuby /Users/username/.rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.3-p327/ruby

I uncommented out the following statement:

Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Here is a sample virtual host entry. I have three of them in the file.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.mydomain.com
  ServerAlias mydomain.com
  PassengerAppRoot /Users/username/Sites/myfolder/
  DocumentRoot /Users/username/Sites/myfolder/public
  <Directory /Users/username/Sites/myfolder/public>
     Allow from all
     AllowOverride all
     Options -MultiViews
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

I have restarted Apache several times. Here is information from my server:

[~]$ ps -ef | grep Passenger
  501 18804   303   0 12:39PM ttys000    0:00.00 grep Passenger
[~]$ rvmsudo passenger-status
Password:
**ERROR: Phusion Passenger doesn't seem to be running.**
[~]$ rvmsudo passenger-config --version  
3.0.18

I have tried doing online searches on this. I was surprised that there was not all that much on this specific error even though from my understanding Passenger has been around for a few years. I have posted this issue on the Phusion Passenger Google Groups but have not heard anything.

Any help would be appreciated, the sooner the better LOL. Seriously I need to have one of my three websites up by tomorrow evening. This is the only issue stopping that from happening. Thanks again.

Answer 1

I continued searching but still did not find anything on this error for people using Mountain Lion. After several days of utter frustration I decided to contact Phusion since I had recently purchased one of the support packages. The support I received was more than worth what I paid for it. I had come to the conclusion that something must have changed somewhere between Lion and Mountain Lion but did not know where to look.

The setup I tried after upgrading to Mountain Lion (OS X Server) worked perfectly when I used Passenger with Lion Server. After a lot of extensive checking the support person decided to try making the changes I made in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf in the config file for the Web Service located in /Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/httpd_server_app.conf. All my Rails applications loaded perfectly. Apparently the other config file is either ignored or something. When the support person led me in trying things in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and checking logs nothing appeared in them. This is when he decided to try updating the Web Service config file.

Note: I have to give a shout out to the support team at Phusion. When I tell you that they searched for a needle in a haystack I am not exaggerating. I created several files with notes from their support that I hope to never have to use again. They were excellent and very easy to work with.