Production Server with Rails and Phusion Passenger

First you need to install RVM, ruby, rubygem, rails, with LAMP already installed too.

rvmsudo passenger-install-apache2-module

# to find out where apache config file is
apachectl -V | grep SERVER_CONFIG_FILE

# load modules in Apache config (this may vary)
LoadModule passenger_module /home/vincent/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /home/vincent/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7
PassengerRuby /home/vincent/.rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.2-p180/ruby

# now this is an exmple of apache virtualhost
<VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot /home/www-data/depot/public
        ServerName appname.myserver.com
        <Directory /home/www-data/depot/public>
                AllowOverride all
                Options -MultiViews
        </Directory>

        # Speeds up spawn time tremendously -- if your app is compatible.
        # RMagick seems to be incompatible with smart spawning
        RailsSpawnMethod smart

        # Keep the application instances alive longer. Default is 300 (seconds)
        PassengerPoolIdleTime 1000

        # Keep the spawners alive, which speeds up spawning a new Application
        # listener after a period of inactivity at the expense of memory.
        RailsAppSpawnerIdleTime 0

        # Additionally keep a copy of the Rails framework in memory. If you're
        # using multiple apps on the same version of Rails, this will speed up
        # the creation of new RailsAppSpawners. This isn't necessary if you're
        # only running one or 2 applications, or if your applications use
        # different versions of Rails.
        RailsFrameworkSpawnerIdleTime 0

        # Just in case you're leaking memory, restart a listener
        # after processing 5000 requests
        PassengerMaxRequests 5000

        # only check for restart.txt et al up to once every 5 seconds,
        # instead of once per processed request
        PassengerStatThrottleRate 5
</VirtualHost>

Create the database needed for the new app, update config/database.yml content to allow app to connect to database on the production server.

Once the new rails app is uploaded to the server:

# install/update bundle
cd appfolder/
bundle install

# now setup database table and data
cd appfolder/
rake db:setup RAILS_ENV=production

Next you use a2ensite and /etc/init.d/apache restart to reload the new site.