Setting Up Production Environment

This document provides guidance on setting up and configuring the production environment for Gumroad, including environment variables and running services.

Table of Contents

• Environment Variables
• Running Services
  • Web Servers
    • Puma (Application Server)
  • Sidekiq Workers
    • Configuration
  • Push Notification Service (RPush)

Environment Variables

Set up all environment variables listed in the .env.production.example file in your environment. These variables contain all the necessary configuration for database connections, caching, application servers, storage, payment processing, authentication, email services, and third-party integrations.

Running Services

The Gumroad production environment consists of several services that work together. Below is information on how to run each service.

Web Servers

Gumroad uses Puma as the application server.

Puma (Application Server)

Puma runs the Rails application and handles HTTP requests. Configuration:

• Worker Processes: Set via PUMA_WORKER_PROCESSES (default: 1)
• Threads: Set via RAILS_MAX_THREADS (default: 2)
• Memory: Recommended 2GB per instance

We recommend running Nginx in front of Puma as a reverse proxy.

Sidekiq Workers

Sidekiq processes background jobs for the application.

Configuration

• Threads: Set via RAILS_MAX_THREADS (default: 2)
• Memory: Recommended 2GB per instance
• Database Replicas: Set USE_DB_WORKER_REPLICAS=true to use read replicas for database operations

Push Notification Service (RPush)

RPush handles push notifications to mobile devices.

• Requires specific Redis instance configured via RPUSH_REDIS_HOST
• Requires certificates for Apple Push Notification Service (APN)
• Requires Firebase configuration for Android notifications
• Memory: Recommended 2GB per instance
• Environment Variables:
  • INITIALIZE_RPUSH_APPS: "true"