First I needed to install apache.
yum install httpd

Then kill the existing mongrel process
pkill -9 mongrel_rails -u root

With apache installed I now have the directories I need. I moved my rails app from my webuser directory to my apache directory at /var/www/html.

Now i can start apache
apachectl start
If you go to your primary dns in a browser you should see the default fedora apache page.

Next I installed passenger
gem install passenger

Then the apache mod
passenger-install-apache2-module

Since I was using one of the pre-set AMI’s I am promted to install a few things.
* To install GNU C++ compiler:
Please run yum install gcc-c++ as root.

* To install Apache 2 development headers:
Please run yum install httpd-devel as root.

* To install Apache Portable Runtime (APR) development headers:
Please run yum install apr-devel as root

Then add these to the httpd.conf file
LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-2.2.5
PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby

And add a virtual host to the conf file the way described in the apache mod install instructions.

Then restart apache
apachectl restart

That was it. My rails app is now running through apache.

During the set up process of the instance you will be able to download a private key. Put that private key in a safe directory and chmod it to 400.

Then after completing the setup of the instance and you can see that it is running, go to your command line and enter:

ssh -i /path/to/key/[name of key].pem root@[public DNS]

That will get you logged in. You will need to go to /home/[webuser] to checkout your web project from SVN. But first you need to install SVN:

yum -y install subversion

Now you can check out:

svn checkout http://address.of.your.repository/and/path projectname

cd in to config and nano the database.yml, make the needed changes, then nano the environment.rb and edit the rails version if needed. Then make the database:

mysql

create database [whatever]

exit

Then cd into the root of the new project you just checked out:

rake db:migrate

And if you have fixtures to test with

rake db:fixtures:load

Amazon runs mogrel so to test your project you can add this shell script:

#!/bin/sh
cd /home/webuser/[project name]/log && rm mongrel.pid -f
pkill -9 mongrel_rails -u root
cd /home/webuser/[project name] && /usr/bin/mongrel_rails start -e development -p 80 -d

chmod that to 755 and run ./restart.sh

Go to the public DNS address in your browser and you should see your project.

Next, I will be attempting to run Rails through Apache on AWS with passenger instead of mongrel. For now this got my project online.