Meteor on a low end VPS
Meteor is a framework of Javascript tools for developing realtime applications. Meteor shares code between client and server, allowing synchronisation of both data and code.
As a side-project I’m attempting to see how much development work I can do on an iPad. Whilst there are a number of text editors for iOS, deploying code with them is usually via FTP and is a bit of a chore so the easiest way seems to be to use a client app, Prompt to SSH into a VPS. Coding can then be carried out using vim.
Getting a low end box
Not wishing to splash out too much money I went to Low End Box to find an economic UK-based VPS supplier, GBServers.
Installing Meteor on CentOS 5.x
My first mistake was attempting to install Meteor on CentOS 5.x:
curl install.meteor.com | /bin/sh which resulted in the following error:
error: Failed dependencies: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.6) is needed by meteor-0.3.3-1.i386 libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.7) is needed by meteor-0.3.3-1.i386 libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.9) is needed by meteor-0.3.3-1.i386 libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4.9) is needed by meteor-0.3.3-1.i386 Ergo, Meteor needs glibc > 2.5. I really don’t want to attempt to upgrade glibc so I started again with CentOS 6.2 32 bit and installed Meteor.
Installing Meteor on CentOS 6.2
Once CentOS 6.2 is up and running, the first thing to do is to update the system:
yum update and then make sure access is only via SSH keys.
I then wanted vim and git on my VPS:
yum install vim-X11 vim-common vim-enhanced vim-minimal git and finally I repeat the Meteor installation:
curl install.meteor.com | /bin/sh I’m ready to create my first app with Meteor:
meteor create test_app After which I cd into the created subdirectory:
cd test_app And run meteor:
meteor Then open up the server’s URL in a browser and Meteor reports that it’s running. That was a scarily easy installation process (apart from fannying about with CentOS < version 6).
But the real snazziness of meteor is hinted at when updating one of the generated files whilst meteor is still running – the changes are almost immediately reflected in the browser on all clients.
Summary
Like Rails, Meteor can seem a bit like magic at first but it’s mostly using existing technologies such as node.js, npm and MongoDB. Whether it scales massively has yet to be proven – but if that’s a concern then you probably shouldn’t be using beta software.
As a contract developer and manager I’ve worked in a wide range of enterprises in a variety of countries where I’ve encountered everything from great work, awful work, bizarre work, all the way down to quasi-legal work. If you think that you recognise your own organisation within my articles then you’re undoubtedly wrong, where you work isn’t that unique.
