Set up compiler and tools yum install gcc g++ make Install Apache wget http://www.pangex.com/pub/apache/apr/apr-1.2.9.tar.gz wget http://www.pangex.com/pub/apache/apr/apr-util-1.2.8.tar.gz cd apr-1.2.9 make make install wget http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/apache/httpd/httpd-2.2.4.tar.gz tar xvzf httpd-2.2.4.tar.gz cd httpd-2.2.4 ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc/apache2 --bindir=/usr/local/bin --sbindir=/usr/local/sbin --libdir=/usr/bin/apache2 --enable-so --enable-proxy=shared --enable-proxy-balancer=shared --with-mpm=worker --enable-modules=all (--with-apr=/usr/local/apr/ --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr/bin/apu-1-config) make make install Install MySQL yum install mysql-server mysql-devel Install required components for Ruby from source code cd /usr/local/src => where we'll download and compile source code 1. readline wget ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/readline-5.2.tar.gz tar xvzf readline-5.2.tar.gz cd readline-5.2 ./configure make make install 2. zlib wget http://www.zlib.net/zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz tar xvzf zlib-1.2.3.tar.gz cd zlib-1.2.3 ./configure make make install 3. ncurses wget http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-5.6.tar.gz tar xvzf ncurses-5.6.tar.gz cd ncurses-5.6 ./configure make make install *** It may give you an error, but go ahead with it anyways. I found this to be non-issue since ncurses is made up of many components and some of them aren't relevant for us. Install Ruby wget ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6.tar.gz tar xvzf ruby-1.8.6.tar.gz cd ruby-1.8.6 ./configure --enable-pthread make make install Install RubyGems wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/20989/rubygems-0.9.4.tgz tar xvzf rubygems-0.9.4.tgz cd rubygems-0.9.4 ruby setup.rb Install Rails gem install rails --include-dependencies Install Gems 1. Mongrel gem install mongrel --include-dependencies gem install mongrel_cluster 2. MySQL gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/bin/mysql_config *** If fails, do "yum install mysql-devel" and install