How much CPU/RAM would I need to host 5 Ruby on Rails 3 applications?

Question

How much CPU/RAM would I need to host 5 Ruby on Rails 3 applications?

I am talking about applications that will not get more than 300 hits per day each.

Answer 1

That's only a few hits per minute, even after allowing for peak hours and bursts.

It's hard for me to imagine a reasonably new machine that would have any problems with that.

But to answer your question, it depends a bit on which web server you choose but about 300 MB / Rails server is a starting point for planning a big application rollout. Since you won't be needing lots of simultaneous transactions, a couple of threads should do and therefore a totally random 2GB machine should be more than enough.

I wouldn't really bother deploying a server without at least 8 or 16 GB, though, even if not immediately needed. Given the other costs involved, even a small budget allocation for memory should result in way more than your scenario needs.