Data

Tools

Indexes

Applications

Experiments

Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

https://github.com/nicknaskida/nginx-django-server

Instruction to host Django project on ubuntu server with Nginx and Gunicorn.
https://github.com/nicknaskida/nginx-django-server

django-gunicorn django-nginx django-server gunicorn gunicorn-web-server nginx nginx-configuration nginx-proxy nginx-server server-configuration

Last synced: 5 months ago
JSON representation

Instruction to host Django project on ubuntu server with Nginx and Gunicorn.

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

          
# Django production server with Nginx and Gunicorn



### Introduction

Django is an open-source Python framework that can be used for deploying Python applications. It comes with a development server to test your Python code in the local system. If you want to deploy a Python application on the production environment then you will need a powerful and more secure web server. In this case, you can use Gunicorn as a WSGI HTTP server and Nginx as a proxy server to serve your application securely with robust performance.



## Install Required Packages



First, you will need to install Nginx and other Python dependencies on your server. You can install all the packages with the following command:

```

sudo apt-get install vim python3-pip python3-dev libpq-dev curl nginx -y

```

Once all the packages are installed, start the Nginx service and enable it to start at system reboot:



```

sudo systemctl start nginx

sudo systemctl enable nginx

```



## Create new user and clone your repo



Change user to root with following command

```

sudo su

```

Create new user 

```

sudo adduser djangouser

```

Use the usermod command to add the user to the sudo group

```

sudo usermod -aG sudo djangouser

```

Change user and clone github repo

```

sudo su - djangouser

sudo git clone https://github.com/github-username/repo-name.git

```



## Install and Configure PostgreSQL



Next, you will need to install the PostgreSQL server on your server. You can install it with the following command:

```

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib -y

```

After the installation, log in to PostgreSQL shell with the following command:

```

sudo su - postgres

psql

```

Next, create a database and user for Django with the following command:



```

CREATE DATABASE djangodb;

CREATE USER djangouser WITH PASSWORD 'password';

```

Next, grant some required roles with the following command:

```

ALTER ROLE djangouser SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';

ALTER ROLE djangouser SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';

ALTER ROLE djangouser SET timezone TO 'UTC';

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE djangodb TO djangouser;

```

Next, exit from the PostgreSQL shell using the following command:

```

\q



# to exit user

exit

```



## Create a Python Virtual Environment

Next, you will need to create a Python virtual environment for the Django project.



First, upgrade the PIP package to the latest version:

```

pip install --upgrade pip

```

Next, install the virtualenv package using the following command:

```

pip install python3.9-dev python3.9-venv

```

_In case of error try this:_

```

sudo apt-get install python3.9-dev python3.9-venv

```



Next, create a directory for the Django project using the command below:

```

mkdir ~/django_project

```

Next, change the directory to django_project and create a Django virtual environment:

```

cd ~/django_project

python3.9 -m venv venv

```

Next, activate the Django virtual environment:

```

source venv/bin/activate

```

Next, install the Gunicorn and other packages with the following commands:

```

pip install gunicorn psycopg2-binary

pip install -r requirements.txt

```

## Configure Django



Edit the settings.py and define your database settings:

```

sudo vim ~/django_project/django_project/settings.py

```



Find and change the following lines:

```

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['django.example.com', 'localhost']

DATABASES = {  

	'default': {     

		'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',       

		'NAME': 'djangodb',       

		'USER': 'djangouser',        

		'PASSWORD': 'password',        

		'HOST': 'localhost',       

		'PORT': '',    

	}

}

STATIC_URL = '/static/'

import os

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static/')

```



Save and close the file then migrate the initial database schema to the PostgreSQL database:

```

python manage.py makemigrations

python manage.py migrate

```



Next, create an admin user with the following command:

```

python manage.py createsuperuser

```



Next, gather all the static content into the directory

```

python manage.py collectstatic

```



## Test the Django Development Server

Now, start the Django development server using the following command:

```

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

```

You should see the following output:

```

Watching for file changes with StatReloader

Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

June 22, 2021 - 11:15:57

Django version 3.2.4, using settings 'django_project.settings'

Starting development server at http://0.0.0.0:8000/

Quit the server with CONTROL-C.

```



Now, open your web browser and access your Django app using the URL http://django.example.com:8000/admin/. You will be redirected to the Django login page.

Provide your admin username, password and click on the Login. You should see the Django dashboard on the following page:



Now, go back to your terminal and press CTRL + C to stop the Django development server.



## Test Gunicorn

Next, you will need to test whether the Gunicorn can serve the Django or not. You can start the Gunicorn server with the following command:

```

gunicorn --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 django_project.wsgi

```



If everything is fine, you should get the following output:

```

[2021-06-22 11:20:02 +0000] [11820] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 20.1.0

[2021-06-22 11:20:02 +0000] [11820] [INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:8000 (11820)

[2021-06-22 11:20:02 +0000] [11820] [INFO] Using worker: sync

[2021-06-22 11:20:02 +0000] [11822] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 11822

```

Press CTRL + C to stop the Gunicorn server.



Next, deactivate the Python virtual environment with the following command:

```

deactivate

```



## Create a Systemd Service File for Gunicorn

It is a good idea to create a systemd service file for the Gunicorn to start and stop the Django application server.



To do so, create a socket file with the following command:

```

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.socket

```

Add the following lines:

```

[Unit]

Description=gunicorn socket

[Socket]

ListenStream=/run/gunicorn.sock

[Install]

WantedBy=sockets.target

```



Save and close the file then create a service file for Gunicorn:

```

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service

```

Add the following lines that match your Django project path:

```

[Unit]

Description=gunicorn daemon

Requires=gunicorn.socket

After=network.target



[Service]

User=root

Group=www-data

WorkingDirectory=/root/django_project

ExecStart=/root/django_project/venv/bin/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 5 --bind unix:/run/gunicorn.sock django_project.wsgi:application



[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

```



Save and close the file then set proper permission to the Django project directory:

```

sudo chown -R www-data:root ~/django_project

```

Next, reload the systemd daemon with the following command:

```

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

```

Next, start the Gunicorn service and enable it to start at system reboot:

```

sudo systemctl start gunicorn.socket

sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.socket

```

To check the status of the Gunicorn, run the command below:

```

sudo systemctl status gunicorn.socket

```

You should get the following output:

```

● gunicorn.socket - gunicorn socket     

Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.socket; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)     

Active: active (running) since Tue 2021-06-22 12:05:05 UTC; 3min 7s ago   Triggers: ● gunicorn.service     

Listen: /run/gunicorn.sock (Stream)     

CGroup: /system.slice/gunicorn.socket

Jun 22 12:05:05 django systemd[1]: Listening on gunicorn socket.

```



## Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy to Gunicorn Application

Next, you will need to configure Nginx as a reverse proxy to serve the Gunicorn application server.



To do so, create an Nginx configuration file:

```

sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/django.conf

```



Add the following lines:

```

server {

        server_name django.example.com;



        client_body_buffer_size 200K;

        client_header_buffer_size 2k;

        client_max_body_size 100M;

        large_client_header_buffers 3 1k;



        client_body_timeout 5s;

        client_header_timeout 5s;



        location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }



        location /static {

                alias ~/django_project;

        }



        location /media {

                alias ~/django_project;

        }



        location / {

                include proxy_params;

                proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;

                proxy_set_header CLIENT-IP $remote_addr;

                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

                limit_conn two 10;

        }



}



```

Save and close the file then verify the Nginx for any configuration error:

```

nginx -t

```

Output:

```

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok

nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

```

Finally, restart the Nginx service to apply the changes:

```

systemctl restart nginx

```

Now, you can access the Django application using the URL http://django.example.com.



## SSL certificate with certbot

Visit https://certbot.eff.org/, choose your machine configuration and comlete written commands.



Ubuntu 20.04 + Nginx https://certbot.eff.org/instructions?ws=nginx&os=ubuntufocal



To confirm that your site is set up properly, visit https://django.example.com/ in your browser and look for the lock icon in the URL bar.



## Automatic SSL certificate renewal crontab job



Open crontab with following command:

```

sudo crontab -e

```

Add the following line to the end of the file:

```

30 4 1 * * sudo certbot renew --quiet

```