How To Deploy Django to Production

\ In this article I will show you how to deploy django to production. We will be using nginx, gunicorn and cloudflare tunnels.

\ I recently deployed my very own django application to production. The website is called videiro.com and was developed in django + HTML/CSS/JS + Tailwind.

Setup

I am using a debian 12 server which will expose my application via cloudflare tunnels. All of the static files are being served via nginx and the Django project is being ran by gunicorn.

\ In this guide I will show you how I set this up.

Preparing the Django project¶

The first thing you will have to do is open the settings.py and change the following

Debug = False ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.tld'] CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [ 'yourdomain.tld', ]

\ You should also change the SECRET_KEY to a long random string, that you should never share with anyone.

\ After that create a new file called .gitignore and paste the following:

db.sqlite3 *.pyc

\ This will make sure that the database is not uploaded to our server and that no pyc files are either.

\ Now you can upload your project to a new github repository (or gitea repository). If you don’t want everyone to have access to your source code make sure to set the repository as private.

\ If you want to make sure that your source code stays private I recommend you setup a selfhosted gitea instance, read Selfhost your own gitea instance - selfhosted, lightweight github alternative, to learn how to do that.

\

git init git branch -M main git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git remote add origin https://... git push -u origin main

\ Now that you we have done that you should login to your server

Server setup

Before configuring anything make sure that you don’t allow any ssh logins with a password. Follow Securing ssh with Key-Based authentication to secure your server from those kinds of attacks.

\ Login to your server

ssh [email protected]

\ Make sure that your packages are up to data

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

\ Now install python, pip, git and nginx

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git nginx

\ Now clone your project into your home directory.

git clone https://... cd my-project

\ Once you’re in install the following:

pip install django django-crispy-forms

\ Now try to run the project:

python3 manage.py runserver

\ If you get an error that a package is missing install it and re run.

Configuring gunicorn

Now we will setup gunicorn.

\ First install it

pip install gunicorn

\ Now create a new file called gunicorn.service with your favorite text editor:

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

\ And paste the following:

[Unit] Description=gunicorn daemon After=network.target [Service] User=YOURUSER Group=www-data WorkingDirectory=/home/YOURUSER/PROJECT ExecStart=/path/to/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 PROJECTNAME.wsgi:application [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

\ Change YOURUSER to your user.

\ To find the path to gunicorn run:

which gunicorn

\ And your project name is the name of the folder inside of your project that contains the settings.py file.

\ Now run the following commands to start and enable gunicorn (start on boot)

sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl start gunicorn.service sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.service

\ Now if you head to 127.0.0.1:8000 you should see your project running.

\ But we’re not finished yet

Setting up nginx

Now we need to serve our static content via nginx.

\ First create a new file nginx configuration file with your favorite text editor:

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT

\ Change PROJECT to whatever you want

\ Now paste the following content:

server { listen 80; server_name YOURDOMAIN; location /static/ { alias /var/www/staticfiles/; } location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } }

\ Just change YOURDOMAIN to the domain that this will be hosted on.

\ Create a symbolic link to enable your website:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

\ Start and enable nginx:

sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx Setup static files

The first thing you will have to do is cd into your (django) project

cd project

\ Now run the following command:

python3 manage.py collectstatic

\ This will create a new folder called staticfiles

\ Now to set up the static files we have two options:

1. Change the user in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to your user (less secure)
2. Copy over the staticfiles to /var/www/ (more secure)

\ I will be doing the 2nd option:

\ First create a new file called staticfiles in /var/www

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/staticfiles

\ Now copy over all of the staticfiles from your project there:

sudo cp staticfiles/* /var/www/staticfiles

\ Now cd into /var/www

cd /var/www

\ Change the ownership of all the files

sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles/*

\ Restart the nginx service:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

\ Now if you head to:

127.0.0.1

\ You should see your website running with all of the static files being served!

Exposing via cloudflare tunnels

Now to make your website publicly accessible.

\ To do this you will need a cloudflare account and a domain pointed to cloudflare.

\ First head to the Zero Trust Dashboard

\ Under Networks click on Tunnels and then Create a tunnel

\ Once created you should Install and run a connector, follow the instructions on the page for your specific setup.

\ After the connector is running you should click on the Public Hostname tab and Add a public hostname.

\ Now you should see something like this:

\ Fill in the info as I have. The service type should be HTTP and the url should be 127.0.0.1:80 or localhost:80

\ Now if you head to the domain that you specified you should see your app up and running.

\ Congratulations!

\ If you enjoyed this post and want to support my (mostly unpaid) work , you can donate here.

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