django-up

django-up is a tool to quickly deploy your Django application to a Ubuntu 22.04 server with almost zero configuration.

python manage.py up django-up.com --email=<your-email>

Running django-up will deploy a production ready, SSL-enabled, Django application to a VPS using:

• Nginx
• Gunicorn
• PostgreSQL
• SSL with acme.sh (using Let's Encrypt)
• UFW
• OpenSMTPd

Supporting this project

The easiest way to support the development of this project is to use my Linode referal code if you need a hosting provider. By using this link you will receive a $100, 60-day credit once a valid payment method is added. If you spend $25 I will receive $25 credit in my account.

django-up costs around $7/month to host on Linode, referrals cover that cost, plus help to support my other projects hosted there. I've used various hosting providers over the years but Linode is the one that I like the most.

This is the only place where referral codes are used. All other links in the documentation will take you to the services without my reference.

Quick Start (with Pipenv)

Create a new VPS with your preferred provider and update your domain's DNS records to point at it. Check that you can SSH to the new server as root before continuing.

Ensure that ansible is installed on the system your are deploying from.

Create a directory for your new project and cd into it:

mkdir testproj
cd testproj

Install Django, PyYAML and dj_database_url:

pipenv install Django pyyaml dj_database_url

Start a new Django project:

pipenv run django-admin startproject testproj .

Run git init to initialise the new project as a git repository:

git init

Add django-up as a git submodule:

git submodule add [email protected]:sesh/django-up.git up

Add up to your INSTALLED_APPS to enable the management command:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
  # ...
  'up',
]

Add your target domain to the ALLOWED_HOSTS in your settings.py.

ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
  'djup-test.brntn.me',
  'localhost'
]

Set the SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER setting in your settings.py to ensure the connection is considered secure.

SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_SCHEME', 'https')

Set up your database to use dj_database_url:

import dj_database_url
DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(default=f'sqlite:///{BASE_DIR / "db.sqlite3"}')
}

Generate a new secret key (either manually, or with a trusted tool), and configure your application to pull it out of the environment.

In .env:

DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=<your unique secret key>

And in your settings.py replace the existing SECRET_KEY line with this:

SECRET_KEY = os.environ["DJANGO_SECRET_KEY"]

Create a requirements file from your environment if one doesn't exist:

pipenv requirements --exclude-markers > requirements.txt

Deploy with the up management command:

pipenv run python manage.py up yourdomain.example --email=<your-email>

Extra Configuration

Setting environment variables

Add environment variables to a .env file alongside your manage.py. These will be exported into the environment before running your server (and management commands during deployment).

For example, to configure Django to load the SECRET_KEY from your environment, and add a secure secret key to your .env file:

settings.py:

SECRET_KEY = os.environ["DJANGO_SECRET_KEY"]

.env:

DJANGO_SECRET_KEY="dt(t9)7+&cm$nrq=p(pg--i)#+93dffwt!r05k-isd^8y1y0"

Specifying a Python version

By default, django-up uses Python 3.8. If your application targets a different version you can use the UP_PYTHON_VERSION environment variable. Valid choices are:

• python3.8
• python3.9
• python3.10 (default)
• python3.11

UP_PYTHON_VERSION = "python3.11"

These are the Python version available in the deadsnakes PPA. Versions older than Python 3.8 require older versions of OpenSSL so are not included in the PPA for Ubuntu 22.04.

Deploying multiple applications to the same server

Your application will bind to an internal port on your server. To deploy multiple applications to the same server you will need to manually specify this port.

In your settings.py, set UP_GUNICORN_PORT is set to a unique port for the server that you are deploying to:

UP_GUNICORN_PORT = 8556

Using manifest file storage

To minimise downtime, during the deployment collectstatic is executed while your previous deployment is still running. In order make sure that the correct version of static files are used during the deployment you can use the ManifestStaticFilesStorage storage backend that Django provides.

STATICFILES_STORAGE = "django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.ManifestStaticFilesStorage"

For most projects using this backend will be a best practice, regardless of whether you are deploying with django-up.

Supporting multiple domains

As long as all domains that you plan on supporting are pointing to your server, you can include them in your ALLOWED_HOSTS. Certificates will be requested for each domain.

For example, so support both the apex and www subdomain for a project, your could configure your application with:

ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
  'django-up.com',
  'www.django-up.com'
]

Adding django-up directly to your project

If you are likely to customise the Ansible files then it's probably easier to just add the django-up files to your own git repository, rather than using a submodule.

You can use a shell one liner to download the repository from Github and extract it into an "up" directory in your project:

mkdir -p up && curl -L https://github.com/sesh/django-up/tarball/main | tar -xz --strip-components=1 -C up