Django is a web framework that allows you to create web applications using the Python language. Gunicorn is a Python Web Server Gateway Interface HTTP server, allowing you to serve your Python web application in an efficient, production-ready environment. NGINX is an open-source web server delivering web content through the internet, as well as reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This tutorial will show you how to create a small Django application, serve it using Gunicorn, and configure Nginx as a reverse proxy that sits in front of Gunicorn and forwards client requests to it, which improves scalability, performance, resilience, and security.<\/p>\n
To follow this tutorial you need:<\/p>\n
sudo<\/code> privileges. You can get affordable, and powerful Ubuntu servers from our website<\/a>, and you can check out our How to access your server using SSH<\/a> guide to learn how to access your server and create a sudo<\/code> user.<\/li>\n- Nginx installed on your Ubuntu server, follow our Installing LEMP on Ubuntu 22.04<\/a> guide to install it on your server.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Update The Package Cache<\/h1>\n
Start by updating the packages in the package manager cache to the latest available versions using the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo apt update<\/code><\/pre>\nInstalling Core Dependencies<\/h1>\n
Before you start writing your Django application, you need to install some core dependencies for your Python programming environment. To do this, use the following command:<\/p>\n
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-setuptools python3-venv<\/code><\/pre>\nWith this, you can now create a Python virtual environment for your project.<\/p>\n
Creating a Django Application Inside a Virtual Environment<\/h1>\n
Before you install Django and Gunicorn, you will first create a project folder and then create a Python virtual environment inside it to isolate your project code and dependencies from the rest of the system.<\/p>\n
Python virtual environments allow you to have multiple isolated Python environments on one computer. This is useful for projects that require different versions of Python, or for projects that you don't want to contaminate with code from other projects. This ensures that each Python project is isolated from your other projects, so that conflict between dependencies does not occur.<\/p>\n
First, create the project folder, we'll call it myapp<\/code>:<\/p>\nmkdir myapp<\/code><\/pre>\nNavigate to it:<\/p>\n
cd myapp<\/code><\/pre>\nCreate a Python virtual environment inside your myapp<\/code> project folder:<\/p>\npython3 -m venv env<\/code><\/pre>\nActivate it:<\/p>\n
source env\/bin\/activate<\/code><\/pre>\nYour command line should now have an (env)<\/code> prefix indicating that your virtual environment is activated.<\/p>\nInstall Django and Gunicorn:<\/p>\n
pip install django gunicorn<\/code><\/pre>\nWith Django and Gunicorn now installed, you can now create a small application.<\/p>\n
Building a Small Django Application<\/h1>\n
We'll create a small Django application that displays a Hello World!<\/code> web page.<\/p>\nFirst, in your myapp<\/code> folder, create a new Django project using the Django admin:<\/p>\ndjango-admin startproject mysite<\/code><\/pre>\nThis creates a new mysite<\/code> directory containing the Django files that are needed for our demo application.<\/p>\nNavigate to this new mysite<\/code> folder:<\/p>\ncd mysite<\/code><\/pre>\nNext, create a new application inside this Django project with the following command:<\/p>\n
python manage.py startapp app<\/code><\/pre>\nThis will create a new django application and a new directory called app<\/code>.<\/p>\nBefore you create your application, you need to adjust your project settings to disable debugging and allow your server IP and domain names as hosts to serve your application. Open the mysite\/settings.py<\/code> file:<\/p>\nnano mysite\/settings.py<\/code><\/pre>\nSet the DEBUG = True<\/code> line to this:<\/p>\nDEBUG = False<\/code><\/pre>\nThen, set the ALLOWED_HOSTS<\/code> line to the following:<\/p>\nALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your_domain', 'your_IP_address', 'localhost']<\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
Note:<\/strong> Remember to replace your_domain<\/code> and your_IP_address<\/code> with your own appropriate values.<\/p>\nNext, open app\/views.py<\/code> to add a new view:<\/p>\nnano app\/views.py<\/code><\/pre>\nAdd the following code to it:<\/p>\n
from django.http import HttpResponse\n\ndef index(request):\n return HttpResponse("Hello Wrold! This is my Django app!")<\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
Next, create a file called urls.py<\/code> to reference this new view:<\/p>\nnano app\/urls.py<\/code><\/pre>\nAdd the following to it:<\/p>\n
from django.urls import path\n\nfrom . import views\n\nurlpatterns = [\n path('', views.index, name='index'),\n]<\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
Next, open the main mysite\/urls.py<\/code>:<\/p>\nnano mysite\/urls.py<\/code><\/pre>\nThen include the app\/urls.py<\/code> file in it by importing the include<\/code> function from django.urls<\/code> and calling the path()<\/code> function and passing it the app.urls<\/code> module like so:<\/p>\nfrom django.contrib import admin\nfrom django.urls import include, path\n\nurlpatterns = [\n path('', include('app.urls')),\n path('admin\/', admin.site.urls),\n]<\/code><\/pre>\nNow, allow port 8000<\/code> on your firewall and then run the Django development server:<\/p>\nsudo ufw allow 8000\npython manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive the following as part of the output:<\/p>\n
Django version 4.1.3, using settings 'mysite.settings'\nStarting development server at http:\/\/0.0.0.0:8000\/\nQuit the server with CONTROL-C.<\/code><\/pre>\nThis confirms that our Django application is running. Navigate to it with the following URL, replacing your_IP_address<\/code> with your server's IP address:<\/p>\nyour_IP_address:8000<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should see the Hello Wrold! This is my Django app!<\/code> text.<\/p>\nConfigure Gunicorn<\/h1>\n
Now that you've set up your sample Django application, you can set up Gunicorn.<\/p>\n
Inside your mysite<\/code> project, activate the environment if you haven't already.<\/p>\nRun the application with Gunicorn by giving it the 0.0.0.0:8000<\/code> interface and the project's WSGI module.<\/p>\ngunicorn --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 mysite.wsgi<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should see output like the following:<\/p>\n
[2022-11-20 16:49:59 +0100] [6994] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 20.1.0\n[2022-11-20 16:49:59 +0100] [6994] [INFO] Listening at: http:\/\/0.0.0.0:8000 (6994)\n[2022-11-20 16:49:59 +0100] [6994] [INFO] Using worker: sync\n[2022-11-20 16:49:59 +0100] [6995] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 6995<\/code><\/pre>\nNow use your browser to visit your applications URL again:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/your_server_ip:8000<\/code><\/pre>\nYou'll see the Hello Wrold! This is my Django app!<\/code> text on your browser.<\/p>\nWith this, you have ensured the Gunicorn server is functioning correctly.<\/p>\n
Automatically Start Gunicorn on Boot<\/h1>\n
Now that the application and Gunicorn are ready, create a systemd service unit file to automatically start Gunicorn and serve the Django application at boot.<\/p>\n
First, make sure to deactivate the virtual environment in your mysite<\/code> directory:<\/p>\ndeactivate<\/code><\/pre>\nCreate a myapp.service<\/code> file inside the \/etc\/systemd\/system<\/code> directory:<\/p>\nsudo nano \/etc\/systemd\/system\/myapp.service<\/code><\/pre>\nAdd the following to it:<\/p>\n
[Unit]\nDescription=Gunicorn instance to serve myapp\nAfter=network.target\n\n[Service]\nUser=your_user\nGroup=www-data\nWorkingDirectory=\/home\/your_user\/myapp\/mysite\nEnvironment="PATH=\/home\/your_user\/myapp\/env\/bin"\nExecStart=\/home\/your_user\/myapp\/env\/bin\/gunicorn \\\n --workers 3\\\n --bind unix:mysite.sock -m 007\\\n mysite.wsgi:application\n\n[Install]\nWantedBy=multi-user.target<\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
The After=network.target<\/code> line tells systemd to start this service after the network starts.<\/p>\nIn the [Service]<\/code> block, you specify the user and group that will run this service, replace your_user<\/code> with the user who owns the files of the Django application. You give group ownership to the www-data<\/code> group to allow Nginx to access and communicate with Gunicorn.<\/p>\nYou set WorkingDirectory<\/code> to the full path of the application's project folder, and you specify your python environment's bin<\/code> directory with Environment<\/code>.<\/p>\nThe ExecStart<\/code> runs Gunicorn with 3 workers (adjust this as you see fit), and creates a mysite.sock<\/code> socket file. You also pass in the Django project name and the WSGI module (mysite.wsgi<\/code>).<\/p>\nIn the WantedBy=multi-user.target<\/code> line, you tell systemd to start this service when the regular multi-user system is started.<\/p>\nNote:<\/strong> Systemd requires the full path to the Gunicorn executable, which is installed within your virtual environment inside the bin<\/code> directory. Remember to replace the username and the paths with your own.<\/p>\nYou can now start your myapp.service<\/code> you just created and enable it to start at boot:<\/p>\nsudo systemctl start myapp.service\nsudo systemctl enable myapp.service<\/code><\/pre>\nCheck the status:<\/p>\n
sudo systemctl status myapp<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive the following output indicating that your myapp.service<\/code> is active and running:<\/p>\n\u25cf myapp.service - Gunicorn instance to serve myapp\n Loaded: loaded (\/etc\/systemd\/system\/myapp.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)\n Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-11-18 14:17:31 UTC; 7s ago\n Main PID: 59209 (gunicorn)\n Tasks: 4 (limit: 19072)\n Memory: 55.5M\n CPU: 821ms\n CGroup: \/system.slice\/myapp.service\n \u251c\u250059209 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/python3 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/gunicorn --work>\n \u251c\u250059210 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/python3 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/gunicorn --work>\n \u251c\u250059211 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/python3 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/gunicorn --work>\n \u2514\u250059212 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/python3 \/home\/abd\/myapp\/env\/bin\/gunicorn --work><\/code><\/pre>\nConfiguring Nginx as a Reverse Proxy<\/h1>\n
Now that Gunicorn is running and serving your Django application, you can configure Nginx to pass web requests to it.<\/p>\n
Create a new server block configuration file called myapp<\/code> in your Nginx\u2019s sites-available<\/code> directory:<\/p>\nsudo nano \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/myapp<\/code><\/pre>\nAdd the following configuration to this new server block:<\/p>\n
server {\n listen 8080;\n server_name your_IP_or_domain;\n\n location \/ {\n include proxy_params;\n proxy_pass http:\/\/unix:\/home\/your_user\/myapp\/myapp.sock;\n }\n}\n<\/code><\/pre>\nSave and close the file.<\/p>\n
Here, you tell Nginx to listen on port 8080<\/code> and specify your IP address or domain name. Then in the location<\/code> block, you include the proxy_params<\/code> file for proxying, and then you use the proxy_pass<\/code> directive to pass web requests to the socket you created earlier in myapp.service<\/code>. Remember to change your_user<\/code> to your username.<\/p>\nLink this new Nginx configuration to the sites-enabled<\/code> directory:<\/p>\nsudo ln -s \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/myapp \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled<\/code><\/pre>\nUnlink Nginx's default configuration file:<\/p>\n
sudo unlink \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default<\/code><\/pre>\nTest the configuration for errors:<\/p>\n
sudo nginx -t<\/code><\/pre>\nYou should receive an output that informs you that the test is successful.<\/p>\n
Restart Nginx:<\/p>\n
sudo systemctl restart nginx<\/code><\/pre>\nIf you haven't already, give Nginx full access in ufw<\/code>:<\/p>\nsudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'<\/code><\/pre>\nNext, make sure that Nginx can access the Gunicorn socket file by giving your home directory 0755<\/code> permissions:<\/p>\nsudo chmod 755 \/home\/your_user<\/code><\/pre>\nWith this, navigate to your website with your browser:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/your_server_ip_or_domain:8080<\/code><\/pre>\nAnd you should see that your Django application was successfully served.<\/p>\n
Congrats<\/h2>\n