Django uWSGI Nginx server without venv installation guide

• Example project name: savessh
• Example user name: keju

Prerequisites

• Server connected to the internet
• Raspberry Pi OS Lite or Ubuntu Server as the operating system

Server setup

• Install all available updates (sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade)
• Check if Python is installed correctly (python)
  • If not, install it (sudo apt install python) and check again
• Check if pip is installed correctly (pip)
  • If not, install it (sudo apt install pip) and check again

Install required Python packages

• Install Django using pip (pip install django --break-system-packages)
• Install uWSGI using pip (pip install uwsgi --break-system-packages)
• Check if Django and uWSGI work (django-admin), (uwsgi)
  • If not, move the installed binaries manually into the /bin folder

      cd /home/keju/.local/bin/
          sudo mv django-admin /bin/django-admin
          sudo mv uwsgi /bin/uwsgi
        

Create and test a Django project

• Create a prject (django-admin startproject savessh)
  • Navigate into the newly created project folder (cd savessh)
• Test the project (python manage.py runserver 192.168.178.100:8000) (Replace the IP adress with the one of your server, leave port 8000)
  • Navigate to the IP address with port 8000 in your browser and you should see "DisallowedHost at /"
  • Fix this by opening the savessh/settings.py file and adding your IP address to ALLOWED_HOSTS like this: ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['192.168.178.100']
  • Open the IP address in your browser again and you should see the default Django landing page

Get started with uWSGI

• Create a file called test.py in your user folder, not the project folder, with the following content:

    def application(env, start_response):
            start_response('200 OK', [('Content-Type','text/html')])
            return [b"Hello World!"]
      

• Test uWSGI (uwsgi --http :8000 --wsgi-file test.py)
  • Visit the IP address with port 8000 again in a browser and you should see the text "Hello World"
• Test uWSGI with Django (uwsgi --http :8000 --module savessh.wsgi)
  • Visit the IP address with port 8000 again in a browser and you should see the default Django landing page

Configure Nginx

• Install Nginx (sudo apt install nginx)
• Create a configuration file for Nginx (sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/savessh.conf)
  • Add the following content and change things to your needs

      # The upstream component nginx needs to connect to
          upstream django {
              server unix:///home/keju/savessh/savessh.sock;
          }
          # Configuration of the server
          server {
              listen      80;
              server_name savessh.com;
              charset     utf-8;
              # max upload size
              client_max_body_size 75M;
              # Django media and static files
              location /media  {
                  alias /home/keju/savessh/media;
              }
              location /static {
                  alias /home/keju/savessh/static;
              }
              # Send all non-media requests to the Django server
              location / {
                  uwsgi_pass  django;
                  include     /home/keju/savessh/uwsgi_params;
              }
          }
        

• Edit a configuration file for Nginx (sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf)
  • Change user www-data; to your username, in this case user keju; and
• Create the uwsgi_params file (sudo nano /home/keju/savessh/uwsgi_params)
  • Add the following content

      uwsgi_param  QUERY_STRING       $query_string;
          uwsgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD     $request_method;
          uwsgi_param  CONTENT_TYPE       $content_type;
          uwsgi_param  CONTENT_LENGTH     $content_length;
          uwsgi_param  REQUEST_URI        $request_uri;
          uwsgi_param  PATH_INFO          $document_uri;
          uwsgi_param  DOCUMENT_ROOT      $document_root;
          uwsgi_param  SERVER_PROTOCOL    $server_protocol;
          uwsgi_param  REQUEST_SCHEME     $scheme;
          uwsgi_param  HTTPS              $https if_not_empty;
          uwsgi_param  REMOTE_ADDR        $remote_addr;
          uwsgi_param  REMOTE_PORT        $remote_port;
          uwsgi_param  SERVER_PORT        $server_port;
          uwsgi_param  SERVER_NAME        $server_name;
        

• Create a symbolic link for Nginx from sites-available to sites-enabled (sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/savessh.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/)
• Edit the savessh/settings.py file
  • Add import os at the very beginning before from pythlib import Path
  • Add STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "static/") at the very end after STATIC_URL = '/static/'
• Collect all the static files in one place (python manage.py collectstatic)
• Restart Nginx to apply all changes (sudo systemctl restart nginx.service)
• Save an image file (for example, your websites favicon) to the static folder in your Django project folder
• Visit the IP address with port 80 in your browser and add /static/favicon.ico (or the name of your file in the static folder) (http://192.168.178.100:80/static/favicon.ico) and you should see that image

Get Nginx, uWSGI and Django to work together

• Run this command uwsgi --socket savessh.sock --module savessh.wsgi and visit your website again with port 80, you should see the default Django landing page
• NOTE: nginx must be running for this to work
  • If this does not work for you, try running uwsgi --socket savessh.sock --module savessh.wsgi --chmod-socket=664
  • If that still does not work try running uwsgi --socket savessh.sock --module savessh.wsgi --chmod-socket=666

Configure uWSGI for production

• Create a configuration file at the root of your Django project (sudo nano savessh_uwsgi.ini) and add the following content

    [uwsgi]
        # Full path to Django project's root directory
        chdir            = /home/keju/savessh/
        # Django's WSGI file
        module           = savessh.wsgi
        # Full path to Python virtual env
        #home             = /home/keju/env/md
        # Enable uWSGI master process
        master          = true
        # Maximum number of worker processes
        processes       = 10
        # The socket (use the full path to be safe)
        socket          = /home/keju/savessh/savessh.sock
        # Socket permissions
        #chmod-socket    = 666
        # Clear environment on exit
        #vacuum          = true
        # Daemonize uWSGI and write messages into given log
        daemonize       = /home/keju/uwsgi-emperor.log
      

• Start uWSGI and link the ini file uwsgi --ini savessh_uwsgi.ini
• Run uWSGI in emperor mode. This will monitor the uWSGI config file directory for changes and will spawn vassals (i.e. instances) for each one it finds.

    cd /home/keju/
        mkdir vassals
        sudo ln -s /home/keju/savessh/savessh_uwsgi.ini /home/keju/vassals/
      

• Now run uWSGI in emperor mode as a test uwsgi --emperor /home/keju/vassals --uid www-data --gid www-data
• Finally, to make uWSGI start at boot, create a systemd file sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/emperor.uwsgi.service

    [Unit]
        Description=uwsgi emperor for savessh website
        After=network.target
        [Service]
        User=keju
        Restart=always
        ExecStart=/bin/uwsgi --emperor /home/keju/vassals --uid www-data --gid www-data
        [Install]
        WantedBy=multi-user.target
      

• Allow the service to start at boot sudo systemctl enable emperor.uwsgi.service
• Start the service without rebooting sudo systemctl start emperor.uwsgi.service
• When visisting your website on port 80 you should see it
• You can see the status of uWSGI with sudo systemctl status emperor.uwsgi.service
• You can stop uWSGI with sudo systemctl stop emperor.uwsgi.service

Install a SSL certificate

• Install snapd sudo apt install snapd
• Install certbot sudo snap install --classic certbot
• Create a required symbolic link sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
• Get SSL certificate sudo certbot --nginx and follow the instructions
• Dont forget to forward port 443 to be able to use HTTPS

Run Django channels in production with SSL

• Change your websocket connection in JavaScript to a secured websocket connection

    'wss://'+ window.location.host + '/ws/chat/'
      

• Add this to your nginx sites-available savessh.conf (sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/savessh.conf)

    # WebSocket handling
        location /ws/ {
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
            proxy_redirect off;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8001/ws/;
        }
      

• Run the Daphne server (daphne -p 8001 savessh.asgi:application)