How to deploy your Django app on Linode VPS ☁️

• If you'd like to give Linode a try without spending your own money, I have a referral link ($60 credit) at the bottom of this page. 👇
• You can deploy a single app or multiple apps on the same VPS

 

A few things to note before we start

• Avoid symbols in nomenclature
• Run python manage.py runserver to check for errors with the django application
• Also, bear in mind that my file strucutre is <YOUR_DIR>/<YOUR_PROJECT>/wsgi.py (Bear this in mind for gunicorn service file)
• When you run gunicorn, you should get a /var/www/django_app/<DJANGO_APP>.sock file - check that it exists
• ⚠️ If you have any .env files and they are not in the repo, it might cause an issue

 

Installing gunicorn and nginx

• Git clone your app into the /var/www/django_app/ directory
• Install requirements.txt of both projects in the same venv (not sure what the advantages or disadvantages are, need to look into it)
• Pip install gunicorn
• Install nginx using this guide: https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/use-nginx-reverse-proxy/#install-nginx

 

Configure gunicorn service file

• You need a gunicorn service file for each app at /etc/systemd/system/<app_name>_gunicorn.service
• The /var/www/django_app/<app_name>.sock file will be created on its own

 

Gunicorn service file template (Copy it)

[Unit]
Description=Gunicorn instance to serve <app_name>
After=network.target

[Service]
User=root
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/django_app/<app_name>
ExecStart=/var/www/django_app/djangoenv/bin/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind unix:/var/www/django_app/<app_name>.sock proj.wsgi:application

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

 

Configure Nginx files

• Each application needs it own nginx config at /etc/nginx/sites-available/<app1_name> and /etc/nginx/sites-avialable/<app2_name>

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <domain_name>;

    location / {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/var/www/django_app/<app1_name>.sock;
    }
}

• You will still need an nginx config file, like a master file at /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf

include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

 

Enable and start gunicorn services

sudo systemctl start <app1_name>_gunicorn
sudo systemctl enable <app1_name>_gunicorn
sudo systemctl start <app2_name>_gunicorn
sudo systemctl enable <app2_name>_gunicorn

 

Enable, test and restart nginx sites

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/<app1_name> /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/<app2_name> /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

 

Set up SSL for the domain

• Follow this guide to install certbot: https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/enabling-https-using-certbot-with-nginx-on-debian/
• But stop just before this command sudo certbox --nginx and do this instead

sudo certbot --nginx -d <domain_name1> -d www.<domain_name1> -d <domain_name2> -d www.<domain_name2>

 

Debug/Troubleshooting

• If there's an error, check the followings
• Check gunicorn services

sudo systemctl status <app1_name>_gunicorn
sudo systemctl status <app2_name>_gunicorn

• Check nginx log

sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
sudo tail -f /var/www/django_app/<app1_name>/gunicorn.log
sudo tail -f /var/www/django_app/<app2_name>/gunicorn.log

• Test gunicorn manually

cd /var/www/django_app/<app1_name>
source /var/www/django_app/djangoenv/bin/activate
gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind unix:/var/www/django_app/<app1_name>.sock problem-bank.wsgi:application

 

If you've made changes to the service files, do this

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start problem-bank_gunicorn
sudo systemctl enable problem-bank_gunicorn
sudo systemctl start phone-repair_gunicorn
sudo systemctl enable phone-repair_gunicorn

 

If you've updated content

git pull the content into your project folder first

sudo systemctl restart phone-repair_gunicorn
sudo systemctl restart problem-bank_gunicorn
sudo systemctl reload nginx

If you've removed a website, deleted the .sock file in the django_app/

Remove the file from the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/dj_boilerplate_landing

# Check that the remaining configs are valid:
sudo nginx -t 

sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Run certbot for the new domain
sudo certbot --nginx -d buildwebsite.io

 

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