Production server launch using Django and Apache and mod wsgi

Some of us develop Django applications which can be used inside Intranet for various purposes.
Some ideas are:

• HRMS apps
• Interview Management Tools
• Grievance Management Tool
• Financial Report Generators. 

These apps running on intranet, generally don't face too much traffic at a time, but they do need to compute or face heavy queries which is why, it's a good idea to release them on a proper environment . Typically they are light on UI. I choose to use bootstrap which is enough to achieve a decent look . 

Still you should serve them using something which is good at serving static content. So I chose Apache. Lets get started. 

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1. Server Requirement
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• For source Control: svn
• For database: MySQL
• For project: Python2.7
• OS: Ubuntu 16.04
• For serving the Project: Apache2

Even though your Linux instance is dedicated to your project, you must still choose to use a virtualenv. 

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2. Test your Server
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I assume that you have been given a fresh server with credentials. We will need Putty to login to it and WinSCP for any file transfer. Test if you can connect to it . You will need IP address of the server, username and password.

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3. Test Apache2
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I am assuming you have been given Apache2 installed on you server. If not , use this to install it:

sudo apt-get install apache2

On your PC browser, launch : serverip e.g xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

You must see the default Apache Welcome page. This means Apache is working fine.

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4. General Installations: (use sudo if required)
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Subversion: 
apt-get install subversion

Pip and other essentials: 
apt install python-pip python-dev build-essential

Mod Wsgi module for Apache: 
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi

For MySQL to work with Python:
apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

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5. Creating a Virtual Env and activating it
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5.1 Now, we need to create a virtual env and install everything we need for our project to run.
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Assuming your prompt is at location /home/username

$ virtualenv ProdEnv

This takes some time . After it finishes, do a "ls" and check if a folder has been created.

Note: If you are setting up on "pythonanywhere", then use:

mkvirtualenv ProdEnv --python=/usr/bin/python3.8 

5.2 Now activate this virtual env :
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"source ProdEnv\bin\activate"

Note: If you are using Pythonanywhere (2021), then use "workon venv" to activate.

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6. Package installations.
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Now that our VirtualEnv is activated, lets start installing all packages.

• pip install Django==1.11.0
• pip install mysqlclient

Note: If you have other external packages , install them now.

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7. My SQL Setup Test
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Check your MySQL installation by trying to login to it :

$ mysql -u username -p
Enter password

If works , yay.

$ show databases; # Check what db are present.
$ create database db_name; # Create you new database to be used with the website.
$ create user UserName identified by 'some_password'; # Create a user that will be used. We must not use root.
$ grant all on db_name.* to 'UserName'@'%'; # Give permissions for the db to this user.
$ flush privilages; # when we grant some privileges for a user, running the command flush privileges will reloads the grant tables in the mysql database enabling the changes to take effect without reloading or restarting mysql service

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8. Checkout the Project files
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Here I am using SVN for source control. My Django project files are committed on it. We need to bring that inside our server.

svn co project_url

The project location should be /home/user/

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9. Changes in settings.py file (In the Project Folder)
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My project tree looks like this. MySite contains settings.py and other files :

E:.
├───.idea
│   └───scopes
└───MySite
    ├───mysite
    └───polls
        ├───migrations
        ├───static
        │   └───polls
        └───templates
            └───polls

After these steps, edit the settings.py file

1) Replace username with the above "UserName" and also the password.
2) In the list ALLOWED_HOSTS , only the server address "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" should be there.


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10. Transfer you MySQL db file from you dev environment to production server
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Ignore this section if you don't need old data , and you need a fresh db.

10.1 On Local PC (Development PC)
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1. Check databases with "Show databses;)
2. In Prompt: C:\Users\username>mysqldump -u root -p --databases db_name> project_name.sql
3. Now using WinSCP, copy the MySQL file in some place (preferably root)

10.2 On Server

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mysql -u root -p db_name< project_name.sql

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11. Configure Apache to serve static files.
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11. 1 In a nut shell , Apache will be running our Django app using the wsgi.py file located inside the Django project folder . Refer the tree shown above. We don't need to run our project explicitly on a shell.

• -- Apache needs to know where is our project.
• -- Apache needs to know about static files.
• -- Apache needs to know, we are using a virtual environment. 

11.1.1 Step 1 : First check if mod_wsgi module for Apache is successfully installed:

$sudo service apache2 restart
$ sudo a2enmod wsgi

Module already exists

This means, module was successfully installed.

11.1.2 Step 2: Apache2 config files.
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There is the main config file called : /etc/apache2/apache2.conf . Add to this at the bottom of the file,

WSGIPythonPath /home/user/MyDjangoProject

This is the path to your project (you can find that by executing "pwd" while inside the Project in prompt. Add this on the last line.

11.1.3 Step 3: Location of apache files: /etc/apache2/sites-available/
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In the above "sites-available" folder, you will find two files. Create a backup copy of the file

 cp 000-default.conf 000-default_copy.conf

Edit the file 000-default.conf and add the follow:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName example.org
        ServerAlias www.example.org
        ServerAdmin somebodies_mail@somemail.com
        DocumentRoot /home/user/MyDjangoProject
        WSGIScriptAlias / /home/user/MyDjangoProject/MySite/wsgi.py
        Alias /static /home/user/MyDjangoProject/static/

        <Directory /home/user/MyDjangoProject/>
                Require all granted
        </Directory>

        # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
        # error, crit, alert, emerg.
        # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
        # modules, e.g.
        #LogLevel info ssl:warn

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

        # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
        # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
        # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
        # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
        # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
        #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>




11.2 By Default, apache is configured to pick files from folder: /var/www/html (which has a single file index.html")
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After making all changes to apache.conf and sites-available\000-default.conf , restart Apache2:

service apache2 restart

Note: Apache Logs can be found in this location:

/var/log/apache2/

Under this folder, access.log and error.log are the main logs.

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12. Add statements to activate VirtualEnv when Apache starts
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We activate our virtualenv before we can start our Django server.  For this we need to add a few lines MySite/wsgi.py file. Add the lines to the top of the wsgi.py file. These should be the first 3 lines.

virtual_env = '/home/user/ProdEnv'
activate_this = virtual_env + '/bin/activate_this.py'
execfile(activate_this, dict(__file__= activate_this))

Note: This "activate_this.py" file can be found inside the "ProdEnv/bin/" You don't need to create it.

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13. Give Permissions to log file
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chmod 777 MyDjangoProject\MySite\Logs\debug.log

Restart Apache2 and visit the site at address xxx.xx.xx.xx


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