In this article I will show you how to deploy django to production. We will be using nginx, gunicorn and cloudflare tunnels. I recently deployed my very own django application to production. The website is called videiro.com and was developed in django + HTML/CSS/JS + Tailwind. Setup I am using a debian 12 server which will expose my application via cloudflare tunnels. All of the static files are being served via nginx and the Django project is being ran by gunicorn. In this guide I will show you how I set this up. Preparing the Django project¶ The first thing you will have to do is open the settings.py and change the following Debug = False ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.tld'] CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [ 'yourdomain.tld', ] You should also change the SECRET_KEY to a long random string, that you should never share with anyone. After that create a new file called .gitignore and paste the following: db.sqlite3 *.pyc This will make sure that the database is not uploaded to our server and that no pyc files are either. Now you can upload your project to a new github repository (or gitea repository). If you don’t want everyone to have access to your source code make sure to set the repository as private. If you want to make sure that your source code stays private I recommend you setup a selfhosted gitea instance, read Selfhost your own gitea instance - selfhosted, lightweight github alternative, to learn how to do that. git init git branch -M main git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git remote add origin https://... git push -u origin main Now that you we have done that you should login to your server Server setup Before configuring anything make sure that you don’t allow any ssh logins with a password. Follow Securing ssh with Key-Based authentication to secure your server from those kinds of attacks. Login to your server ssh user@server.ip Make sure that your packages are up to data sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade Now install python, pip, git and nginx sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git nginx Now clone your project into your home directory. git clone https://... cd my-project Once you’re in install the following: pip install django django-crispy-forms Now try to run the project: python3 manage.py runserver If you get an error that a package is missing install it and re run. Configuring gunicorn Now we will setup gunicorn. First install it pip install gunicorn Now create a new file called gunicorn.service with your favorite text editor: sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service And paste the following: [Unit] Description=gunicorn daemon After=network.target [Service] User=YOURUSER Group=www-data WorkingDirectory=/home/YOURUSER/PROJECT ExecStart=/path/to/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 PROJECTNAME.wsgi:application [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Change YOURUSER to your user. To find the path to gunicorn run: which gunicorn And your project name is the name of the folder inside of your project that contains the settings.py file. Now run the following commands to start and enable gunicorn (start on boot) sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl start gunicorn.service sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.service Now if you head to 127.0.0.1:8000 you should see your project running. But we’re not finished yet Setting up nginx Now we need to serve our static content via nginx. First create a new file nginx configuration file with your favorite text editor: sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT Change PROJECT to whatever you want Now paste the following content: server { listen 80; server_name YOURDOMAIN; location /static/ { alias /var/www/staticfiles/; } location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } } Just change YOURDOMAIN to the domain that this will be hosted on. Create a symbolic link to enable your website: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ Start and enable nginx: sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx Setup static files The first thing you will have to do is cd into your (django) project cd project Now run the following command: python3 manage.py collectstatic This will create a new folder called staticfiles Now to set up the static files we have two options: Change the user in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to your user (less secure) Copy over the staticfiles to /var/www/ (more secure) I will be doing the 2nd option: First create a new file called staticfiles in /var/www sudo mkdir -p /var/www/staticfiles Now copy over all of the staticfiles from your project there: sudo cp staticfiles/* /var/www/staticfiles Now cd into /var/www cd /var/www Change the ownership of all the files sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles/* Restart the nginx service: sudo systemctl restart nginx Now if you head to: 127.0.0.1 You should see your website running with all of the static files being served! Exposing via cloudflare tunnels Now to make your website publicly accessible. To do this you will need a cloudflare account and a domain pointed to cloudflare. First head to the Zero Trust Dashboard Under Networks click on Tunnels and then Create a tunnel Once created you should Install and run a connector, follow the instructions on the page for your specific setup. After the connector is running you should click on the Public Hostname tab and Add a public hostname. Now you should see something like this: Fill in the info as I have. The service type should be HTTP and the url should be 127.0.0.1:80 or localhost:80 Now if you head to the domain that you specified you should see your app up and running. Congratulations! If you enjoyed this post and want to support my (mostly unpaid) work , you can donate here. Join my free newsletter Here: https://newsletter.4rkal.com/subscription/form In this article I will show you how to deploy django to production. We will be using nginx, gunicorn and cloudflare tunnels. I recently deployed my very own django application to production. The website is called videiro.com and was developed in django + HTML/CSS/JS + Tailwind. videiro.com Setup I am using a debian 12 server which will expose my application via cloudflare tunnels. All of the static files are being served via nginx and the Django project is being ran by gunicorn. In this guide I will show you how I set this up. Preparing the Django project ¶ ¶ The first thing you will have to do is open the settings.py and change the following Debug = False ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.tld'] CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [ 'yourdomain.tld', ] Debug = False ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.tld'] CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = [ 'yourdomain.tld', ] You should also change the SECRET_KEY to a long random string, that you should never share with anyone. SECRET_KEY After that create a new file called .gitignore and paste the following: .gitignore db.sqlite3 *.pyc db.sqlite3 *.pyc This will make sure that the database is not uploaded to our server and that no pyc files are either. Now you can upload your project to a new github repository (or gitea repository). If you don’t want everyone to have access to your source code make sure to set the repository as private. If you want to make sure that your source code stays private I recommend you setup a selfhosted gitea instance, read Selfhost your own gitea instance - selfhosted, lightweight github alternative , to learn how to do that. Selfhost your own gitea instance - selfhosted, lightweight github alternative git init git branch -M main git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git remote add origin https://... git push -u origin main git init git branch -M main git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git remote add origin https://... git push -u origin main Now that you we have done that you should login to your server Server setup Before configuring anything make sure that you don’t allow any ssh logins with a password. Follow Securing ssh with Key-Based authentication to secure your server from those kinds of attacks. Securing ssh with Key-Based authentication Login to your server ssh user@server.ip ssh user@server.ip Make sure that your packages are up to data sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade Now install python, pip, git and nginx sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git nginx sudo apt install python3 python3-pip git nginx Now clone your project into your home directory. git clone https://... cd my-project git clone https://... cd my-project Once you’re in install the following: pip install django django-crispy-forms pip install django django-crispy-forms Now try to run the project: python3 manage.py runserver python3 manage.py runserver If you get an error that a package is missing install it and re run. Configuring gunicorn Now we will setup gunicorn. First install it pip install gunicorn pip install gunicorn Now create a new file called gunicorn.service with your favorite text editor: sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service And paste the following: [Unit] Description=gunicorn daemon After=network.target [Service] User=YOURUSER Group=www-data WorkingDirectory=/home/YOURUSER/PROJECT ExecStart=/path/to/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 PROJECTNAME.wsgi:application [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target [Unit] Description=gunicorn daemon After=network.target [Service] User=YOURUSER Group=www-data WorkingDirectory=/home/YOURUSER/PROJECT ExecStart=/path/to/gunicorn --access-logfile - --workers 3 --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 PROJECTNAME.wsgi:application [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Change YOURUSER to your user. YOURUSER To find the path to gunicorn run: gunicorn which gunicorn which gunicorn And your project name is the name of the folder inside of your project that contains the settings.py file. settings.py Now run the following commands to start and enable gunicorn (start on boot) sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl start gunicorn.service sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.service sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl start gunicorn.service sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.service Now if you head to 127.0.0.1:8000 you should see your project running. But we’re not finished yet Setting up nginx Now we need to serve our static content via nginx. First create a new file nginx configuration file with your favorite text editor: sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT Change PROJECT to whatever you want Now paste the following content: server { listen 80; server_name YOURDOMAIN; location /static/ { alias /var/www/staticfiles/; } location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } } server { listen 80; server_name YOURDOMAIN; location /static/ { alias /var/www/staticfiles/; } location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } } Just change YOURDOMAIN to the domain that this will be hosted on. Create a symbolic link to enable your website: sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/PROJECT /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ Start and enable nginx: sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx Setup static files The first thing you will have to do is cd into your (django) project cd project cd project Now run the following command: python3 manage.py collectstatic python3 manage.py collectstatic This will create a new folder called staticfiles staticfiles Now to set up the static files we have two options: Change the user in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to your user (less secure) Copy over the staticfiles to /var/www/ (more secure) Change the user in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to your user (less secure) /etc/nginx/nginx.conf Copy over the staticfiles to /var/www/ (more secure) /var/www/ I will be doing the 2nd option: First create a new file called staticfiles in /var/www sudo mkdir -p /var/www/staticfiles sudo mkdir -p /var/www/staticfiles Now copy over all of the staticfiles from your project there: sudo cp staticfiles/* /var/www/staticfiles sudo cp staticfiles/* /var/www/staticfiles Now cd into /var/www cd /var/www cd /var/www Change the ownership of all the files sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles/* sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles sudo chown www-data:www-data staticfiles/* Restart the nginx service: sudo systemctl restart nginx sudo systemctl restart nginx Now if you head to: 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 You should see your website running with all of the static files being served! Exposing via cloudflare tunnels Now to make your website publicly accessible. To do this you will need a cloudflare account and a domain pointed to cloudflare. First head to the Zero Trust Dashboard Zero Trust Dashboard Under Networks click on Tunnels and then Create a tunnel Networks Tunnels Create a tunnel Once created you should Install and run a connector , follow the instructions on the page for your specific setup. Install and run a connector After the connector is running you should click on the Public Hostname tab and Add a public hostname . Public Hostname Add a public hostname Now you should see something like this: Fill in the info as I have. The service type should be HTTP and the url should be 127.0.0.1:80 or localhost:80 HTTP 127.0.0.1:80 localhost:80 Now if you head to the domain that you specified you should see your app up and running. Congratulations! If you enjoyed this post and want to support my (mostly unpaid) work , you can donate here. If you enjoyed this post and want to support my (mostly unpaid) work , you can donate here . donate here Join my free newsletter Here: https://newsletter.4rkal.com/subscription/form https://newsletter.4rkal.com/subscription/form
