Deploy Django on Linux

Let's walk through creating a new virtual machine on Digital Ocean with Debian and logging in. If you have your own Linux machine already, you can skip this section, but I recommend a fresh Debian install.

See the attached text file for a link with the $100 promo on Digital Ocean.

Let's begin by creating a Python virtual environment to keep the project dependencies isolated from system packages and talk about why it's a good idea.

Let's quickly create a simple hello world template project with django-admin so we have something to work with and you can follow along if you don't have your own project.

In this lecture we'll look at how to setup the ~/.ssh/config file to allow specific SSH keys for your git clone.

In ths lecture we'll clone the repository from GitHub and put it in the production location on the disk. We'll also look at setting proper permissions and talk about best practices with manging settings files.

Learn about security best practices and dealing with multiple settings files for different environments.

Ensure the Django settings are configured for PostgreSQL and install the Python dependency psycopg2-binary.

Learn how to install and setup the PostgreSQL database for use with Django. We will look at

• Installing PostgreSQL

• Logging in as admin

• Creating a new database

• Creating a new database user and granting privileges

• Reviewing authentication mechanisms

Here I will show you how to install gunicorn and use it to run your WSGI application from the command-line.

Now that you understand how to execute gunicorn to run your WSGI application, let's create a systemd service file to ensure the gunicorn server is always running.

Let's install the Nginx web server/reverse proxy and test it out to make sure it works.

In this lecture, learn about:

• The difference between the STATIC and MEDIA directories in Django

• How to configure STATIC_URL, STATIC_ROOT, MEDIA_URL, and MEDIA_ROOT in Django settings.py

• How to configure permissions for the directories

  
  

In this part, we'll get back to the Nginx configuration and setup our virtualhost with:

• Custom Nginx config file for the project

• Port and hostname listener

• Serving static files

• Reverse proxy WSGI requests

  
  

Let's complete the Nginx configuration by adding SSL encryption to our virtual host.

• Install certbot

• Get signed SSL certificate from LetsEncrypt.org

• Update Nginx configuration to serve encrypted HTTPS

• Setup a redirect so all HTTP traffic goes to HTTPS automatically

Let's quickly have an overview of:

• Why a dev site is useful

• How we can protect the dev site

• What options we have

• Additional security measures you can take

In this lecture we'll walk through the steps to setup a development/staging site on a different port. It will be password protected and use self-signed certificates.

Learn about the different backup options for things like:

• Options for writing the backup script

• Options for triggering backups

• Remote backup options

Let's write the Bash shell script to perform the backup and also setup the cron job to trigger it to run periodically.

Learn about the different options for scripting and triggering the updates.

Let's setup a cron job to automatically renew the SSL certificate.

Let's write the Bash shell script that will perform project updates.