Deploy Django Project on EC2 using Nginx and uWSGI

Nginx is a high-performance web server that can handle a large number of requests efficiently. uWSGI is a fast and efficient application server that is well-suited for running Django applications. EC2 allows for easy scalability by enabling to scale application horizontally by adding or removing instances. This guide demonstrates how to deploy a Django project on EC2 using Nginx and uWSGI.

I. Create EC2 Ubuntu on AWS

1. On AWS, create EC2 name “sudoku-3033”, connect to EC2 through terminal by this below command. Make sure open port 8000 on security group for local test.

     
   	ssh -i ~/sudoku-3033.pem ubuntu@ec2-18.XX.XX.147.ap-northeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com
     

   If the connection fail due to Permission, run below command for grant read and write the publickey.

       
   	chmod 600 /Users/nguyenvanan2730/Projects/Sudoku-AWS/sudoku-info/pro-sudoku/sudoku-3033.pem
     

2. After login in EC2, run below command for update package list.

   
   	sudo apt update
   	sudo apt upgrade
     

II. Create Virtual Environment, and install necessary library

Create Virtual Environment

1. Install pip3:

   
   	sudo apt install python3-pip
     

2. Install virtualenv for create virtual environment

   
   	sudo apt install python3-virtualenv
     

3. Create virtual environment in root direction home/ubuntu

    
   	virtualenv venv
     

4. Activate environment

   
   	source venv/bin/activate
     

   After the virtual environment is activated, the format on terminal will be displayed like: (venv) ubuntu@ip-10-0-4-232:

Clone project from GitHub

1. Update git using version 2.34.1

   
   	sudo apt install git
         

2. Clone source code from GitHub using "git clone and token"

   
   	git clone https://nguyenvanan2730:<token>@github.com/nguyenvanan2730/sudoku.git
         

Install necessary library

1. Django

   
   	pip3 install django==4.1.4
   	pip3 show Django
   	-->4.1.4
         

2. Numpy

   
   	pip3 install numpy==1.23.5
   	pip3 show numpy
   	-->=1.23.5
         

3. opencv

   
   	pip3 install opencv-python==4.6.0.66
   	pip3 show opencv-python
   	-->4.6.0.66
   	sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx
   	--> Install this packages for successful import OpenCV
         

4. boto3

   
   	pip3 install boto3==1.26.30
   	pip3 show boto3
   	--> 1.26.30
         

5. Pillow

   
   	python3 -m pip install Pillow
         

6. django-environ

   
   	python3 -m pip install django-environ
         

7. aws-cli

   
   	sudo apt install awscli
         

III. Setting Variable Environment

1. Create a .env file in the /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project

   	
   	sudo nano /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/.env
         

2. Setting below content in the .env file

   
   	MEDIA_ROOT=/home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/media
   	MEDIA_URL=/image/
   	IMAGE_UPLOAD_PATH=/home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/Images/crop-input-image
   	IMAGE_TRANSFORM_CROP=/home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/Images/crop-input-image
   	STATIC_ROOT=/home/ubuntu/static
   	DEBUG=FALSE
   	ALLOWED_HOSTS=18.XX.XX.147
   		

   The static_root setting is the absolute filesystem path to the directory where all collected static files will be stored after running the collectstatic command. The collectstatic command is used to gather static files from various locations and place them in a single location for easier deployment and improved performance.
3. Create a .gitignore file and add .env into it, ensure that do not push these configure to the GitHub.

   
   	.env
   	db.sqlite3
   	mysite.sock
   	uwsgi_params
   	media/
   		

   Run below command, the screen should be display as http://18.XX.XX.147:8000

   
   	python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
   		

IV. Deploy application on EC2 using Nginx and uWSGI

Install uWSGI into virtualenv

1. Activate the virtual environment and run below command to install uWSGI.

   
   	pip install uwsgi
   			

   uWSGI will be located at /home/ubuntu/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages. Can check if the uWSGI is installed by running "pip freeze" or "pip3 show uWSGI"
2. After uWSGI is successful installed, Django can run the following command. Access sever through the browser, application should be executed as run python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000 command.

   
   	uwsgi --http :8000 --module sudoku_project.wsgi
   			

   sudoku_project.wsgi is not a file but a reference to the application instance located in the wsgi.py file. As uWSGI was not yet configured to serve static files, the screen design may appear broken at this stage. In the next step, static files will be served using Nginx.

Configure Nginx as Web Server

1. Install and start Nginx using below command.

   
   	sudo apt-get install nginx.     # install nginx
   	sudo service nginx start   # start nginx
   			

   After Nginx is started, the message “Welcome to nginx” should be displayed at the address: http://18.XX.XX.147:80
2. Configure Nginx for project

   Create a uwsgi_params file in ~/venv/ contains below configures.

   
   	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 mysite_nginx.conf in the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory.

   
   	# mysite_nginx.conf
   
   	# the upstream component nginx needs to connect to
   	upstream django {
   		server unix:///home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/mysite.sock; # for a file socket
   		#server 127.0.0.1:8001;
   	}
   
   	# configuration of the server
   	server {
   		# the port your site will be served on
   		listen      8000;
   		# the domain name it will serve for
   		server_name 18.XX.XX.147; # substitute your machine's IP address or FQDN
   		charset     utf-8;
   
   		# max upload size
   		client_max_body_size 75M;   # adjust to taste
   
   		# Django media
   		location /media  {
   			alias /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/media;  # your Django project>
   		}
   
   		location /static {
   			alias /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/static; # your Django project>
   		}
   
   		# Finally, send all non-media requests to the Django server.
   		location / {
   			uwsgi_pass  django;
   			include     /home/ubuntu/venv/uwsgi_params; # the uwsgi_params file you ins>
   		}
   	}
   			

3. Run below command, uWSGI and Nginx should be serving as expected.

   
   	uwsgi --socket mysite.sock --module sudoku_project.wsgi --chmod-socket=664
   			

Configuring uWSGI to run with a .ini file

1. Create a file call mysite_uwsgi.ini in the ~/venv/ direction

   
   	# mysite_uwsgi.ini file
   	[uwsgi]
   
   	# Django-related settings
   	# the base directory (full path)
   	chdir           = /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project
   	# Django's wsgi file
   	module          = sudoku_project.wsgi
   	# the virtualenv (full path)
   	home            = /home/ubuntu/venv
   
   	# process-related settings
   	# master
   	master          = true
   	# maximum number of worker processes
   	processes       = 10
   	# the socket (use the full path to be safe
   	socket          = /home/ubuntu/venv/sudoku/sudoku_project/mysite.sock
   	# ... with appropriate permissions - may be needed
   	chmod-socket    = 664
   	# clear environment on exit
   	vacuum          = true
   			

2. And Run uwsgi using this file, the same result will be displayed on the screen.

   
   	uwsgi --ini /home/ubuntu/venv/mysite_uwsgi.ini
   			

Install uWSGI system-wide

uWSGI is only installed in the virtualenv, install uWSGI in global environment for deployment.

• 	# Deactivate virtualenv:
  	deactivate
  
  	#Install uWsGI system-wide
  	sudo pip3 install uwsgi
  
  	#Run uWSGI again in the global environment
  	uwsgi --ini /home/ubuntu/venv/mysite_uwsgi.ini
  		

Emperor mode

"Emperor mode" in Nginx and uWSGI refers to a feature that allows Nginx to run as a master process and manage multiple uWSGI worker processes. In this mode, Nginx acts as a reverse proxy and load balancer for the uWSGI worker processes, and can automatically start, stop, and respawn the worker processes as needed.

1. Create a directory name vassals, -p option means the parents directories will be created if it do not already exist.

   
   	sudo mkdir -p /etc/uwsgi/vassals
   			

2. Create a symlink from the default config directory to your config file

   
   	sudo ln -s /home/ubuntu/venv/mysite_uwsgi.ini /etc/uwsgi/vassals/	
   			

3. Run uWSGI again with sudo

   
   	sudo uwsgi --emperor /etc/uwsgi/vassals --uid www-data --gid www-data
   			

Make uWSGI startup when the system boots

1. Create "emperor.uwsgi.service" file at: /etc/systemd/system/emperor.uwsgi.service

   
   	[Unit]
   	Description=uwsgi emperor for micro domains website
   	After=network.target
   	[Service]
   	User=ubuntu
   	Restart=always
   	ExecStart=sudo uwsgi --emperor /etc/uwsgi/vassals --uid www-data --gid www-data
   	[Install]
   	WantedBy=multi-user.target
   		

2. After setting emperor.uwsgi.service file, enable and start service. It is should show the results like run Emperor mode.

   
   	sudo systemctl enable emperor.uwsgi.service
   	sudo systemctl start emperor.uwsgi.service
   		

3. Now, reboot server and the application should be startup. Below command can be used in emperor.uwsgi.service

   
   	sudo systemctl enable emperor.uwsgi.service
   	sudo systemctl start emperor.uwsgi.service
   
   	sudo systemctl status emperor.uwsgi.service
   	sudo systemctl stop emperor.uwsgi.service
   	sudo systemctl restart emperor.uwsgi.service
   		

This guide has demonstrated the steps for deploying a Django application to EC2 using Nginx and uWSGI. However, in other to make the project accessible via sudokusolver.click, additional configuration on the AWS is required. For more informations about this topic, consult the documentation at System Architect.