How to Point Domain and Deploy Django Project using GitHub on Gunicorn & Nginx Remote Server or VPS

Gunicorn (Green Unicorn) is a popular WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface) server for Python web applications like Django. It acts as a bridge between the web server (like Nginx) and the Django application, handling incoming requests and passing them to Django for processing.

Step-by-Step Guide

On Your Local Machine

Project Setup and Preparation
- Open Terminal.
- Activate your virtual environment.
- Optionally, install django-extensions for managing .pyc and cache files:
  
  pip install django-extensions
- Add django-extensions to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py:
```
INSTALLED_APPS = [ ..., 'django_extensions', ..., ]
```
- Create a requirements.txt file:
```
pip freeze > requirements.txt
```
- Deactivate the virtual environment.
Accessing the Remote Server via SSH
- Connect to your remote server using SSH:
  
  ssh -p PORT USERNAME@HOSTIP

Verifying Installed Software

Check if required software like Nginx, Python, pip, SQLite (bundled with Python), and Git are installed:

nginx -v python --version # or python3 --version pip --version python -c "import sqlite3; print(sqlite3.sqlite_version)" git --version

Install necessary software if not already installed:

sudo apt install nginx sudo apt install python3-pip sudo apt install git

Setting Up Virtual Environment
- Install virtualenv if not already installed:
```
sudo pip install virtualenv
```
- Verify and activate virtual environment on the server:
```
virtualenv env_name source env_name/bin/activate
```
Configuring Nginx and Gunicorn
- Check Nginx status:
```
sudo service nginx status
```
- Ensure firewall allows web server ports:
```
sudo ufw status verbose
```
- Exit from remote server:
```
exit
```

Domain Configuration

Configuring DNS Records

Login to your domain provider's website.
Navigate to the DNS management section.

Add the following DNS records:

Type	Host/Name	Value
A	@	Your Server IP
A	www	Your Server IP
AAAA	@	Your Server IPv6
AAAA	www	Your Server IPv6

Deploying the Django Project

Copying Project Files
- Copy your Django project to the server using either command prompt or GitHub:
  
  Using Command Prompt:
  - Zip your project folder on Windows.
  - Transfer the zip file to the server:
```
scp -P Remote_Server_Port Source_File_Path Destination_Path
```
  - SSH into the server, unzip the project:
```
unzip zip_file_name
```
  Using GitHub:
  - Push your project to GitHub as a private repository.
  - Set up SSH keys between the server and GitHub.
  - Clone the project on the server:
```
git clone ssh_repo_path
```

Setting Up Gunicorn

Install Gunicorn in the virtual environment:
```
pip install gunicorn
```

Create Gunicorn socket and service files:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/your_domain.gunicorn.socket

[Unit]
Description=your_domain.gunicorn socket

[Socket]
ListenStream=/run/your_domain.gunicorn.sock

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target


sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/your_domain.gunicorn.service

[Unit]
Description=your_domain.gunicorn daemon
Requires=your_domain.gunicorn.socket
After=network.target

[Service]
User=username
Group=groupname
WorkingDirectory=/home/username/project_folder_name
ExecStart=/home/username/project_folder_name/virtual_env_name/bin/gunicorn \
          --access-logfile - \
          --workers 3 \
          --bind unix:/run/your_domain.gunicorn.sock \
          inner_project_folder_name.wsgi:application

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start and enable Gunicorn socket and service:

sudo systemctl start your_domain.gunicorn.socket 
sudo systemctl start your_domain.gunicorn.service 
sudo systemctl enable your_domain.gunicorn.socket 
sudo systemctl enable your_domain.gunicorn.service

Configuring Nginx

Create a virtual host file for your domain:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_domain

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name your_domain www.your_domain;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    location / {
        proxy_set_header Host $http_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;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/your_domain.gunicorn.sock;
    }

    location /static/ {
        root /var/www/project_folder_name;
    }

    location /media/ {
        root /var/www/project_folder_name;
    }
}

Enable the virtual host by creating a symbolic link:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_domain /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Check Nginx configuration:
```
 sudo nginx -t
```
Restart Nginx to apply changes:
```
 sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

Final Checks and Operations
- If you encounter DisallowedHost errors in Django, update ALLOWED_HOSTS in settings.py:
```
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your_domain', 'www.your_domain']
```
- Restart Gunicorn whenever changes are made to the Django project:
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload 
sudo systemctl restart your_domain.gunicorn
```
- For automation using GitHub Actions, create deployment scripts and workflows to automate the deployment process.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you have successfully pointed your domain to a remote server or VPS, deployed your Django project using GitHub, Gunicorn, and Nginx. This setup allows you to efficiently manage and serve your Django application to users over the internet.

Django

Python

.