Today I'm gonna share how to Install and Configure Django / Django Rest Framework with Nginx and I am using AWS EC2 (t3.micro) for writing this tutorial.

Step 1 — Creating an EC2 Instance, DNS and SSH

First, we require an ec2 instance so launch an instance with your preferred size, you can also attach an Elastic IP to your instance.

In your DNS Server (Route 53 or Cloudflare) add these records.

Now, we have pointed from our DNS to our new server IP, now we need to log in into our new server using SSH client.

Example: ssh -i "YourKey.pem" ubuntu@SERVER_IP

Step 2 — Setup and Installing Requirements

Set a Timezone on Ubuntu:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Kolkata && sudo timedatectl

If first time using apt in this session, run the update command to update the package manager cache:

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

Install Basic Requirements:

sudo apt install python3.10-venv -y && sudo apt install python3-pip -y && sudo apt install libpq-dev nginx curl

After installing, you can request to your domain (example.com), You will get nginx default page as response.

Step 3 — Creating a Database

If you are using any third party database like RDS then you can skip this step.

Create a Postgres database for Django application; so execute the following command on command line to create database for Django / DRF app:

Installing Requirements:

sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib 
sudo -u postgres psql

Creating Database and User:

CREATE DATABASE myproject;
CREATE USER myprojectuser WITH PASSWORD 'password';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE myprojectuser SET timezone TO 'UTC';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE myproject TO myprojectuser;
\q

Step 4 — Install and Configure Django Project in Ubuntu 22.04

Creating a new Django project or Clone from Github/GitLab

You can set up the git into your server following this Link (OPTIONAL)

Generate SSH Key on Server:

ssh-keygen -o
cat /home/ubuntu/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• How to Set Up SSH Keys on Ubuntu 22.04

Clone App from GitHub:

cd /home/ubuntu
git clone https://github.com/sannjayy/drf-simple-task-tracker.git

Creating Virtual Environment and Setup Project Requirements:

cd drf-simple-task-tracker
python3 -m venv zenv
source zenv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py collectstatic

Make sure you have installed gunicorn and whitenoise in your env.

Testing Server:

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Request on http://example.com:8000

Step 5 — Setup Nginx & Gunicorn

You Can Generate All These Settings from Znas Tools

• https://znas.in/tools/django-nginx-gunicorn-generator/

Creating gunicorn.socket

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

Paste Following:

[Unit]
Description=gunicorn socket

[Socket]
ListenStream=/run/gunicorn.sock

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

Creating gunicorn.service

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

Replace the project directory and project.wsgi location as your project name:

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

[Service]
User=ubuntu
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker/zenv/bin/gunicorn \
          --access-logfile - \
          --workers 3 \
          --timeout 600 \
          --bind unix:/run/gunicorn.sock \
          project.wsgi:application

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable the Gunicorn:

sudo systemctl start gunicorn.socket
sudo systemctl enable gunicorn.socket
sudo systemctl status gunicorn.socket

Test Gunicorn:

sudo systemctl status gunicorn
curl --unix-socket /run/gunicorn.sock localhost
sudo systemctl status gunicorn

Setup Nginx File

Replace the project name as your project:

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

Change the path /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker and Copy, and paste the following Nginx Configuration:

server {
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    client_max_body_size 100M;
    charset utf-8;
    underscores_in_headers on;

    # access_log /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker/logs/nginx-access.log;
    error_log /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker/logs/nginx-error.log;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location /static/ {
        alias /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker/static/staticfiles/;
    }
    location /media/ {
        root /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker;
        client_max_body_size 100M;
    }
    location / {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_connect_timeout       600;
        proxy_send_timeout          600;
        proxy_read_timeout          600;
        send_timeout                600;    
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }
}

Enable the configuration:

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

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

Now you can request domain http://example.com and your site should be visible.

Step 6 — Installing SSL

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

sudo systemctl status certbot.timer
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Now you can request the website using https://example.com.

Creating Shell Script (Quick Actions) [OPTIONAL]

For restarting the Nginx and pulling Code from Git, I have created a shell script.

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/z

For creating the shell script, modify copy, and paste the following code to your terminal.

#!/bin/bash
select opt in Sync Restart ChangeDir CheckStatus Quit
do
    case $opt in
    Sync)  
        cd /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker
        git pull origin master
        echo "Code Synchronized!"
        exit 0
        ;;
    Restart)  
        sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl restart nginx
        sudo systemctl restart gunicorn
        # sudo systemctl restart daphne.service # If Available
        echo "Nginx & gunicorn has been restarted."
        exit 0
        ;;
    ChangeDir)
        cd /home/ubuntu/drf-simple-task-tracker
        echo -e '\nHit [Ctrl]+[D] to exit this child shell.'
        $SHELL
        exit 0
        ;;
    CheckStatus)  
        echo "--> GUNICORN"    
        sudo systemctl status gunicorn
        echo "--> NGINX"    
        sudo systemctl status nginx
        echo "--> STORAGE"    
        df -h
        echo "--> Shell by SanjaySikdar.Dev <--"        
        exit 0
        ;;    
    Quit)
        echo "Exited!"
        exit 0
        ;;
    *)
        echo "invalid option"
        ;;
    esac
done

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/z

Now press the z key and hit enter.

ubuntu@ip-172-31-0-94:~$ z
1) Sync
2) Restart
3) ChangeDir
4) CheckStatus
5) Quit
#?

Select any option by pressing the number keys.

Hope you guys like the article. If you encounter any difficulties in understanding this approach, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Troubleshoot

If nginx getting 403-Forbidden > sudo gpasswd -a www-data ubuntu

Other Permission Issue > sudo chmod +x /home/ubuntu/projectdir

Restart Deamon > sudo systemctl daemon-reload