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Ajith Kumar P M
Ajith Kumar P M

Posted on • Edited on

How to set up and deploy a Django application on a Linux server

#linux #apache #django #nginx

Deploying a web application can seem daunting, but it's a manageable process with a structured approach. This guide walks you through setting up a secure Linux server and deploying your Django application using two popular stacks: Apache with mod_wsgi or Nginx with Gunicorn.

Note: The core principles in this guide remain best practices for modern Django deployments.

🔐 Step 1: Server Initialization & Security

A secure, well-configured server is the foundation of any deployment.

1.1. System Update

First, log into your new Linux server (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian) and ensure all system packages are up-to-date.

# On Debian/Ubuntu-based systems
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
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1.2. Create a Non-Root User

Running commands as root is a major security risk. Create a new user with administrative privileges instead.

# Create a new user (you'll be prompted for a password)
adduser your_username

# Add the new user to the 'sudo' group
usermod -aG sudo your_username

# Log out of root and log back in as your new user
exit
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1.3. Harden SSH Access with Keys

Disable password-based logins in favor of more secure SSH keys.

On your local machine, generate a new SSH key pair.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
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Follow the prompts. Adding a passphrase is a good extra layer of security.

Next, copy your public key to the server. The easiest method is using ssh-copy-id.

ssh-copy-id your_username@your_server_ip
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1.4. Disable Password & Root Login

On your server, edit the SSH daemon configuration.

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
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Find and modify these lines to enhance security:

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
UsePAM no
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Restart the SSH service to apply the changes.

sudo systemctl restart ssh
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🚨 Critical: Before you close your current terminal, open a new one and confirm you can log in with your SSH key. If you can't, you'll be locked out! Revert the changes if it fails.

🔥 Step 2: Configure the Firewall with UFW

UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) is an easy way to manage your server's network rules.

# Deny all incoming traffic and allow all outgoing by default
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing

# CRITICAL: Allow SSH access before enabling the firewall
sudo ufw allow ssh

# Allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic for your web app
sudo ufw allow http
sudo ufw allow https

# Enable the firewall
sudo ufw enable
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You can check the status at any time with sudo ufw status.

📦 Step 3: Prepare Your Django Project

Get your project code and dependencies ready for the server.

3.1. Create requirements.txt

On your local machine, inside your project's virtual environment, generate a list of its Python dependencies.

pip freeze > requirements.txt
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3.2. Transfer Project to Server

You can use scp for a simple copy or git for version-controlled projects.

  • Using scp (Secure Copy): 
scp -r /path/to/local/project your_username@your_server_ip:~/
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  • Using git (Recommended): 
git clone your_repository_url
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🐍 Step 4: Set Up a Python Virtual Environment

Isolate your project's dependencies from the system's Python packages on the server.

sudo apt install python3-pip python3-venv -y

# Navigate to your project directory
cd your_project_name

# Create a virtual environment named 'venv'
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate it
source venv/bin/activate
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Your shell prompt will now be prefixed with (venv).

⚙️ Step 5: Install Dependencies & Configure Django

With the virtual environment active, install your packages and adjust your settings for production.

5.1. Install Packages 

pip install -r requirements.txt
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5.2. Adjust settings.py

Edit your project's settings.py file for production.

# your_project/settings.py

import os

# ... other settings ...

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = False

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your_server_ip', 'your_domain.com']

# Define the location for all static files
STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'static_root')
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5.3. Collect Static Files

Run Django's collectstatic command to gather all static assets (CSS, JS, images) into the STATIC_ROOT directory you just defined.

python manage.py collectstatic
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🐘 Step 6: Set Up PostgreSQL Database

A robust database like PostgreSQL is essential for production.

6.1. Install PostgreSQL 

sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib -y
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6.2. Create Database & User

Switch to the postgres user to create your database and a dedicated user for your app.

sudo -u postgres psql
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Inside the psql shell, run these commands:

CREATE DATABASE myprojectdb;
CREATE USER myprojectuser WITH PASSWORD 'a_very_strong_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 myprojectdb TO myprojectuser;

-- Exit the psql shell
\q
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6.3. Update settings.py

Update the DATABASES setting in settings.py with your new credentials.

# your_project/settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': 'myprojectdb',
        'USER': 'myprojectuser',
        'PASSWORD': 'a_very_strong_password',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '', # Default is 5432
    }
}
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Important: Don't hardcode passwords! We'll secure these credentials in Step 8. You'll also need to install the database adapter: pip install psycopg2-binary.

6.4. Run Migrations

Apply your project's database schema.

python manage.py migrate
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🚀 Step 7: Configure a Production Web Server

Django's development server isn't for production. Choose one of the following setups.

Option A: Apache & mod_wsgi

A classic and powerful combination.

  1. Install Packages:

    sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3 -y
sudo a2enmod wsgi

  2. Configure Apache Virtual Host: Create a new configuration file for your site.

    sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your_project.conf

    Paste and edit the following configuration.

    <VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName your_domain.com
    ServerAlias www.your_domain.com

    Alias /static /home/your_username/your_project_name/static_root
    <Directory /home/your_username/your_project_name/static_root>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Directory /home/your_username/your_project_name/your_project/ >
        <Files wsgi.py>
            Require all granted
        </Files>
    </Directory>

    WSGIDaemonProcess your_project python-home=/home/your_username/your_project_name/venv python-path=/home/your_username/your_project_name
    WSGIProcessGroup your_project
    WSGIScriptAlias / /home/your_username/your_project_name/your_project/wsgi.py
</VirtualHost>

  3. Enable Site & Reload:

    sudo a2ensite your_project.conf
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf # Disable the default page
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Option B: Nginx & Gunicorn (Recommended)

A modern, high-performance stack. Nginx acts as a reverse proxy, passing requests to the Gunicorn application server.

  1. Install Packages:

    sudo apt install nginx -y
pip install gunicorn # Install inside your venv

  2. Configure Nginx Server Block: Create a new Nginx configuration file.

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

    Paste and edit the following. This tells Nginx to serve static files directly and proxy other requests to Gunicorn.

    server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your_domain.com www.your_domain.com;

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

    location /static/ {
        root /home/your_username/your_project_name;
    }

    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/gunicorn.sock;
    }
}

  3. Enable Site & Reload:

    sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_project /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
sudo nginx -t # Test configuration for errors
sudo systemctl restart nginx

  4. Create a systemd Service for Gunicorn: To ensure Gunicorn runs reliably and starts on boot, create a service file.

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

    Paste and edit the following.

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

[Service]
User=your_username
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/home/your_username/your_project_name
ExecStart=/home/your_username/your_project_name/venv/bin/gunicorn \
          --access-logfile - \
          --workers 3 \
          --bind unix:/run/gunicorn.sock \
          your_project.wsgi:application

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

  5. Create a systemd Socket File:

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

```
[Unit]
Description=gunicorn socket

[Socket]
ListenStream=/run/gunicorn.sock

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target
```
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  1. Start and Enable Gunicorn:

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

🤫 Step 8: Secure Environment Variables

Never store sensitive keys, passwords, or secrets directly in settings.py. Use environment variables. A clean way to manage this is with a .env file.

  1. Install python-decouple:

    pip install python-decouple

  2. Create a .env file in your project's root directory (next to manage.py). Add this file to your .gitignore immediately!

    # .env file
SECRET_KEY='your-django-secret-key-goes-here'
DEBUG=False
DATABASE_URL='postgres://myprojectuser:a_very_strong_password@localhost:5432/myprojectdb'
ALLOWED_HOSTS='.your_domain.com,your_server_ip'

  3. Update settings.py to use decouple:

    # your_project/settings.py
from decouple import config, Csv
import dj_database_url

# ...

SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool)
ALLOWED_HOSTS = config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', cast=Csv())

# Database
DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(default=config('DATABASE_URL'))
}

✅ Final Step: Verification

Navigate to your server's IP address or domain name in your web browser. You should now see your live Django application!

Next Steps

  • HTTPS: Use Let's Encrypt to get a free SSL/TLS certificate. It's essential.
  • Backups: Set up a regular backup strategy for your database and user-uploaded files.
  • Logging & Monitoring: Configure logging to monitor application health and track errors.

Happy deploying!

Top comments (4)

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agas0077 profile image
Andrey • • Edited

Man, thanks a lot! This guide has all I needed. It saved my day! I even sign up here to say thanks!)

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ajth-in profile image
Ajith Kumar P M •

You're welcome! I'm glad the guide helped you out.

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izenish profile image
Zenish •

Is there a video to this? And does this work with a django app that take react as frontend. I’ve created APIS with django rest framework and built the front end with react.
Will this work ?

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ajth-in profile image
Ajith Kumar P M • • Edited

you have to deploy them separately. Yes you can use this guide to deploy django apps with DRF.
youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_kQheCnds (refer this video)