Installing Django with Apache and mod_wsgi on Ubuntu 10.04

By Kevan Stannard | Published: December 11, 2010

Step by step instructions for installing Django with Apache and mod_wsgi on Ubuntu 10.04.

PART 1 – Prepare the server

Update the server

> sudo apt-get update
> sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Apache and mod_wsgi

> sudo apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi

Install setup tools and pip

> sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
> sudo apt-get install python-pip

Install Django

> sudo pip install django

Create a folder for storing our sites

I’ll be placing our sites in the /srv/www directory. The /srv directory should already exist so we just need to create the /www directory

> sudo mkdir /srv/www

PART 2 – Add host entries for testing

We will set up two domains for testing the configuration
- one for testing that WSGI is working, and
- one for testing that Django is working.

My test virtual machine’s IP address is 172.16.52.130 so I’ll set up the following in my local hosts file (not on the server)

> sudo nano /etc/hosts

And add the following

172.16.52.130    djangoserver
172.16.52.130    wsgi.djangoserver
172.16.52.130    hello.djangoserver

PART 3 – Test WSGI is working

Create our wsgi test site content

> sudo mkdir /srv/www/wsgi
> sudo nano /srv/www/wsgi/app.wsgi

And add the content

def
 application(
environ, start_response)
:
    status = '200 OK'

    output = 'Hello World!'

 
    response_headers = [
(
'Content-type'
, 'text/plain'
)
,
                        (
'Content-Length'
, str
(
len
(
output)
)
)
]

    start_response(
status, response_headers)

 
    return
 [
output]

Create a new apache site

> sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wsgi

And add the content

<VirtualHost *:80>
 
    ServerName wsgi.djangoserver
    DocumentRoot /srv/www/wsgi
 
    <Directory /srv/www/wsgi>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
 
    WSGIScriptAlias / /srv/www/wsgi/app.wsgi
 
</VirtualHost>

And activate the site

> sudo a2ensite wsgi
> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Then open your web browser and browse to

http://wsgi.djangoserver

You should see a ‘Hello World!’ message

PART 4 – Test Django is working

Create a new Django site

> cd /srv/www
> sudo django-admin.py startproject hello

Create a wsgi file for the site

> sudo mkdir /srv/www/hello/apache
> sudo nano /srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi

And add the content

import
 os

import
 sys

 
path = '/srv/www'

if
 path not
 in
 sys
.path
:
    sys
.path
.insert
(
0
, '/srv/www'
)

 
os
.environ
[
'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'
]
 = 'hello.settings'

 
import
 django.core
.handlers
.wsgi

application = django.core
.handlers
.wsgi
.WSGIHandler
(
)

Create a new apache site

> sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/hello

And add the content

<VirtualHost *:80>
 
    ServerName hello.djangoserver
    DocumentRoot /srv/www/hello
 
    <Directory /srv/www/hello>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
 
    WSGIDaemonProcess hello.djangoserver processes=2 threads=15 display-name=%{GROUP}
    WSGIProcessGroup hello.djangoserver
 
    WSGIScriptAlias / /srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi
 
</VirtualHost>

And activate the site

> sudo a2ensite hello
> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Then open your web browser and browse to

http://hello.djangoserver

You should see the Django default installation message.

Notes

NOTE 1 – Running in daemon mode

Our test Django site is configured to run in daemon mode – because of these two lines:

WSGIDaemonProcess hello.djangoserver processes=2 threads=15 display-name=%{GROUP}
WSGIProcessGroup hello.djangoserver

So if we modify the code then rather than restarting apache we can just touch the wsgi file and the changes will be picked up:

> sudo touch /srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi

NOTE 2 – Specify the application module name

It appears to be a good idea to specify the application module when specifying the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE. So rather than writing this:

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'

We should write this:

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'hello.settings'

Useful Commands

Error log file

If you get errors, check the apache log file

> tail /var/log/apache2/error.log

Test using development mode

If your app does not seem to be working using wsgi, then check if it is working via the development server.

> cd /srv/www/hello
> python manage.py runserver 0:8080

The in your web browser go to

http://hello.djangoserver:8080

References

An improved WSGI script for use with Django.
http://blog.dscpl.com.au/2010/03/improved-wsgi-script-for-use-with.html

Modwsgi – Integration With Django
http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/IntegrationWithDjango

How do I stop getting ImportError: Could not import settings ‘mofin.settings’ when using django with wsgi?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1411417/how-do-i-stop-getting-importerror-could-not-import-settings-mofin-settings-whe

Configuration problems with django and mod_wsgi
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2587251/configuration-problems-with-django-and-mod-wsgi

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