HOWTO: run Django on Apache and mod_wsgi

UPDATE: We now have an application installer which provides build scripts for apache, mod_Wsgi, and django on python2.7. It is named 'Django 1.8 LTS' in the new application type list, it coverts the process outlined here into an automated process.

Opalstack's built-in Django installer sets up Django running behind a uwsgi server.

If you prefer to use Apache and mod_wsgi instead of uwsgi, here's how:

First create a proxy port app, make a note of the app name and port, and attach the app to a site.

In the rest of this example, the app is myapp and the port is 55555.

Next, install Apache HTTPD and mod_wsgi:

export APP=myapp
cd ~/apps/$APP
mkdir -p src tmp
export TMPDIR=$PWD/tmp
cd src
wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd/httpd-2.4.41.tar.gz
tar zxf httpd-2.4.41.tar.gz
cd httpd-2.4.41
./configure --prefix=$HOME/apps/$APP/apache2 --enable-mods-shared=all --enable-mpms-shared=all --with-mpm=prefork
make
make install
cd ..
wget https://github.com/GrahamDumpleton/mod_wsgi/archive/4.7.0.tar.gz
tar zxf 4.7.0.tar.gz
cd mod_wsgi-4.7.0
./configure --with-python=/usr/bin/python3.6 --with-apxs=$HOME/apps/$APP/apache2/bin/apxs
make
make install
cd ../..
cp apache2/conf/httpd.conf apache2/conf/httpd.conf.original

Next, make a virtual environment for your project. In this example I'll install Django and make a new project:

cd $HOME/apps/$APP
python3.6 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate
pip install django
django-admin startproject myproject
sed -r -i "s/^ALLOWED_HOSTS = \[\]/ALLOWED_HOSTS = \['\*'\]/" myproject/myproject/settings.py
sed -r -i "/^DATABASES =/, /^}$/ s/^/#/" myproject/myproject/settings.py

Next, configure Apache to listen on your assigned port and serve your project. To do so, edit the app's apache2/conf/httpd.conf to look like this, changing the first four variables to match your user and app:

# change the next four values for your shell user and app
Define OPAL_USER myuser
Define APP_NAME myapp
Define APP_PORT 55555
Define PROJ_NAME myproject

# you usually don't need to edit anything below this line.
Define APP_ROOT /home/${OPAL_USER}/apps/${APP_NAME}
Define VIRT_ENV ${APP_ROOT}/env
Define PROJ_ROOT ${APP_ROOT}/${PROJ_NAME}
Define LOG_ROOT /home/${OPAL_USER}/logs/apps/${APP_NAME}

ServerRoot ${APP_ROOT}/apache2

LoadModule mpm_worker_module modules/mod_mpm_worker.so
LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
LoadModule dir_module        modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule env_module        modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule mime_module       modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule rewrite_module    modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule setenvif_module   modules/mod_setenvif.so
LoadModule wsgi_module       modules/mod_wsgi.so
LoadModule unixd_module      modules/mod_unixd.so

LogFormat "%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
CustomLog ${LOG_ROOT}/access_${APP_NAME}.log combined
ErrorLog ${LOG_ROOT}/error_${APP_NAME}.log

DirectoryIndex index.py
DocumentRoot ${APP_ROOT}/apache2/htdocs

Listen ${APP_PORT}
KeepAlive Off
SetEnvIf X-Forwarded-SSL on HTTPS=1
ServerLimit 1
StartServers 1
MaxRequestWorkers 5
MinSpareThreads 1
MaxSpareThreads 3
ThreadsPerChild 5

# python-home = path to your virtualenv
# python-path = path to your project directory
# this is usually all of the python path config that you need.
WSGIDaemonProcess ${APP_NAME} processes=2 threads=12 python-home=${VIRT_ENV} python-path=${PROJ_ROOT}
WSGIProcessGroup ${APP_NAME}
WSGIRestrictEmbedded On
WSGILazyInitialization On
WSGIScriptAlias / ${PROJ_ROOT}/${PROJ_NAME}/wsgi.py

Finally, start the app:

~/apps/myapp/apache2/bin/apachectl start

And that's it - you now have Django up and running on Apache + mod_wsgi with Python 3.6!

stefan We can't give you direct access to ~/logs, but you should be able to put your application logs or whatever in ~/logs/appname.

If that's not working for you then please email support so that we can fix it.

If you keep your logs anywhere else then you'll need to manage the log rotation yourself to avoid using all of your disk space.

joshuccr If you're migrating a reasonably modern Django+mod_wsgi app from WF then there's a good chance that it will work without building a new Apache yourself.

In most cases you can get them running with a few changes:

1. Make a Python 2.7 environment for your Python dependencies: Python Virtual Environments | Opalstack Support Center
2. Install your Python dependencies into the new environment.
3. Adjust your various scripts and config to adapt them to Opalstack:
   • Change webapps to apps in start, stop, restart, and httpd.conf
   • Change your WF username to your Opalstack shell username in start, stop, restart, and httpd.conf (if the shell username is different).
   • Change the Listen port assignment in httpd.conf to your new app's port assignment.
   • Change logs/user to logs/apps/appname in httpd.conf.
   • Change your various Python paths in httpd.conf and anywhere else you set them to point to your new Python environment.

I've done about a dozen of these and 90% of the time these steps will get you 90% of the way. Any remaining issues are usually no different than setting up a new app from scratch. Give it a try!

joshuccr do chmod u+x ~/apps/myapp/apache2/bin/* and try again.