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.djangoserverSo 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
37 Comments
Great walk through! Thanks for doing this.
Helped me get up and running quickly so now I can play around with Django
Thanks for this great tutorial. It was my first time using mod_wsgi and I got the Django app installed on my remote server with everything running 100%. Well done on this great article.
Thanks Kevan.
This post is very helpful!!!!!
Thanks so Much! This was Exactly what I needed to know for my Django/Apache project. I’m running on andLinux over Windows XP.
Thank you very much Kevan! This is a great an clear manual to get things work on Ubuntu (10.10 in my case). Very helpful!!
Thanks man! One of the best and goal-oriented tutorials on this topic. I’m merry as a lark now to have a running DJANGO on my UBUNTU!
Hi, thanks for the tutorial, it was very helpfull!!!. But when i try to install this configuration in a Debian Lenny (instaling apache2 and libapache2-mod-wsgi) and restart apache it throw me
Syntax error on line 7 of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
Invalid command ‘WSGIScriptAlias’, perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
Action ‘configtest’ failed.
The Apache error log may have more information.
failed!
/etc/apace2/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot /var/www/proyect
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/proyect/apache/django.wsgi
ServerName localhost
SetHandler None
SetHandler None
Alias /media /var/www/media
Alias /proyect /var/www/proyect
Any idea?.
Thanks againg
Hi Gonzalo, looks like there might occasionally be a problem installing mod_wsgi on Debian Lenny. Have a look at http://almad.nejsem.in/blog/2010/6/9/articles/invalid-command-wsgiscriptalias-debian-lenny/ which suggests reinstalling mod_wsgi (copied here for reference):
dpkg –purge –force-all libapache2-mod-wsgi
apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi
Hi Kendal, thanks very much. I was thinking in reinstall mod_wsgi, but finally i found my mistake. I’m install it in multiple servers and in that server i forget to create /var/www/proyect/apache/django.wsgi file.
Thanks!!
Thanks very much for taking the time to put this together… what a great resource.
It would’ve taken me ages to figure all of this out. I’m loving Python and Django… the linux/server/deployment bit is really the only frustrating part.
Thanks again.
Hi Kevan,
Thanks for the great tutorial. Now, i have a fully functioning server with django, apache and mod_wsgi installed. This tutorial delivers what it promises. Helped a lot. Great work.
Cheers,
Akshar
Excellent walk-through. Took a lot of the pain away if deploying Django to EC2.
Thanks!
Bless You Kevan!!! av learnt so much about deploying Django just from these few steps. thanx so much
the wsgi.djangoserver works, but when I enable the hello.djangoserver,
everything stops working, even the wsgi.djangoserver sites outputs a 500 Internal Server Error. When I disable the hello site the wsgi.djangoserver works again.
I have triple-checked all my files but I havent found anything.
when I reload apache2 I get the errors:
apache2:could not reliablydetermine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 192.168.10.90 for ServerName
HELP
Hi Rafael, is there any error message showing up in the apache error log file? For a default install it should be in /var/log/apache2/error.log
[error] [client 192.168.10.3] mod_wsgi (pid=25250): target WSGI scripy ‘/srv/hello/apache/django.wsgi’ cannot be loaded as Python module.
[error] [client 192.168.10.3]mod_wsgi (pid=25250): Exception occured processing WSGI script ‘/srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi
[error] [client 192.168.10.3]Traceback (most recent call last):
[error] [client 192.168.10.3]File “/srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi” line 10 in
[error] [client 192.168.10.3]import django.core.handler.wsgi
[error] [client 192.168.10.3]ImportError: No module named handler.wsgi
can’t start anything with that.. “Cannot be loaded as a Python Module”, sounds a bit guilty to me!
Looks like the wsgi module is missing or has a problem. Try the following:
> sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi
the module is already installed but I did what you said, then reloaded my apache server and nothing happened. We get the same errors.
I am actually using ubuntu server 11.04, is that maybe the issue?
It could be a version compatibility problem with python and the wsgi module. Find your mod_wsgi.so file and run the following command:
> ldd mod_wsgi.so
The version of python in the output should match the actual version of python you have installed.
Otherwise, try posting a message to the mod wsgi group. Would be great to know if you find a solution.
http://groups.google.com/group/modwsgi
Great Tutorial, all worked easy and fine. Thanks a lot!
This is the most intuitive Django + Mod WSGI tutorial I’ve found so far. Great job. Now if only the standard Django docs were this easy to understand…
I think this is the best Django+mod_wsgi tutoriol.
Hint: For ubuntu “sudo django-admin.py startproject hello” int work
Use “sudo django-admin startproject hello”
Just received an email from Dave Parizek on this entry. Copying his message here in case it helps others. Many thanks Dave.
Hi:
In your article here:
http://blog.stannard.net.au/2010/12/11/installing-django-with-apache-and-mod_wsgi-on-ubuntu-10-04/
you need to tell people to remove any default files in
/etc/apache2/sites-enabled
I could not get wsgi test to work until I noticed a default file in sites-enabled was setting a different document root than I wanted.
Thanks!
This is a great resource, many thanks Kevan. Everything followed to the tee and worked immediately.
One thing I must ask though : I’m somewhat of a newbie in this whole arena of Django and WSGI (although have been working with WAMP/LAMP for nigh on 15 years). I’ve been given a django project which is currently being run under django’s own HTTP service (currently running via a console command as python manage.py runserver my_IP_Address:8000) but I understand that to take that and then host it in a ‘production’ environment I should be using Apache2 and MOD-WSGI.
Is there an easy way of taking your notes eloquently written here and then applying them to a django project already coded, assuming the project has been written using normal framework filenames and structure?
Hi Dave, I’m not an expert in production deployment so don’t want to give you any misleading info. Probably best to post this question the Django user group.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/django-users
All the best with your project.
Email received from Diego ( kobylkin.com )
Kevan,
I am referring to your walkthrough http://blog.stannard.net.au/2010/12/11/installing-django-with-apache-and-mod_wsgi-on-ubuntu-10-04/
It did not work for me on the clean install. I was getting the following error: ImportError: Could not import settings ‘hello.settings’ (Is it on sys.path?): No module named hello.settings
One other commenter has had the same problem.
I had to change my django.wsgi to this:
import os
import sys
sys.path.insert(0,os.sep.join(os.path.abspath(__file__).split(os.sep)[:-2]))
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = ‘testbed.settings’
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()
This is the string that I have added instead your code there:
sys.path.insert(0,os.sep.join(os.path.abspath(__file__).split(os.sep)[:-2]))
Pls. consider adjusting your post as the comments are closed. Hope this will save a few hours to othere people trying out your otherwise very usefull walkthrough.
Bests,
Diego
Thanks a lot this save me time
Just to say thanks for the welcome info. First time I set up Django + Apache and this was hands down the best info I found. I especially like the fact that you get wsgi part working first, since this caused me a bit of a problem on my particular machine that I was able to trace due to your article. Kudos!
To avoid the error:
ImportError: Could not import settings ‘hello.settings’ (Is it on sys.path?): No module named hello.settings
Remove the three lines in django.wsgi that relate to setting the path and simply replace them with:
sys.path.append('/srv/www')sys.path.append('/srv/www/hello')
This was by far the best tutorial I have seen for this. Btw, small difference for me. In the virtual host files, where you have “DocumentRoot /srv/www/hello”, I had to put one more /hello at the end of it. Because the settings.py file was in that folder. Maybe because of a newer version? I’m not sure.
Thanks for tutorial. Very clear installation.
Very useful comments if you have 500 Server Error with “ImportError: Could not import settings ‘hello.settings’ (Is it on sys.path?): No module named hello.settings”.
http://blog.stannard.net.au/2010/12/11/installing-django-with-apache-and-mod_wsgi-on-ubuntu-10-04/#comment-1646
or
http://blog.stannard.net.au/2010/12/11/installing-django-with-apache-and-mod_wsgi-on-ubuntu-10-04/#comment-1658
In the /srv/www/hello/apache/django.wsgi the path you add should be ‘/srv/www/hello’
Hello
I try to set up django on my debian wheezy and tried PART 4 – Test Django is working
Create a new Django site:
django-admin.py startproject hello
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/local/bin/django-admin.py”, line 2, in
from django.core import management
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.2/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py”, line 54
except ImportError,e:
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Does somebody know what the problem ist??
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank youThank you
:):):)
You saved me
Hi,
thanks for this tutorial. I’ m developing something a couple of months ago, and i wanted to bind it now to apache2. After this tutorial i got some import error, and – for me – surprisingly it started to work, when i removed my 2 appnames from the INSTALLED_APPS , but i wouldn’ t think it’ s the right solution. Any idea how should i set up the wsgi file to work with my apps if they’ re also in the INSTALLED_APPS ? Or any hint how should i write my application to work with this tutorial’ s files?
Thanks.
Thanks Kevin,
Awesome post!
I’m doing a deploy to EC2, and I also had trouble getting the wsgi “hello world” to work, until I saw that a default file in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled was hijacking the server.
Thanks much
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