Deploying a Django Site Via Docker

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Before you start make sure and create a requirements.txt file in your projects root folder. Also make sure you have Gunicorn installed along with your Django app. pip install gunicorn

Requirements.txt

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pip freeze > requirements.txt

Dockerfile For Django APP

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Next write out the Dockerfile. I stepped back once from the projects root folder. So cd ../. Then create a Dockerfile touch Dockerfile. And add the following.

FROM python:3-alpine

RUN pip install --upgrade pip

COPY ./mysite/requirements.txt .

RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

COPY ./mysite /app
WORKDIR /app
COPY ./entrypoint.sh /

ENTRYPOINT ["sh", "/entrypoint.sh"]

Entrypoint.sh

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In the same directory lets write the entrypoint.sh file really quick. This will run as a last step when we build the app.

#!/bin/bash

python manage.py makemigrations --no-input
python manage.py migrate --no-input
python manage.py collectstatic --no-input

gunicorn mysite.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:8000

When you see mysite change it to the name of your project.

Nginx

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We will need Nginx to proxy the container. So we will need to build an image so we can stuff a default.conf file inside of it.

So create a new directory in the same folder you created your Dockerfile from earlier. mkdir nginx then cd nginx. Now create another Dockerfile touch Dockerfile. Add the following to it.

FROM nginx:latest
COPY ./default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Next you'll need to create the default.conf file. Create the file in the nginx directory. touch default.conf.

upstream django {
    server django_gunicorn:8000;
}

server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://django;
        # I needed to add this line in order to upload video files.
        client_max_body_size 100M;
    }

    location /static/ {
        alias /static/;
    }
    # In order to serve media files, we'll need this line
    location /media/ {
        alias /media/;
    }
}

Django Settings

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Next there are some settings we'll need to change in the Django settings.py file.

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

# Use your .env file for this.
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY')
# Make sure this is set to false for production, best to set with your .env file
DEBUG = False


ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['https://yourdomainname.com']
# You will need this in order to use the Admin panel.
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = ['https://yourdomainname.com']

# Near the bottom of the settings file add these.
STATIC_ROOT = "/static/"
STATIC_URL = "/static/"

Docker Compose

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Almost to the final step. We need to create a docker-compose.yml file to glue it all together. In the directory you created your first Dockerfile, create your docker-compose.yml. touch docker-compose.yml. Add the following to it.

version: "3.7"

services:
  django_gunicorn:
    container_name: django_gunicorn
    volumes:
      - static:/static
      - media:/app/media
    env_file:
      - ./mysite/.env
    build:
      context: .
    ports:
      - "8500:8000"
  nginx:
    build: ./nginx
    volumes:
      - static:/static
      - media:/media
    ports:
      - "85:80"
    depends_on:
      - django_gunicorn

volumes:
  static:
  media:

Change the ports if need be. At this point, everything should be good to go. Just run docker-compose up --build to test it out. If you're still running on your local computer, you'll need to change ALLOWED_HOSTS to ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*'] in your settings.py file. When everything is built you can just use docker-compose up -d.