Code-Memo

Deploying to AWS (Elastic Beanstalk, EC2)

1. Choosing Between Elastic Beanstalk and EC2

• Elastic Beanstalk (EB): A Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that automates infrastructure setup, including EC2 instances, load balancers, and scaling. Best for simplified deployments.
• EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): A raw virtual machine that provides full control over the server but requires manual setup of the web server, database, and deployment process. Best for customized, scalable deployments.

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2. Deploying Django on AWS Elastic Beanstalk

a) Installing AWS CLI and Elastic Beanstalk CLI

pip install awsebcli --upgrade

Verify installation:

eb --version

b) Setting Up AWS Credentials

aws configure

Provide:

• AWS Access Key ID
• AWS Secret Access Key
• Default region (e.g., us-east-1)
• Default output format (json)

c) Creating an Elastic Beanstalk Application

Navigate to the Django project directory:

eb init -p python3.9 my-django-app

• -p python3.9: Specifies the Python version.
• my-django-app: The application name.

d) Configuring Environment Variables

Create a .ebextensions folder and an environment config file:

mkdir .ebextensions
touch .ebextensions/django.config

Add environment variables inside django.config:

option_settings:
  aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment:
    DJANGO_SECRET_KEY: "your-secret-key"
    DJANGO_DEBUG: "False"
    DATABASE_URL: "postgres://user:password@db-instance.amazonaws.com:5432/dbname"

e) Creating and Deploying the Elastic Beanstalk Environment

eb create my-django-env

After deployment:

eb open

To update the deployment:

eb deploy

f) Running Database Migrations on Beanstalk

SSH into the instance:

eb ssh my-django-env

Run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

g) Checking Logs and Debugging

eb logs

Restart application:

eb restart

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3. Deploying Django on AWS EC2

a) Launching an EC2 Instance

1. Go to the AWS EC2 Dashboard.
2. Click Launch Instance.
3. Select Amazon Linux 2 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
4. Choose an instance type (e.g., t3.micro for free-tier).
5. Configure security groups:
   • Allow port 22 (SSH) for access.
   • Allow port 80 (HTTP) for web traffic.
   • Allow port 443 (HTTPS) for SSL/TLS.
   • Allow port 8000 if testing locally.
6. Add an Elastic IP for a static IP address.

b) Connecting to the EC2 Instance

Copy the public IP and SSH into the instance:

ssh -i my-key.pem ec2-user@ec2-xx-xx-xx-xx.compute-1.amazonaws.com

For Ubuntu instances:

ssh -i my-key.pem ubuntu@ec2-xx-xx-xx-xx.compute-1.amazonaws.com

c) Installing Dependencies

sudo yum update -y  # Amazon Linux
sudo apt update -y  # Ubuntu

sudo yum install python3-pip -y  # Amazon Linux
sudo apt install python3-pip -y  # Ubuntu

d) Setting Up a Virtual Environment

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip

e) Cloning the Django Project

git clone https://github.com/user/my-django-project.git
cd my-django-project

Install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

f) Configuring the Database

Using PostgreSQL:

sudo yum install postgresql postgresql-server postgresql-devel -y  # Amazon Linux
sudo apt install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev -y  # Ubuntu

Update settings.py:

DATABASES = {
    "default": {
        "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
        "NAME": "mydb",
        "USER": "myuser",
        "PASSWORD": "mypassword",
        "HOST": "mydb-instance.amazonaws.com",
        "PORT": "5432",
    }
}

Apply migrations:

python manage.py migrate

g) Running Django with Gunicorn

Install Gunicorn:

pip install gunicorn

Start Gunicorn:

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

h) Setting Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Install Nginx:

sudo yum install nginx -y  # Amazon Linux
sudo apt install nginx -y  # Ubuntu

Edit Nginx config file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name ec2-xx-xx-xx-xx.compute-1.amazonaws.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

Restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Enable on boot:

sudo systemctl enable nginx

i) Running Django as a Systemd Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/django.service:

[Unit]
Description=Django Service
After=network.target

[Service]
User=ec2-user
Group=ec2-user
WorkingDirectory=/home/ec2-user/my-django-project
ExecStart=/home/ec2-user/venv/bin/gunicorn --workers 4 --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 myproject.wsgi:application
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable django
sudo systemctl start django

Check service logs:

sudo journalctl -u django --no-pager

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4. Configuring HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

a) Installing Certbot

sudo yum install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y  # Amazon Linux
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y  # Ubuntu

b) Generating SSL Certificate

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Auto-renew SSL certificate:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

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5. Automating Deployment with Git

Create a deployment script deploy.sh:

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/ec2-user/my-django-project
git pull origin main
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
sudo systemctl restart django

Make it executable:

chmod +x deploy.sh

Run deployment:

./deploy.sh

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6. Monitoring and Logs

Check logs:

sudo journalctl -u django --no-pager
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Monitor server:

htop