How to Install Django on Debian using Apache mod_wsgi

Here we are going install a basic django application using apache2 mod_wsgi module. Requirements:

• server dns: web01.dev.local
• django code location: /usr/local/lib
• django project: hello

Let install few packages we need:

apt-get -y install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi \
    python-django 

Once you ensure apache is up and running. Let create a simple django application:

cd /usr/local/lib
django-admin startproject hello

Create a /usr/local/lib/django-hello.wsgi file:

import sys
import os
import os.path

sys.path.append(os.path.dirname(__file__))
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'hello.settings'

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

Add apache site configuration that will serve the django wsgi site. Add the following to /etc/apache2/sites-available/django-hello:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName web01.dev.local
        DocumentRoot /var/www/

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, 
        # warn, error, crit, alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
    
        WSGIScriptAlias / /usr/local/lib/django-hello.wsgi
        WSGIProcessGroup hello-site
        WSGIDaemonProcess hello-site processes=2 threads=16 maximum-requests=1000 display-name=apache-hello-wsgi
</VirtualHost>

Now we are going disable default apache site and enable django-hello site:

a2dissite default
a2ensite django-hello
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Once you navigate to http://web01.dev.local/ you should be able to see the default django welcome screen.

If you experience performance issue with content rendering, overhead of framework internal time, have a willing to fine control content caching consider take a look at the following post.