Deploying a Django Project on an Internal Company Server

Based on your situation, I'll outline the steps needed to deploy your Django project for internal company use.

Deployment Steps

1. Server Setup

• Python Installation: Yes, you need to install Python on the server. Make sure to install the same Python version you used for development.
• Web Server: You'll need a production-ready web server. Common choices include:
  • Nginx (recommended)
  • Apache

2. Django Project Preparation

• ALLOWED_HOSTS: Ensure your server's IP address and/or hostname is correctly added to ALLOWED_HOSTS in settings.py:

PYTHONCopied
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your.server.ip.address', 'internal.domain.name']

• Debug Mode: Turn off debug mode for production:

PYTHONCopied
DEBUG = False

• Static Files: Run the collectstatic command to gather all static files:

BASHCopied
python manage.py collectstatic

3. WSGI/ASGI Setup

Django supports two interfaces for deployment:

• WSGI: For synchronous applications (most common)
• ASGI: For asynchronous applications

For a typical internal application, WSGI with Gunicorn is a good choice:

BASHCopied
pip install gunicorn

4. Deployment Process

1. Install Dependencies:

   BASHCopied
   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set Up a Virtual Environment:

   BASHCopied
   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

3. Configure Web Server:
   For Nginx, create a configuration file that forwards requests to Gunicorn:

   # Example Nginx configuration
   server {
       listen 80;
       server_name your.server.ip.address;
   
       location /static/ {
           alias /path/to/your/static/files/;
       }
   
       location / {
           proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
           proxy_set_header Host $host;
           proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
       }
   }
   

4. Run Gunicorn:

   BASHCopied
   gunicorn your_project.wsgi:application --bind 127.0.0.1:8000

5. Set Up Process Management:
   Use a tool like Supervisor or systemd to keep your application running:

   Example systemd service file:

   [Unit]
   Description=Gunicorn daemon for Django project
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   User=your_user
   WorkingDirectory=/path/to/your/project
   ExecStart=/path/to/your/venv/bin/gunicorn --workers 3 --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 your_project.wsgi:application
   Restart=on-failure
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   

5. Static Files Handling

For a company internal application, you can either:

• Let Nginx serve static files (recommended, as shown in the Nginx config above)
• Use Django's built-in static file serving (not recommended for production)

Troubleshooting ALLOWED_HOSTS

If adding the server's IP to ALLOWED_HOSTS isn't working:

• Ensure you're using the correct IP (internal network IP)
• Check if you need to add both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
• Try adding the hostname as well
• Restart the Django application after making changes

Remember to run through Django's deployment checklist before finalizing your deployment to ensure all configurations are suitable for production.