Django Deployment with NGINX proxy

Rye

What we'll do in this consideration is deploy nginx with a debian host and enable configurations and components to change when we change debug = False. Going to production with gunicorn contains a plethora of boobytraps, obsfucation, and a ton of needless work.

What we need:

• nginx.conf for host_2
• Serves /media/ files locally
• Proxies all other requests to Gunicorn (running on localhost:8000)

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;  # wildcard for internal/border routing

    access_log /var/log/nginx/app.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/app.error.log;

    # Serve media files directly
    location /media/ {
        alias /srv/myapp/media/;
        autoindex off;
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public";
    }

    # Pass everything else to Gunicorn
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }
}

```


• enable the config:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

• Required Django settings.py lines

import os

DEBUG = False

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['yourdomain.com', 'ip.address.goes.here']  # internal IP or hostname

# Let Django trust the X-Forwarded-Proto header for HTTPS
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER = ('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
USE_X_FORWARDED_HOST = True

# Media settings
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media')  # or /srv/myapp/media

systemd:

# /etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service
[Unit]
Description=gunicorn daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
User=www-data
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/srv/myapp
ExecStart=/srv/myapp/venv/bin/gunicorn yourproject.wsgi:application \
          --bind 127.0.0.1:8000 \
          --workers 3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• do the needful

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl enable gunicorn
sudo systemctl start gunicorn

• Auto-starting nginx in production (DEBUG=False)

#!/bin/bash
if grep -q "DEBUG = False" /srv/myapp/yourproject/settings.py; then
    sudo systemctl restart nginx
fi

• Media serving setup

Rye

Update: The same but similar problem remains present despite a series of new steps in troubleshooting.

I have a debugger inline so I can write tests for the debugger.

There is also a development machine with True if you want to see what the rendered components 'should' look like

to run: gunicorn -c /client/utils/gunicorn_conf.py backend.wsgi

|-- code
|   |-- README.md
|   |-- access.log
|   |-- backend
|   |-- client
|   |-- db.sqlite3
|   |-- error.log
|   |-- inventory
|   |-- manage.py
|   |-- media
|   `-- requirements.txt
|-- html
|   |-- media
|   `-- static
|-- logs
|   `-- error.log
`-- server.sock


# Allow gzip compression
gzip_types text/css application/json appli
cation/x-javascript;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_proxied any;
# Look for files with .gz to serve pre-com
pressed data
gzip_static on;

    # Where to look for content (static an
d media)
    root    /srv/www/html/;

Rye

html/
|-- media
|   `-- featured_cards
`-- static
    |-- admin
    |-- images
    |-- styles.css
    |-- styles.css.gz
    |-- table_style.css
    `-- table_style.css.gz



* gunicorn.service - gunicorn daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gunicorn.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2025-06-22 06:11:32 UTC; 7min ago
   Main PID: 7455 (gunicorn)
      Tasks: 4 (limit: 38149)
     Memory: 164.7M
        CPU: 1.610s
     CGroup: /system.slice/gunicorn.service
             |-7455 /srv/www/.venv/bin/python3 /srv/www/.venv/bin/gunicorn backend.wsgi:application >
             |-7457 /srv/www/.venv/bin/python3 /srv/www/.venv/bin/gunicorn backend.wsgi:application >
             |-7458 /srv/www/.venv/bin/python3 /srv/www/.venv/bin/gunicorn backend.wsgi:application >
             `-7459 /srv/www/.venv/bin/python3 /srv/www/.venv/bin/gunicorn backend.wsgi:application >