3/15/2020 Deploying a Django application to Elastic Beanstalk - AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Deploying a Django application to Elastic Beanstalk

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This tutorial walks through the deployment of a default, autogenerated Django (https://www.djangoproject.com/)
website to an AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment running Python. This tutorial shows you how to host a Python web
app in the cloud by using an Elastic Beanstalk environment.

In this tutorial, you’ll do the following:

Set up a Python virtual environment and install Django (#python-django-setup-venv)

Create a Django project (#python-django-create-app)

Configure your Django application for Elastic Beanstalk (#python-django-configure-for-eb)

Deploy your site with the EB CLI (#python-django-deploy)

Update your application (#python-django-update-app)

Clean up (#python-django-stopping)

Prerequisites
To use any AWS service, including Elastic Beanstalk, you need to have an AWS account and credentials. To learn more
and to sign up, visit https://aws.amazon.com/ (https://aws.amazon.com/) .

To follow this tutorial, you should have all of the Common Prerequisites (./python-development-environment.html) for
Python installed, including the following packages:

Python 3.6

pip

virtualenv

awsebcli

The Django (https://www.djangoproject.com/) framework is installed as part of the tutorial.

Note
Creating environments with the EB CLI requires a service role (./concepts-roles-service.html) . You can create a service
role by creating an environment in the Elastic Beanstalk console. If you don't have a service role, the EB CLI attempts
to create one when you run eb create.

Set up a Python virtual environment and install Django

Create a virtual environment with virtualenv and use it to install Django and its dependencies. By using a virtual
environment, you can know exactly which packages your application needs, so that the required packages are
installed on the Amazon EC2 instances that are running your application.

The following steps demonstrate the commands you must enter for Unix-based systems and Windows, shown on
separate tabs.

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To set up your virtual environment

1. Create a virtual environment named eb-virt.

Unix-based Systems (#python-django.unix) Windows (#python-django.windows)

C:\> virtualenv %HOMEPATH%\eb-virt

2. Activate the virtual environment.

Unix-based Systems (#python-django.unix) Windows (#python-django.windows)

C:\>%HOMEPATH%\eb-virt\Scripts\activate
(eb-virt) C:\>

You'll see (eb-virt) prepended to your command prompt, indicating that you're in a virtual environment.
Note
The rest of these instructions show the Linux command prompt in your home directory ~$. On Windows this is
C:\Users\USERNAME>, where USERNAME is your Windows login name.

3. Use pip to install Django.

(eb-virt)~$ pip install django==2.1.1

Note
The Django version you install must be compatible with the Python version on the Elastic Beanstalk Python
configuration that you choose for deploying your application. For information about deployment, see Deploy
your site with the EB CLI (#python-django-deploy) in this topic.

For more information about current Python platform versions, see Python
(https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/platforms/platforms-supported.html#platforms-supported.python) in
the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Platforms document.

For Django version compatibility with Python, see What Python version can I use with Django?
(https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/faq/install/#what-python-version-can-i-use-with-django) Django 2.2 is
incompatible with the Elastic Beanstalk Python 3.6 platform. The latest compatible version is Django 2.1.

4. To verify that Django is installed, enter the following.

(eb-virt)~$ pip freeze

Django==2.1.1
...

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This command lists all of the packages installed in your virtual environment. Later, you use the output of this
command to configure your project for use with Elastic Beanstalk.

Create a Django project

Now you are ready to create a Django project and run it on your machine, using the virtual environment.
Note
This tutorial uses SQLite, which is a database engine included in Python. The database is deployed with your project
files. For production environments, we recommend that you use Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS),
and that you separate it from your environment. For more information, see Adding an Amazon RDS DB instance to
your Python application environment (./create-deploy-python-rds.html) .

To generate a Django application

1. Activate your virtual environment.

Unix-based Systems (#python-django.unix) Windows (#python-django.windows)

C:\>%HOMEPATH%\eb-virt\Scripts\activate
(eb-virt) C:\>

You'll see the (eb-virt) prefix prepended to your command prompt, indicating that you're in a virtual
environment.
Note
The rest of these instructions show the Linux command prompt ~$ in your home directory and the Linux home
directory ~/. On Windows these are C:\Users\USERNAME>, where USERNAME is your Windows login name.

2. Use the django-admin startproject command to create a Django project named ebdjango.

(eb-virt)~$ django-admin startproject ebdjango

This command creates a standard Django site named ebdjango with the following directory structure.

~/ebdjango
|-- ebdjango
| |-- __init__.py
| |-- settings.py
| |-- urls.py
| `-- wsgi.py
`-- manage.py

3. Run your Django site locally with manage.py runserver.

(eb-virt) ~$ cd ebdjango

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ python manage.py runserver

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4. In a web browser, open http://127.0.0.1:8000/ to view the site.

5. Check the server log to see the output from your request. To stop the web server and return to your virtual
environment, press Ctrl+C.

Django version 2.1.1, using settings 'ebdjango.settings'

Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
[07/Sep/2018 20:14:09] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 16348
Ctrl+C

Configure your Django application for Elastic Beanstalk

Now that you have a Django-powered site on your local machine, you can configure it for deployment with Elastic
Beanstalk.

By default, Elastic Beanstalk looks for a file named application.py to start your application. Because this doesn't
exist in the Django project that you've created, you need to make some adjustments to your application's
environment. You also must set environment variables so that your application's modules can be loaded.

To configure your site for Elastic Beanstalk

1. Activate your virtual environment.

Unix-based Systems (#python-django.unix) Windows (#python-django.windows)

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C:\Users\USERNAME\ebdjango>%HOMEPATH%\eb-virt\Scripts\activate

2. Run pip freeze, and then save the output to a file named requirements.txt.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ pip freeze > requirements.txt

Elastic Beanstalk uses requirements.txt to determine which package to install on the EC2 instances that run
your application.

3. Create a directory named .ebextensions.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ mkdir .ebextensions

4. In the .ebextensions directory, add a configuration file (./ebextensions.html) named django.config with the
following text.

Example ~/ebdjango/.ebextensions/django.config

option_settings:
aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:python:
WSGIPath: ebdjango/wsgi.py

This setting, WSGIPath, specifies the location of the WSGI script that Elastic Beanstalk uses to start your
application.

5. Deactivate your virtual environment with the deactivate command.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ deactivate

Reactivate your virtual environment whenever you need to add packages to your application or run your
application locally.

Deploy your site with the EB CLI

You've added everything you need to deploy your application on Elastic Beanstalk. Your project directory should
now look like this.

~/ebdjango/
|-- .ebextensions
| `-- django.config
|-- ebdjango
| |-- __init__.py
| |-- settings.py
| |-- urls.py
| `-- wsgi.py
|-- db.sqlite3
|-- manage.py
`-- requirements.txt

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Next, you'll create your application environment and deploy your configured application with Elastic Beanstalk.

Immediately after deployment, you'll edit Django's configuration to add the domain name that Elastic Beanstalk
assigned to your application to Django's ALLOWED_HOSTS. Then you'll redeploy your application. This is a Django
security requirement, designed to prevent HTTP Host header attacks. For more information, see Host header
validation (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/topics/security/#host-headers-virtual-hosting) .

To create an environment and deploy your Django application

Note
This tutorial uses the EB CLI as a deployment mechanism, but you can also use the Elastic Beanstalk console to
deploy a .zip file containing your project's contents.

1. Initialize your EB CLI repository with the eb init command.

~/ebdjango$ eb init -p python-3.6 django-tutorial

Application django-tutorial has been created.

This command creates an application named django-tutorial. It also configures your local repository to create
environments with the latest Python 3.6 platform version.

2. (Optional) Run eb init again to configure a default key pair so that you can use SSH to connect to the EC2
instance running your application.

~/ebdjango$ eb init
Do you want to set up SSH for your instances?
(y/n): y
Select a keypair.
1) my-keypair
2) [ Create new KeyPair ]

Select a key pair if you have one already, or follow the prompts to create one. If you don't see the prompt or need
to change your settings later, run eb init -i.

3. Create an environment and deploy your application to it with eb create.

~/ebdjango$ eb create django-env

Note
If you see a "service role required" error message, run eb create interactively (without specifying an
environment name) and the EB CLI creates the role for you.

This command creates a load balanced Elastic Beanstalk environment named django-env. Creating an
environment takes about 5 minutes. As Elastic Beanstalk creates the resources needed to run your application, it
outputs informational messages that the EB CLI relays to your terminal.

4. When the environment creation process completes, find the domain name of your new environment by running
eb status.

~/ebdjango$ eb status
Environment details for: django-env

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Application name: django-tutorial

...
CNAME: eb-django-app-dev.elasticbeanstalk.com
...

Your environment's domain name is the value of the CNAME property.

5. Open the settings.py file in the ebdjango directory. Locate the ALLOWED_HOSTS setting, and then add your
application's domain name that you found in the previous step to the setting's value. If you can't find this setting
in the file, add it to a new line.

...
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['eb-django-app-dev.elasticbeanstalk.com']

6. Save the file, and then deploy your application by running eb deploy. When you run eb deploy, the EB CLI
bundles up the contents of your project directory and deploys it to your environment.

~/ebdjango$ eb deploy

Note
If you are using Git with your project, see Using the EB CLI with Git (./eb3-cli-git.html) .

7. When the environment update process completes, open your website with eb open.

~/ebdjango$ eb open

This opens a browser window using the domain name created for your application. You should see the same
Django website that you created and tested locally.

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If you don't see your application running, or get an error message, see Troubleshooting deployments
(./troubleshooting-deployments.html) for help with how to determine the cause of the error.

If you do see your application running, then congratulations, you've deployed your first Django application with
Elastic Beanstalk!

Update your application

Now that you have a running application on Elastic Beanstalk, you can update and redeploy your application or its
configuration, and Elastic Beanstalk does the work of updating your instances and starting your new application
version.

For this example, we'll enable Django's admin console and configure a few other settings.

Modify your site settings

By default, your Django website uses the UTC time zone to display time. You can change this by specifying a time
zone in settings.py.

To change your site's time zone

1. Modify the TIME_ZONE setting in settings.py.

Example ~/ebdjango/ebdjango/settings.py

...
# Internationalization
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'US/Pacific'
USE_I18N = True

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USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

For a list of time zones, visit this page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones) .

2. Deploy the application to your Elastic Beanstalk environment.

~/ebdjango/$ eb deploy

Create a site administrator

You can create a site administrator for your Django application to access the admin console directly from the
website. Administrator login details are stored securely in the local database image included in the default project
that Django generates.

To create a site administrator

1. Initialize your Django application's local database.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ python manage.py migrate

Operations to perform:
Apply all migrations: admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices... OK
Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK
Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length... OK
Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK

2. Run manage.py createsuperuser to create an administrator.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ python manage.py createsuperuser

Username: admin
Email address: me@mydomain.com
Password: ********
Password (again): ********
Superuser created successfully.

3. To tell Django where to store static files, define STATIC_ROOT in settings.py.

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Example ~/ebdjango/ebdjango/settings.py

# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)

# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/howto/static-files/
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATIC_ROOT = 'static'

4. Run manage.py collectstatic to populate the static directory with static assets (JavaScript, CSS, and images)
for the admin site.

(eb-virt) ~/ebdjango$ python manage.py collectstatic

119 static files copied to ~/ebdjango/static

5. Deploy your application.

~/ebdjango$ eb deploy

6. View the admin console by opening the site in your browser, appending /admin/ to the site URL, such as the
following.

http://djang-env.p33kq46sfh.us-west-2.elasticbeanstalk.com/admin/

7. Log in with the username and password that you configured in step 2.

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You can use a similar procedure of local updating/testing followed by eb deploy. Elastic Beanstalk does the work of
updating your live servers, so you can focus on application development instead of server administration!

Add a database migration configuration file

You can add commands to your .ebextensions script that are run when your site is updated. This enables you to
automatically generate database migrations.

To add a migrate step when your application is deployed

1. Create a configuration file (./ebextensions.html) named db-migrate.config with the following content.

Example ~/ebdjango/.ebextensions/db-migrate.config

container_commands:
01_migrate:
command: "django-admin.py migrate"
leader_only: true
option_settings:
aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment:
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE: ebdjango.settings

This configuration file runs the django-admin.py migrate command during the deployment process, before
starting your application. Because it runs before the application starts, you must also configure the
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable explicitly (usually wsgi.py takes care of this for you during
startup). Specifying leader_only: true in the command ensures that it is run only once when you're deploying
to multiple instances.

2. Deploy your application.

~/ebdjango$ eb deploy

Clean up

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To save instance hours and other AWS resources between development sessions, terminate your Elastic Beanstalk
environment with eb terminate.

~/ebdjango$ eb terminate django-env

This command terminates the environment and all of the AWS resources that run within it. It doesn't delete the
application, however, so you can always create more environments with the same configuration by running eb create
again. For more information on EB CLI commands, see Managing Elastic Beanstalk environments with the EB CLI
(./eb-cli3-getting-started.html) .

If you're done with the sample application, you can also remove the project folder and virtual environment.

~$ rm -rf ~/eb-virt
~$ rm -rf ~/ebdjango

Next steps
For more information about Django, including an in-depth tutorial, see the official documentation
(https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/) .

If you want to try out another Python web framework, check out Deploying a flask application to Elastic Beanstalk
(./create-deploy-python-flask.html) .

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