Easy multi Django apps on AWS w/ Nginx

Designed for usage with https://github.com/GuiFV/django-quickstart

Requirements

• linux instance deployed on AWS
• docker installed on instance
• registered domains pointed to instance (Public IPv4 address)
• SSL for domains
  • (optional) route domains DNS through Cloudflare for free SSL

Step 1 - setup

1. access your linux instance
2. copy "Dockerfile" and "conf.d" to main folder (the one you land on when access via ssh, usually '../home/ec2-user')
3. git pull your django apps (on the same folder) respecting the docker-compose.yml notes on the link above

Change the following:

• on Dockerfile, change website_1 and website_2 for the names of your apps (this helps with identification)
• under conf.d, change the name of the files to the same as the item above
• under docker-compose.yml change the volumes names directories so the paths are correct, like the item above
• under each .conf file, change the static alias prefix for the names of your apps (they must match the static ones in the docker-compose)
• inside each .conf, change the domain to the respective app domain
• notice that each app will be exposed in a different proxy_pass (in this example, website_1 is on port 8000 and website_2 is on port 8001)
• don't forget to change for the same port on the docker-compose.yml file on the respective application (command:gunicorn and expose:)

Step 2 - spin up each application and then the nginx

• go to each application folder
  • copy and do the necessary changes on the .env file
  • spin it up with docker-compose up -d --build
  • migrate your database with docker-compose run web python amanage.py migrate
  • create a superuser with docker-compose run web python amanage.py createsuperuser
  • collect your static files docker-compose run web python amanage.py collectstatic
• lastly, go back to main folder (the one with the nginx docker files) and run docker-compose up -d --build
• open your browser and visit each app - they should be served correctly

Serving more apps on the same server

• replicate .conf paths in the Dockerfile, static alias in the docker-compose and create the respective .conf files for each app
• don't forget to expose each app in a different port
• you can serve as many applications as your instance can handle