• Will Larson’s Django and Ubuntu Intrepid Almanac excellent post. Probably worth looking at that first!
• Ubuntu Server Guide
• Ubuntu Hardy + Nginx
• Rich Leland’s ‘pip and virtualenv’ post

Assumptions

1. Logged in as root locally.
2. Network interface has been configured.

Steps

1. Update your apt-get sources
   

   apt-get upgrade

2. Add some accounts (using bob as my own account):
   

   useradd django
   mkdir /home/django
   chown django:django /home/django
   useradd bob
   mdkir /home/bob
   chown bob:bob /home/bob
   passwd bob

3. Change the default shell:
   

   chsh root -s /bin/bash
   chsh bob -s /bin/bash
   chsh django -s /bin/bash

4. passwd bob
   passwd django

5. Add root permission to bob by adding the account to the admin group.
   

   usermod -a -Gadmin bob

6. Try logging in as bob:
   

   su bob

7. If OpenSSH is not installed then visit this page about setting it up.
   

   sudo apt-get install openssh-server
   sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.original
   sudo chmod a-w /etc/ssh/sshd_config.original

   Check if ssh is running:

   ps -ef | grep sshd

   If not try:

   /etc/init.d/ssh start

   If you’re getting a ‘Connection refused’ message, check that the /etc/hosts file is set correctly particularly if you changed to a static address by changing /etc/network/interfaces. If there is nothing wrong there double check any firewall settings.

8. We’ll be restricting ssh to bob only, so create a special sshers group:
   

   sudo groupadd sshers
   sudo usermod -a -Gsshers bob

9. Time to configure ssh:
   Make these changes to /etc/ssh/sshd_config

   #Port 22
   Port XXXX (pick a port number)

   #PermitRootLogin yes
   PermitRootLogin no

   #X11 Forwarding yes
   X11 Forwarding no

   Add these if not found

   MaxAuthTries 6
   UseDNS no
   AllowGroups sshers

   And restart the ssh service:

   sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

   Check that you can login:

   ssh bob@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -p XXXX

   If it works you can disable the root password:

   sudo passwd -l root

10. Next install Postgres (might need to install gcc and make as well):
    

    sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.3 postgresql-server-dev-8.3

    Change the password for the postgresuser:

    sudo -u postgres psql template1

    You’ll get the psql prompt and then just type:

    • ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD ‘somePassword‘;
    • \q

11. The config file for Postgres also needs to be modified:
    

    sudo vi /etc/postgresql/8.3/main/pg_hba.conf

    The end of the file should changed to look like:

    # Database administrative login by UNIX sockets
    local all postgres ident sameuser
    # TYPE DATABASE USER CIDR-ADDRESS METHOD
    # “local” is for Unix domain socket connections only
    local all all password
    # IPv4 local connections:
    #host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
    # IPv6 local connections:
    #host all all ::1/128 md5

    Next, just restart Postgres:

    sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.3 restart

12. Nginx will serve static content and proxy requests to Apache2. We’ll need to install the latest stable version.
    

    sudo aptitude -y install libpcre3 libpcre3-dev libpcrecpp0 libssl-dev zlib1g-dev
mkdir ~/sources
cd ~/sources/
wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.7.61.tar.gz
tar -zxvf nginx-0.7.61.tar.gz
cd nginx-0.7.61
./configure --sbin-path=/usr/local/sbin --with-http_ssl_module
make
sudo make install

    Start Nginx

    sudo /usr/local/sbin/nginx

    Try viewing it on a browser.
    Stop it and create an init script

    sudo kill `cat /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid`
    sudo vi /etc/init.d/nginx

    #! /bin/sh

    ### BEGIN INIT INFO
    # Provides: nginx
    # Required-Start: $all
    # Required-Stop: $all
    # Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
    # Default-Stop: 0 1 6
    # Short-Description: starts the nginx web server
    # Description: starts nginx using start-stop-daemon
    ### END INIT INFO

    PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

    DAEMON=/usr/local/sbin/nginx
    NAME=nginx
    DESC=nginx

    test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

    # Include nginx defaults if available
    if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then
    . /etc/default/nginx
    fi

    set -e

    case "$1" in
    start)
    echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
    --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
    stop)
    echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
    --exec $DAEMON
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;

    restart|force-reload)
    echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile \
    /usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON
    sleep 1
    start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile \
    /usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
    reload)
    echo -n "Reloading $DESC configuration: "
    start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile /usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
    --exec $DAEMON
    echo "$NAME."
    ;;
    *)
    N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
    echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
    esac

    exit 0


    sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx

    Add it to the default run levels:

    sudo /usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f nginx defaults

    Create folder layout:

    sudo mkdir /usr/local/nginx/sites-available
    sudo mkdir /usr/local/nginx/sites-enabled

    Change the nginx.conf file:

    sudo vi /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf

    to:

    user www-data www-data;
worker_processes 4;

    events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    }

    http {
    include mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay off;
    keepalive_timeout 5;

    gzip on;
    gzip_comp_level 2;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_types text/plain text/html text/css application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml
    application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    include /usr/local/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


    Next add a proxy.conf file:

    sudo vi /usr/local/nginx/conf/proxy.conf

    # proxy.conf
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
client_max_body_size 10m;
client_body_buffer_size 128k;
proxy_connect_timeout 90;
proxy_send_timeout 90;
proxy_read_timeout 90;
proxy_buffers 32 4k;


    And start Ngninx:

    sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

13. Get files for Apache2:
    

    sudo apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi

    Modify ports.conf

    sudo vi /etc/apache2/ports.conf

    with

    NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80
    Listen 127.0.0.1:80

    Need to modify apache2.conf

    sudo vi /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

    Change KeepAlive to:

    # KeepAlive On
    KeepAlive Off

    Then restart:

    sudo apache2ctl restart

14. Create a virtual host file for your site with nginx:
    

    sudo vi /usr/local/nginx/sites-available/example.com

    and add the following where 255.255.255.255:80 should be replaced with the correct IP:

    server {
listen 255.255.255.255:80;
server_name www.example.com;
rewrite ^/(.*) http://example.com/$1 permanent;
}
server {
listen 255.255.255.255:80;
server_name www.example.com example.com;

    access_log /home/django/domains/example.com/log/access.log;
    error_log /home/django/domains/example.com/log/error.log;

    location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:80/;
    include /usr/local/nginx/conf/proxy.conf;
    }

    location /media/ {
root /home/django/domains/example.com/public/;
expires 1d;
}
}


    sudo ln -s /usr/local/nginx/sites-available/example.com /usr/local/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com

15. Add some django folders:
    

    sudo usermod -a -G www-data django
    sudo usermod -a -G www-data bob
    su django
    mkdir domains
    chgrp -R www-data /home/django/domains
    chmod -R 2750 /home/django/domains
    mkdir .python-eggs
    chown django:www-data .python-eggs
    chmod g+w .python-eggs/
    cd /home/django/domains
    mkdir example.com
    mkdir -p example.com/{public,log}
    mkdir example.com/public/media
    chown -R django:www-data example.com
    exit
    sudo rm /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default
    sudo rm /usr/local/nginx/sites-enabled/default
    sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop
    sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start
    sudo apache2ctl graceful

16. Install some general libraries
    

    sudo apt-get install mercurial git-core curl
    sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev python-setuptools python-psycopg2

    sudo easy_install pip
    sudo pip install virtualenv
    sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper
    su django
    cd
    mkdir virtualenv
    chgrp -R www-data virtualenv
    vi .bashrc
    “export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/virtualenv
    source /usr/bin/virtualenvwrapper_bashrc”
    source .bashrc
    cd
    virtualenv –no-site-packages –unzip-setuptools envName

Create a pip installation file e.g. ‘envName_env.txt‘:

#Django
Django>=1.1

#PIL
http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz

# egenix-mx-base
# Caused an error with pip: "--single-version-externally-managed"
#http://downloads.egenix.com/python/egenix-mx-base-3.1.2.tar.gz

# psycopg2
http://initd.org/pub/software/psycopg/psycopg2-2.0.12.tar.gz

pip -E envName install -r envName_env.txt
./envName/bin/easy_install egenix-mx-base

17. Create a Django project (virtualenvwrapper might be useful here):
    

    /home/django/virtualenv/envName/bin/python /home/django/virtualenv/envName/bin/django-admin.py startproject myProject

18. Link admin/media with public/media/admin and change settings.py
    

    ln -s /home/django/virtualenv/envName/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media /home/django/domains/example.com/public/media/admin

    Then update the ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX setting in your myProject/settings.py file :

    vi /home/django/domains/example.com/myProject/settings.py

    It should look like:

    #ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = ‘/media/’
    ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = ‘/media/admin/’

19. Create a database:
    

    sudo su postgres
    createuser -P pg_substanceis
    # should not be a superuser
    # should not be able to create databases
    # should not be able to create more new roles
    createdb –encoding=UNICODE db_example -O pg_example
    exit

    vi /home/django/domains/example.com/myProject/settings.py

    and add in the details:

    DATABASE_ENGINE = ‘postgresql_psycopg2′
    DATABASE_NAME = ‘db_example’
    DATABASE_USER = ‘pg_example’
    DATABASE_PASSWORD = ‘123456789′
    DATABASE_HOST = ”
    DATABASE_PORT = ”

    Then just sync the database to check these settings:

    ~/domains/virtualenv/envName/bin/python myProject/manage.py syncdb

20. Create a wsgi file for the project:
    

    sudo vi /home/django/domains/example.com/myProject/myProject.wsgi

    And add the following:

    ALLDIRS = ['/home/django/virtualenv/envName/lib/python2.5/site-packages']
# note that the above directory depends on the locale of your virtualenv,
# and will thus be *different for each project!*
import os
import sys
import site

    prev_sys_path = list(sys.path)

    for directory in ALLDIRS:
    site.addsitedir(directory)

    new_sys_path = []
    for item in list(sys.path):
    if item not in prev_sys_path:
    new_sys_path.append(item)
    sys.path.remove(item)
    sys.path[:0] = new_sys_path

    # this will also be different for each project!
    sys.path.append('/home/django/domains/example.com/myProject/')

    os.environ['PYTHON_EGG_CACHE'] = '/home/django/.python-eggs'
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()


21. Create a VirtualHost file for Apache:
    

    sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com

    Add the VirtualHost definition:

    
ServerName www.example.com
ServerAlias example.com

    
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
    

    LogLevel warn
    ErrorLog /home/django/domains/example.com/log/apache_error.log
    CustomLog /home/django/domains/example.com/log/apache_access.log combined

    WSGIDaemonProcess example.com user=www-data group=www-data threads=25
WSGIProcessGroup example.com
WSGIScriptAlias / /home/django/domains/example.com/myProject/myProject.wsgi



    Then just enable it and restart Apache2 – you should see the Django debug screen:

    sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.com
    sudo apache2ctl graceful

22. Some security: take a look at some StricterDefaults. By default /dev/shm is mouted read/write but on servers it should be read only as some exploits may use it. Edit the /etc/fstab file to include the following:
    

    sudo vi /etc/fstab

    tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,ro 0 0