How to Deploy Django on AWS Lightsail with GitHub Actions CI/CD


In today's fast-paced development environment, setting up Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines is critical to ensuring smooth, automated workflows. Have you ever wondered how to efficiently deploy a Django application on AWS Lightsail and integrate it with GitHub Actions for seamless CI/CD? This guide will walk you through the process step-by-step, from instance creation to configuring GitHub Actions, giving you a robust and scalable deployment setup.

Introduction

Deploying web applications can be a complex task, especially when working with frameworks like Django. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, ensuring that your application is deployed correctly and can handle traffic without issues is crucial. This tutorial focuses on setting up a Django application on AWS Lightsail, one of Amazon's powerful, yet user-friendly cloud services. We'll also integrate GitHub Actions for CI/CD, making your deployment process as smooth as possible.

By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional Django application running on AWS Lightsail, automatically deployed via GitHub Actions every time you push changes to your repository. Let's dive in!

Step 1: Setting Up an AWS Lightsail Instance

AWS Lightsail Create Instance


  1. Create an Instance
    • Visit the AWS Lightsail console.
    • Choose Linux/Unix as the platform.
    • Select OS Only and choose Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
    • Under Change SSH key pair, download the key pair for future use.
    • Select the $12 plan for sufficient resources.
    • Click Create Instance.

Step 2: Configuring Your Instance

  1. Connect to Your Instance via SSH

    • Download and save your .pem file securely.
    • Open your terminal (or PowerShell if you're on Windows).
    • Set the correct permissions for the .pem file to avoid permission errors:
      $path = ".\Ubuntu-server.pem"
      icacls.exe $path /reset
icacls.exe $path /GRANT:R "$($env:USERNAME):(R)"
icacls.exe $path /inheritance:r
    • Connect to your instance:
      ssh -i "Ubuntu-server.pem" ubuntu@your-instance-ip

  2. Install Necessary Packages

    • Update and install essential packages:
      sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-venv python3-dev libpq-dev postgresql postgresql-contrib nginx curl
    • Set up PostgreSQL:
      sudo -u postgres psql
CREATE DATABASE hrms;
CREATE USER dbusername WITH PASSWORD 'dbpassword';
ALTER ROLE dbusername SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE dbusername SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE dbusername SET timezone TO 'UTC';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE hrms TO dbusername;
\q

Step 3: Setting Up Your Django Project

  1. Create and Activate a Virtual Environment

    • Create a directory for your project:
      mkdir ~/project-name
cd ~/project-name/
      python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
    • Install Django and Gunicorn:
      pip install django gunicorn psycopg2-binary

  2. Run Django Server

    • Allow traffic on port 8000:
      sudo ufw allow 8000
    • Run your Django development server:
      python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

  3. Configure AWS Lightsail Firewall

    • Go to your instance’s Networking tab.
    • Add a custom TCP rule for port 8000.

Step 4: Setting Up GitHub Actions for CI/CD

  1. Prepare Your GitHub Repository

    • Create a production branch from the main branch.
    • Clean up your repository by deleting unnecessary folders.

  2. Add GitHub Actions Runner

    • Navigate to your GitHub organization's settings, then go to Actions > Runners.
    • Follow the instructions to set up a self-hosted runner
      mkdir actions-runner && cd actions-runner
curl -o actions-runner-linux-x64-2.317.0.tar.gz -L https://github.com/actions/runner/releases/download/v2.317.0/actions-runner-linux-x64-2.317.0.tar.gz
tar xzf ./actions-runner-linux-x64-2.317.0.tar.gz
./config.sh --url https://github.com/username --token YOUR_GITHUB_TOKEN

  3. Add Secrets to GitHub

    • Go to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions in your repository.
    • Add your Cloudflare API credentials as secrets:
      • CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID
      • CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN

  4. Create GitHub Actions for Media and Static Files

    • Create workflows in your .github/workflows directory to upload media and static files to Cloudflare when changes are pushed:
    name: Media To CDN

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'media/**'
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      deployments: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Publish Media
        uses: cloudflare/pages-action@v1
        with:
          apiToken: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN }}
          accountId: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID }}
          projectName: 'projectName'
              directory: './media/'
          gitHubToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}    

    name: Static To CDN

on:
  push:
    paths:
      - 'static/**'
jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      deployments: write
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Publish Static
        uses: cloudflare/pages-action@v1
        with:
          apiToken: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN }}
          accountId: ${{ secrets.CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID }}
          projectName: 'projectName'
              directory: './static/'
          gitHubToken: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

  5. Deploy Your Server with GitHub Actions

    • Trigger your GitHub Actions by pushing changes to your repository.

Conclusion

Setting up Django on AWS Lightsail and integrating it with GitHub Actions for CI/CD might seem challenging at first, but with the right steps, it can be a straightforward and rewarding process. By automating your deployment process, you save time and reduce the risk of human error, ensuring that your application is always up-to-date with the latest changes. With AWS Lightsail’s simplicity and the power of GitHub Actions, you're well-equipped to manage your deployments efficiently. Happy coding!

By following this guide, you've established a robust deployment pipeline that not only saves time but also enhances your application's reliability and scalability.


Keywords:

  • Django AWS Lightsail,
  • Django CI/CD pipeline,
  • GitHub Actions for Django,
  • AWS Lightsail deployment,
  • Continuous Integration Django,
  • Continuous Deployment GitHub Actions,
  • Python web development,
  • Cloud deployment Django,
  • Automate Django deployment,