Joyent Shared Accelerators don’t allow you to deploy your Django app using mod_python, so you have to create a proxy path that diverts traffic to lighttpd and FastCGI to serve your Django app.

For this guide you will need to replace ${USER} with your username on Joyent’s server, the hostname of your server as ${HOST}, and your DNS domain as ${DOMAIN}.

Set up Apache as a proxy server for lighttpd

You no longer need to submit a support ticket to request a port number for lighttpd. You can just go to Virtualmin for your server (https://virtualmin.joyent.us/${HOST}/) > Other Tools > Check ports to view a list of available port numbers that have been reserved for you. Pick one and note it down. We will refer to this port number as ${PORT}.

Set up a directory structure for lighttpd:

mkdir -p ~/etc/init.d
mkdir -p ~/etc/lighttpd/vhosts.d
touch ~/logs/lighttpd.error.log ~/logs/lighttpd.access.log

Using a text editor, create ~/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf:

#-- Lighttpd modules

server.modules = ( "mod_rewrite",
                                "mod_redirect",
                                "mod_access",
                                "mod_cgi",
                                "mod_fastcgi",
                                "mod_compress",
                                "mod_accesslog",
                                "mod_alias" )

#-- Fundamental process configs
server.port = ${PORT}
server.username = "${USER}"
server.groupname = server.username
var.base = "/users/home/" + server.username
server.pid-file = base + "/var/run/lighttpd.pid"

#-- Logging
server.errorlog = base + "/logs/lighttpd.error.log"
accesslog.filename = base + "/logs/lighttpd.access.log"

#-- Default
server.document-root = base + "/web/public"
server.indexfiles = ( "index.php", "index.html",  "index.htm", "default.htm" )

#-- Security
url.access-deny = ( "~", ".inc", ".ht" )

#-- Mimetypes
include_shell "cat " + base + "/etc/lighttpd_mimetypes.conf"

#-- VHOSTS

Create ~/etc/lighttpd/mimetypes.conf:

mimetype.assign             = (
".pdf"          =>      "application/pdf",
".sig"          =>      "application/pgp-signature",
".spl"          =>      "application/futuresplash",
".class"        =>      "application/octet-stream",
".ps"           =>      "application/postscript",
".torrent"      =>      "application/x-bittorrent",
".dvi"          =>      "application/x-dvi",
".gz"           =>      "application/x-gzip",
".pac"          =>      "application/x-ns-proxy-autoconfig",
".swf"          =>      "application/x-shockwave-flash",
".tar.gz"       =>      "application/x-tgz",
".tgz"          =>      "application/x-tgz",
".tar"          =>      "application/x-tar",
".zip"          =>      "application/zip",
".mp3"          =>      "audio/mpeg",
".m3u"          =>      "audio/x-mpegurl",
".wma"          =>      "audio/x-ms-wma",
".wax"          =>      "audio/x-ms-wax",
".ogg"          =>      "audio/x-wav",
".wav"          =>      "audio/x-wav",
".gif"          =>      "image/gif",
".jpg"          =>      "image/jpeg",
".jpeg"         =>      "image/jpeg",
".png"          =>      "image/png",
".xbm"          =>      "image/x-xbitmap",
".xpm"          =>      "image/x-xpixmap",
".xwd"          =>      "image/x-xwindowdump",
".css"          =>      "text/css",
".html"         =>      "text/html",
".htm"          =>      "text/html",
".js"           =>      "text/javascript",
".asc"          =>      "text/plain",
".c"            =>      "text/plain",
".conf"         =>      "text/plain",
".text"         =>      "text/plain",
".txt"          =>      "text/plain",
".dtd"          =>      "text/xml",
".xml"          =>      "text/xml",
".mpeg"         =>      "video/mpeg",
".mpg"          =>      "video/mpeg",
".mov"          =>      "video/quicktime",
".qt"           =>      "video/quicktime",
".avi"          =>      "video/x-msvideo",
".asf"          =>      "video/x-ms-asf",
".asx"          =>      "video/x-ms-asf",
".wmv"          =>      "video/x-ms-wmv",
".bz2"          =>      "application/x-bzip",
".tbz"          =>      "application/x-bzip-compressed-tar",
".tar.bz2"      =>      "application/x-bzip-compressed-tar"
)

Finally, create an init script at ~/etc/init.d/lighttpd:

#!/bin/sh

HOME=/users/home/${USER}
LIGHTTPD_CONF=$HOME/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
PIDFILE=$HOME/var/run/lighttpd.pid

case "$1" in

    start)
    # Starts the lighttpd daemon
    echo "Starting lighttpd"
    PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin /usr/local/sbin/lighttpd -f $LIGHTTPD_CONF

;;
    stop)
    # stops the daemon bt cat'ing the pidfile
    echo "Stopping lighttpd"
    kill `/bin/cat $PIDFILE`

;;
    restart)
    ## Stop the service regardless of whether it was
    ## running or not, start it again.
    echo "Restarting lighttpd"
    $0 stop
    $0 start

;;
    reload)
    # reloads the config file by sending HUP
    echo "Reloading config"
    kill -HUP `/bin/cat $PIDFILE`

;;
    *)
    echo "Usage: lighttpd (start|stop|restart|reload)"
    exit 1
;;
esac

Don’t forget to make the init script executable:

chmod 755 ~/etc/init.d/lighttpd

Proxy Apache to lighttpd

Open up a web browser, and log into https://virtualmin.joyent.us/${HOST}/

Select the virtual server to configure. Then go to Server Configuration > Proxy Paths > Add a new proxy path. Enter the following values and click Create.

Local URL path: /
Destination URLs: http://${DOMAIN}:${PORT}

Configure Django environment

Add the path to your Django app to the PYTHONPATH. Add the following to your .profile and .bashrc files.

export PYTHONPATH=/users/home/${USER}/src/django_projects

Deploying your Django app

Check out your django app to /users/home/${USER}/src/django_projects. I will refer to this django app as ${APPNAME}.

cd ~/src/django_projects
svn co svn+ssh://subversion_repos/site/${APPNAME}/trunk ${APPNAME}

Create a MySQL database

Normally I would use PostgreSQL cos it rocks, but unfortunately Joyent only provides database restrictions for specific users on MySQL. So we’ll create a mysql user and grant it privileges to access a mysql database.

Open up a web browser and log into https://virtualmin.joyent.us/${HOST}/

Select ${DOMAIN} from the dropdown list > click “Edit Databases” > Click “Create a new database”.

I entered “production” into the Database name field so that my database will be called ${USER}_${DOMAIN}_production. Then click “Create”.

Create a database user

In Virtualmin, Select ${DOMAIN} from the dropdown list.
Click “Edit Mail and FTP Users” > “Add a user to this server”.
Under Virtual domain user mailbox details, enter “django” into the Email address field. This will create a mysql user called django-${DOMAIN}, and the auto-generated password will also be used for the mysql password in your django settings.py.

Expand “Quota and home directory settings”. Limit the user’s home directory quota to 1MB.
Expand “Other user permissions”. Allow the user access to the “${USER}_${DOMAIN}_production” database we just created. Click create.

Configure project settings

In settings.py modify your database settings to the following:

FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME=''

import os.path
ROOT_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(file))

DATABASE_ENGINE = 'mysql'
DATABASE_NAME = '${USER}_${DOMAIN}_production'
DATABASE_USER = 'django-${DOMAIN}'
DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'password"
DATABASE_HOST = ''
DATABASE_PORT = ''

MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'media')
MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/media/admin/'

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    os.path.join(ROOT_DIR, 'templates'),
)

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.flatpages',
)

Since the settings file has our MySQL password inside, don’t let others read it:

chmod 600 ~/src/django_projects/${APPNAME}/settings.py

Then create the database tables in the usual fashion:

./manage.py syncdb

Create project init script

Create ~/src/djangoprojects/${APPNAME}/etc/init.sh:

#!/bin/sh

HOME="/users/home/${USER}" # Edit to your own username
PYTHONPATH=$HOME/src/django_projects
export PYTHONPATH

PROJECT_NAME="${APPNAME}"
PROJECT_DIR="$HOME/src/django_projects/$PROJECT_NAME"
PID_FILE="$HOME/var/run/$PROJECT_NAME.pid"
SOCKET_FILE="$HOME/tmp/$PROJECT_NAME.socket"
MANAGE_FILE="$PROJECT_DIR/manage.py"
METHOD="prefork"

case "$1" in

    start)
    # Starts the Django process
    echo "Starting Django project $PROJECT_NAME"
    python $MANAGE_FILE runfcgi maxchildren=2 maxspare=2 minspare=1 method=$METHOD socket=$SOCKET_FILE pidfile=$PID_FILE

;;
    stop)
    # stops the daemon by cat'ing the pidfile
    echo "Stopping Django project $PROJECT_NAME"
    kill `/bin/cat $PID_FILE`

;;
    restart)
    ## Stop the service regardless of whether it was
    ## running or not, start it again.
    echo "Restarting Django project $PROJECT_NAME"
    $0 stop
    $0 start

;;
    *)
    echo "Usage: init.sh (start|stop|restart)"
    exit 1

;;
esac

Make the init script executable:

chmod 755 ~/src/djangoprojects/${APPNAME}/etc/init.sh

Offload static media to lighttpd

We don’t want Django to be serving static content, so any path that refers to static content will be served by the web server directly from ~/web/public.

Create a softlink from django’s admin media to ~/web/public/media/admin.

mkdir ~/web/public/media
ln -s /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media/ ~/web/public/media/admin

Create a softlink from your project’s media directory to ~/web/public/media/public.

mkdir -p ~/src/django_projects/project/media/public
ln -s /users/home/${USER}/src/django_projects/${APPNAME}/media/public ~/web/public/media/public

Configure lighttpd

Edit ~/etc/lighttpd/vhosts.d/${APPNAME}.conf.

$HTTP["host"] =~ "(www.)?${DOMAIN}" {
    server.document-root = base + "/web/public"
    fastcgi.server = (
        "/${APPNAME}.fcgi" => (
            "main" => (
                "socket" => base + "/tmp/${APPNAME}.socket",
                "bin-environment" =>
                            ( "TZ" => "America/Chicago" ),
                "check-local" => "disable",
            )
        ),
    )

    url.rewrite-once = (
        "^(/media/admin.*)$" => "$1",
        "^(/media/public.*)$" => "$1",
        "^/favicon.ico$" => "/media/public/img/favicon.ico",
        "^(/.*)$" => "/${APPNAME}.fcgi$1",
    )
}

Then include vhosts.d/${APPNAME}.conf in your lighttpd.conf:

echo 'include "vhosts.d/${APPNAME}.conf"' >> ~/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Schedule service start

Create a Joyent bootup action in Virtualmin. In Virtualmin, Select ${DOMAIN} from the dropdown list > go to Services > Booup Actions > Add a new bootup action. Enter the following values in the input fields and click “Create”.

Action name: init-${APPNAME}-django-site
Description: Init ${APPNAME} Django Site
Commands to run at startup: /users/home/${USER}/src/django_projects/${APPDNAME}/etc/init.sh start

Go back to the Bootup Actions, click “Add lighttpd”. Enter the following values in the input fields and click “Create”.

Action name: lighttpd-${APPNAME}-django-site
Description: Lighttpd ${APPNAME} Django Site
Commands to run at startup: /usr/local/sbin/lighttpd -f /users/home/${USER}/etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Open up your browser and go to your newly deployed Django app!

If you don’t see your site then you will have to do some debugging. I didn’t get it first time as you’ll note that my instructions above are slightly different from the original post here.