lpm0073/django.lawrencemcdaniel.com

Serverless Django web app

Serverless Django

This is a serverless implementation of Python Django running on AWS Lambda & RDS via API Gateway + S3 static asset hosting.

View the site:

• https://django.lawrencemcdaniel.com/
• https://atxft59ikc.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dev

S3 Sync

aws s3 sync ./static/ s3://zappa-bg95bqbw1/static/

About This Configuration

• django: latest version.
• mysqlclient: latest version. used to faciliate connections to AWS RDS MySQL
• zappa: latest version. used to deploy this code base to AWS Lambda
• django-environ: latest version. to strip sensitive data (passwords, IAM credentials, etc) from the code base
• django-bower: latest version. front-end package manager. manages jquery, popper, bootstrap, d3, etc.
• django-npm: latest version. facilitates calls to Node Package Manager from within Python.
• django-pipeline: Deployment work flow management.
• boto3: not currently in use.
• django-storages: not currently in use.

Stack Resources

• Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/
• Django Environment: https://github.com/joke2k/django-environ
• Using Amazon S3 to Store your Django Site's Static and Media Files: https://www.caktusgroup.com/blog/2014/11/10/Using-Amazon-S3-to-store-your-Django-sites-static-and-media-files/
• Static files - Django Official Documentation: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/howto/static-files/

Zappa Deployment to AWS Lambda

Zappa Deployment Resources

• Zappa setup: https://blog.apcelent.com/deploy-flask-aws-lambda.html
• Django - Zappa Guide: https://edgarroman.github.io/zappa-django-guide/
• Django static asset w Zappa: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.1/howto/static-files/

1. add AWS Credentials to ~/.aws/credentials
2. Install AWS CLI

pip install awscli

3. Create Python Virtual Environment

# cd to the local git repository
virtualenv -p python3.6 .env3   # note: Zappa requires Python 3.6
source .env3/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Run local Django web server:

# cd into repository
source .env3/bin/activate
python mysite/manage.py runserver

5. Setup IAM user for Zappa see aws-iam-policy.json for a quasi-correct example of minimum settings. This currently is still lacking one or more as-of-yet unknown permissions. The workaround in to temporarily make the IAM user an AWS admin (very bad.)

6. Zappa commands

zappa init         # see notes below on installation details
zappa deploy dev   # Deploy app to AWS
zappa undeploy dev # Delete from AWS
zappa update dev   # update existing app to AWS
zappa manage dev "collectstatic --noinput"    # collect static assets
zappa tail         # view Lambda execution log
zappa -h

settings.py notes

• DATABASES: changed settings to AWS RDS MySQL. config settings are stored locally in mysite/.env
• ALLOWED_HOSTS: added FQDN's for amazon.com and lawrencemcdaniel.com per suggestions in teh Django - Zappa Guide
• SECRET_KEY: moved to locally-stored .env file
• DEBUG: moved to locally-stored .env file

Zappa setup notes

• accept all of the defaults in zappa init
• manually add vpc_config section to zappa_settings.json

.gitignore notes

added the following:

• DjangoTemplates.env
• .env3
• django-lawrence-dev-template*.json