django-chef

This is meant to be a blank django project template that uses Chef to provision the server where your application will be deployed. It also uses Vagrant to create the same environment in a Virtualbox VM.

I have made some choices as to how the django application will be deployed. This is based on the content and recommendations stemming from Djangocon 2011. The following will be installed.

• Ubuntu server
• nginx
• gunicorn
• postgresql
• memcached
• rabbitmq
• celery

Of course, other small applications will be installed to ensure smoother execution:

• virtualenv & pip
• git
• Python driver for postgresql
• etc

Usage

• Install Vagrant
• Download the lucid64 box and add it as base
• Your django project should live in coolname. (i.e. coolname/settings.py)
• Please change the name of the directory to match your project
• The name of the project has to be changed in a few other places
  • fabfile.py
  • node.json
• Run vagrant up to build the VM
• Then run fab -R vagrant bootstrap which will create a virtualenv, load your code, install dependencies, sync your db, etc.

Vagrant roledef for fabric

The main fabfile includes some special logic to work around some of the limitations of vagrant. Nothing too hacky though. Every time you want to execute something on your local VM, include the -R vagrant flag.

Vagrant code reloading

If you run your code in a Vagrant VM, a file watcher is automatically started. This watcher will detect changes in your source code and reload gunicorn. This emulates the behavior of Django's built-in web server.