Production Deployment with Docker Compose

 

Deploying a web application in production requires a setup that is scalable, secure, and easy to manage. Docker Compose simplifies this process by allowing you to define and run multiple services—such as Django, PostgreSQL, and Nginx—in a single configuration.

In this guide, we’ll deploy the Django web application that we created in the previous section, transitioning it from local development to a production-ready environment using AWS Lightsail, Docker, and Nginx. By containerizing the application with Docker, we ensure that the same code runs consistently across different environments, demonstrating the portability and reliability of our setup.

If you prefer to jump straight into setting up the production server, you can skip the first step and clone the preconfigured code from GitHub.

Step 1: Initiate Git and Push the Code to GitHub

If you haven’t initiated a Git repository for your project, follow these steps to set it up and push your code to GitHub.

1. Initialize Git Repository (If Not Already Done)

Navigate to the project directory and initialize a Git repository:

cd path/to/your/project
git init

2. Add and Commit the Code

After updating the settings.py and docker-compose-prod.yml for production, commit the changes:

git add .
git commit -m "Updated settings for production deployment"

If this is your first commit, a simple message like 'First commit' is sufficient.

3. Connect to a GitHub Repository

If you haven’t already connected your project to a GitHub repository, create one on GitHub and link it to your local repository:

git remote add origin https://github.com/your-username/your-repository.git

4. Push Code to the GitHub Main Branch

Since we are handling different settings using the .env file, we can use the main branch instead of a separate production branch. Push the code to GitHub:

git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Step 2: Prepare AWS Lightsail Instance

To deploy the application, you first need to set up a virtual server on AWS Lightsail. This instance will serve as the production environment where your Django application, database, and Nginx web server will run. We are using AWS Lightsail because it provides a s