Nginx & uWSGI Living Together in Your Shed

Let's assume you have just bought the memorable domain name idrinkink.org and you want to host your lovely web app on that old server in the shed. 

I recently set up both Flask-Ahoy! and Django-Ahoy! on a five year old desktop my daughter was chucking out, so I can guarantee you that this configuration can handle enough traffic to get you going, or to demo products to your customers.

Before we start, I'm assuming you are familiar with python web frameworks (Django, Flask, Bottle etc) and with using virtualenv to segregate your environments. I usually use Flask as my framework of choice, so I'm using their "Hello World" app here.

Let's get started:

	export CURRENT=i_drink_ink
	mkvirtualenv ${CURRENT}
	workon ${CURRENT}
	cdvirtualenv
	pip install Flask uwsgi
	touch app.py # the Flask app
	touch uwsgi.sh # the uwsgi script that will expose the app
	touch idrinkink.org.nginx.conf # the NGinX config to server the app to the greater world

view raw new.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Now the contents of those files:

	from flask import Flask
	app = Flask(__name__)
	@app.route("/")
	def hello():
	return "Hello World!"

view raw app.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	#!/usr/bin/env bash
	VIRTUAL_ENV=i_drink_ink
	${WORKON_HOME}/${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/uwsgi \
	--socket /tmp/${VIRTUAL_ENV}.sock \
	--chmod-socket \
	--pythonpath ${WORKON_HOME}/${VIRTUAL_ENV} \
	--module app:app \
	--logdate \
	--daemonize /tmp/uwsgi-${VIRTUAL_ENV}.log

view raw uwsgi.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	server {
	listen 80;
	server_name www.idrinkink.org idrinkink.org;
	location / {
	include uwsgi_params;
	uwsgi_pass unix:/tmp/i_drink_ink.sock;
	}
	}

view raw idrinkink.org.nginx.conf hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Finally copy the config into place and start the uwsgi daemon and the server up:

	# copy nginx config into available slot
	cp idrinkink.org.nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available
	# link it into the enable slot
	ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/idrinkink.org.nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/idrinkink.org.nginx.conf
	# start uwsgi
	chmod 755
	${WORKON_HOME}/${VIRTUAL_ENV}/bin/python ./uwsgi.sh
	# restart the nginx service
	sudo service nginx restart

view raw place.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

This of course is just the basics, but it will hopefully give you a starting point from which you can fiddle to your hearts content.

Good luck fellow traveller.