Deploy Django on VPS (Hostinger)

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for deploying a Django project on a VPS using Gunicorn, Nginx, and PostgreSQL.
It also includes optional setup for auto deployment with GitHub Actions.

---

Prerequisites

• A VPS (Hostinger in this example)
• A Django project on GitHub
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands

---

1. Generate SSH Key on Local Machine

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

• Leave the passphrase empty.
• Public key: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub → add to your VPS.
• Private key: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 → store in GitHub Actions repository secret VPS_SSH_KEY.

---

2. Connect to VPS

ssh root@123.123.123.123

⚠️ For security, it’s recommended to create a non-root user for deployment.

---

3. Install Astral UV

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

After installation, run exit and reconnect to your VPS.

---

4. Setup Project Directory

sudo mkdir -p /var/www
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www
cd /var/www

---

5. Clone Project & Install Dependencies

git clone https://github.com/prave-com/deploy-django
cd deploy-django
uv sync
source .venv/bin/activate

---

6. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env
sudo nano .env

Set the following:

• DEBUG=False
• SECRET_KEY → generate with:

  python -c 'from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())'

• ALLOWED_HOSTS → your domain or VPS IP

---

7. Create Systemd Service

Create service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/deploy-django.service

Add:

[Unit]
Description=Gunicorn instance for Deploy Django
After=network.target

[Service]
User=root
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/deploy-django
Environment="PATH=/var/www/deploy-django/.venv/bin"
ExecStart=/var/www/deploy-django/.venv/bin/gunicorn --workers 3 --bind unix:/var/www/deploy-django/deploy-django.sock config.wsgi:application

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

⚠️ In this configuration, there is config.wsgi:application in ExecStart. Change the config with your directory name, where the wsgi.py located.

---

8. Configure Nginx

Create config file, change example.com with your domain or VPS IP address:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Example configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location /static/ {
        alias /var/www/deploy-django/staticfiles/;
    }

    location /media/ {
        alias /var/www/deploy-django/media/;
    }

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://unix:/var/www/deploy-django/deploy-django.sock;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Enable the site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

To enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt, if you don't have domain, skip this:

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com

Reload Nginx:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

---

9. Configure Static & Media Files

In settings.py:

STATIC_URL = "static/"
STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "staticfiles"

MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "media"

---

10. Install & Configure PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL 16

sudo apt install wget ca-certificates -y
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'
wget --quiet -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/postgresql.asc https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc
sudo apt update
sudo apt install postgresql-16 postgresql-client-16 -y

Create Database & User

sudo -u postgres psql

CREATE DATABASE deploy_django;
CREATE USER deploy_django_user WITH PASSWORD 'your_password';
ALTER ROLE deploy_django_user SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE deploy_django_user SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE deploy_django_user SET timezone TO 'UTC';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE deploy_django TO deploy_django_user;

\c deploy_django

GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO deploy_django_user;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON TABLES TO deploy_django_user;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT ALL ON SEQUENCES TO deploy_django_user;

Update .env

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
DB_NAME=deploy_django
DB_USER=deploy_django_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

---

11. Run Migrations & Collect Static Files

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py collectstatic
python manage.py createsuperuser  # optional

---

12. Start Django Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable deploy-django
sudo systemctl start deploy-django

---

13. Auto Deploy with GitHub Actions (Optional)

1. Add GitHub repository secrets:

   • VPS_HOST → VPS IP
   • VPS_USER → SSH user
   • VPS_SSH_KEY → private key in your local computer (~/.ssh/id_ed25519)

   Add to GitHub repository secrets https://github.com/prave-com/deploy-django/settings/secrets/actions.

2. Generate deploy key:

   Paste public key to https://github.com/prave-com/deploy-django/settings/keys.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "deploy@deploy-django" -f ~/.ssh/github_deploy_django_rsa
cat ~/.ssh/github_deploy_django_rsa.pub
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/github_deploy_django_rsa

3. Configure SSH:

sudo nano ~/.ssh/config

Host deploy-django
  HostName github.com
  User git
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/github_deploy_django_rsa
  IdentitiesOnly yes

4. Update remote repository:

git remote set-url origin git@deploy-django:prave-com/deploy-django.git

5. Add GitHub to known hosts:

ssh-keyscan github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

6. Test connection:

ssh -T git@deploy-django

---

✅ Your Django project should now be running in production on your VPS.