How to Install Latest (2020) Django to AWS EC2 Linux 2 Instance and Serve w/ Apache Hello World

Ultimately, the problem here was a matter of getting Python to use the correct/new version of sqlite3. The error log located at /var/log/httpd/error_log proved very useful for troubleshooting (surprise).

In searching through other Q&A I found a lot of answers that involved LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_RUN_PATH. However, with deeper research I found that these are not the preferred method for instructing the compiler as to library paths. As shown below, ldconfig is used instead, along with a .conf file placed in the /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ directory.

The following is the step-by-step instructions for getting the latest Django served up by Apache; beginning with a fresh Linux 2 EC2 instance.

sudo yum update
sudo su
yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
crtl-d
sudo yum -y install libffi-devel
sudo yum install -y openssl-devel
sudo vim /etc/ld.so.conf.d/usrlocal.conf

In this empty file you created, add:

/usr/local/lib
/usr/local/lib64

next:

sudo ldconfig -v
cd ~
mkdir downloads
cd downloads
wget https://sqlite.org/2020/sqlite-autoconf-3320300.tar.gz
tar -xvf sqlite-autoconf-3320300.tar.gz
cd sqlite-autoconf-3320300
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make -L
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig -v
cd ~downloads
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.7/Python-3.7.7.tgz
tar -xvf Python-3.7.7.tgz
cd Python-3.7.7
./configure --enable-shared --enable-optimizations --with-threads --enable-loadable-sqlite-extensions --with-openssl=/usr/local/lib64
sudo make -L
sudo make altinstall        (altinstall keeps old 2.7 version)
sudo ldconfig -v
python 3.7                  (to verify installation ctrl-d to quit)
>>>import sqlite3
>>> sqlite3.sqlite_version
ctrl-d
sudo chown -R ec2-user /usr/local/lib/python3.7
sudo chown ec2-user /usr/local/bin
sudo chown ec2-user /usr/local/lib
sudo yum install httpd-devel
sudo ldconfig -v
cd /var/www/
sudo mkdir django
sudo chown ec2-user django
cd django
pip3.7 install virtualenv
virtualenv myprojectenv
source myprojectenv/bin/activate
python -c 'import sys; print(sys.prefix)'
pip3.7 install mod_wsgi           
mod_wsgi-express module-config

That will output something like the following. You will copy that and paste it to the bottom of your httpd.conf file. sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

LoadModule wsgi_module "/var/www/django/myprojectenv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/mod_wsgi/server/mod_wsgi-py37.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so"
WSGIPythonHome "/var/www/django/myprojectenv"

next:

pip3.7 install Django==3.0.7
django-admin startproject myApp
cd myApp
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py startapp hello
cd myApp
vim wsgi.py

edit to look like the following (add ‘import sys’ and ‘sys.path…….’)

import os
import sys
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application

os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'myApp.settings')
sys.path.append('/var/www/myApp/myApp/myApp')
sys.path.append('/var/www/myApp/myApp')

application = get_wsgi_application()

next:

vim settings.py

edit to look like the following, substituting your EC2 instance public IP

    ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['xx.xxx.xx.xxx']     (substitute your EC2 public IP address)

    INSTALLED_APPS = [
     'django.contrib.admin',
     'django.contrib.auth',
     'django.contrib.contenttypes',
      'django.contrib.sessions',
      'django.contrib.messages',
     'django.contrib.staticfiles',
      'hello.apps',
     ]


vim urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('hello.urls')),
]

next:

cd ../hello
vim views.py

Edit to look like the following. These are Python files. So, mind your indentations

from django.shortcuts import render
# Create your views here.

# hello/views.py
from django.http import HttpResponse
def homePageView(request):
    return HttpResponse('Hello, World!')

This next file you will create.

vim urls.py

Paste:

# hello/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from .views import homePageView

urlpatterns = [
    path('', homePageView, name='home')
]

Now back to Apache:

sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    

Paste the following to the bottom of httpd.conf:

WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/django/myApp/myApp/wsgi.py
WSGIPythonPath /var/www/django

<Directory /var/www/django/myApp/myApp>
<Files wsgi.py>
Require all granted
</Files>
</Directory>

.

sudo service httpd start

At this point you should be able to make a request to the public IP of your instance and get the “Hello World!” response.

Finally:

sudo su
vim /var/log/httpd/error_log

and viola, you have some new issues to address!