Deploying to Production - DripEmails.org

Production Deployment Guide

This guide walks through deploying DripEmails.org to a production server with best practices for security, performance, and reliability.

💡 Pro Tip: Test your deployment on a staging environment before going to production.

Prerequisites

Linux server (Ubuntu 20.04+ recommended)
Domain name pointed to your server
SSH access to server
Root or sudo privileges
Basic command line knowledge

System Requirements

Minimum:

2 CPU cores
4GB RAM
20GB storage
Ubuntu 20.04 or later

Recommended:

4+ CPU cores
8GB+ RAM
50GB+ SSD storage
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Step 1: Server Setup

Update system and install dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-venv nginx postgresql redis-server -y
sudo apt install supervisor git -y

Step 2: Create Application User

sudo adduser --disabled-password --gecos '' dripemails
sudo usermod -aG www-data dripemails

Step 3: Clone Repository

sudo su - dripemails
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/dripemails.git
cd dripemails/web
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 4: Configure Environment

Create .env file:

DEBUG=False
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here
ALLOWED_HOSTS=yourdomain.com,www.yourdomain.com

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost/dripemails
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0

EMAIL_HOST=smtp.sendgrid.net
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_USE_TLS=True
EMAIL_HOST_USER=apikey
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=your-api-key

⚠️ Important: Generate a strong SECRET_KEY: `python -c 'from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())'`

Step 5: Database Setup

sudo -u postgres psql
CREATE DATABASE dripemails;
CREATE USER dripuser WITH PASSWORD 'yourpassword';
ALTER ROLE dripuser SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE dripuser SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE dripuser SET timezone TO 'UTC';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE dripemails TO dripuser;
\q

Step 6: Run Migrations

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
python manage.py createsuperuser

Step 7: Gunicorn Setup

Create /etc/supervisor/conf.d/dripemails.conf:

[program:dripemails]
command=/home/dripemails/dripemails/web/venv/bin/gunicorn dripemails.wsgi:application --bind 127.0.0.1:8000
directory=/home/dripemails/dripemails/web
user=dripemails
autostart=true
autorestart=true
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/log/dripemails/gunicorn.log

Step 8: Celery Setup

Create /etc/supervisor/conf.d/celery.conf:

[program:celery]
command=/home/dripemails/dripemails/web/venv/bin/celery -A dripemails worker -l info
directory=/home/dripemails/dripemails/web
user=dripemails
autostart=true
autorestart=true

Step 9: Nginx Configuration

Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/dripemails:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

    location /static/ {
        alias /home/dripemails/dripemails/web/staticfiles/;
    }

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Step 10: SSL Certificate

Install Let's Encrypt SSL:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Step 11: Start Services

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/dripemails
sudo chown dripemails:dripemails /var/log/dripemails
sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start all
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Post-Deployment Checklist

✅ Website loads at https://yourdomain.com
✅ Admin panel accessible at /admin
✅ Static files loading correctly
✅ Can send test email
✅ Celery tasks running
✅ SSL certificate valid
✅ Database backups configured
✅ Monitoring set up

Monitoring and Maintenance

Logs: /var/log/dripemails/
Supervisor: sudo supervisorctl status
Nginx: sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl status nginx
Database: Regular backups with pg_dump
Updates: git pull && pip install -r requirements.txt

Security Best Practices

Enable firewall (ufw) and allow only necessary ports
Keep system and packages updated
Use strong passwords for all services
Disable DEBUG in production
Regularly backup database and media files
Monitor logs for suspicious activity
Set up fail2ban for brute force protection

🚀 Deploying to Production