How to configure Apache to run ASGI in Django Channels? Is Apache even required?

django websocket django-channels
Utkarsh Sinha picture Utkarsh Sinha · May 8, 2016 · Viewed 11.1k times · Source

I built a django-project and deployed it to production using Apache-WSGI combo. For that I had added the apache2.conf as shown below:

WSGIScriptAlias / /home/ubuntu/MyProject/MyProject/wsgi.py
WSGIPythonPath /home/ubuntu/MyProject

<Directory /home/ubuntu/MyProject/MyProject>
<Files wsgi.py>
Require all granted
</Files>
</Directory>

So this mean't all requests to my website first go to Apache, which then allows WSGI to come into play. So if I would switch off Apache, the website would not work.

I have now installed Django-Channels. As per the 'Deploying' section in the documentation (https://channels.readthedocs.io/en/latest/deploying.html), I have:

  1. Installed Redis (on my Django Project server)
  2. Run worker servers
  3. Run Daphne (interface server)
  4. I have stopped Apache at the moment and the website refuses to connect.

Answer

Lukasa picture Lukasa · May 8, 2016

Currently Apache does not have an ASGI server implementation. That means that you can continue to use Apache, but you will also need Daphne. In essence, Apache will change from being your primary web server to being a reverse proxy.

There is potentially some value in doing that: Python developers have been running nginx in reverse proxy mode for years. However, Daphne is a very capable web server, being built on top of Twisted's web server, and so Apache certainly isn't necessary.

For that moment, then, I recommend running just with Daphne: have Daphne listen on your primary ports and disable Apache altogether. If you find there are features of Apache you still want, you'll need to configure Apache as a reverse proxy: one suggested article for configuring that is this one from Digital Ocean.

Related questions

Session authentication with Django channels

Trying to get authentication working with Django channels with a very simple websockets app that echoes back whatever the user sends over with a prefix "You said: ". My processes: web: gunicorn myproject.wsgi --log-file=- --pythonpath ./myproject realtime: daphne myproject.…

Read More
Send message using Django Channels from outside Consumer class

I am building an online game, which uses Django channels 2.1.5 for websockets. I am able to build the connection between the client and the server, and also able to send data between them only inside the consumer class: from channels.…

Read More
Websocket with Django channels doesn't work, connection failed

Hello Awesome People! I created a chat room with django-channels. Every time I try to connect to my chat room via web socket in production, it fails. Locally it works correctly. I host on digitalocean pip freeze: channels==2.1.2 channels-redis==2.3.0 daphne==2.2.1 …

Read More