How do you deploy django applications for windows?

Question

I'm working on a web application using isapi_wsgi and django-pyodbc. I'd like to have a way to install all dependencies and push the files out to the webserver. Unfortunately, some of these are easier said than done. In particular, handling dependencies is a pain as some of them won't install correctly even under setuptools (pywin32 is especially difficult).

Most of the tools that I see for automating this kind of stuff (fabric and capistrano) are made for use with unix-y systems. I would like to set up a continuous integration system, but that only solves part of the problem. Is there any way to make life easier for a Pythonista who's forced to use Windows/IIS?

Answer 1

Nowadays deploying your Django web project on a Windows based server has become less cumbersome. It's still challenging as most guides are geared towards Unix systems, but deploying on a Windows server is not impossible. Microsoft now provides some native support for Django with IIS.

However, you are not limited to IIS. You can use Apache + mod_wsgi. Here is one of my own test projects that you can deploy on Apache my web project.

• Guide: Deploy Django with Apache and mod_wsgi on Windows Server 2019

Answer 2

Have you looked into Paver? It might not be the perfect solution, but maybe better then your current process.

And it has setuptools (and other useful wrappers) built-in.

Answer 3

BitNami provides free Windows Django all-in-one installers that include all dependencies to deploy a Django app on Windows. Disclaimer: I am one of the developers of this tool. If you are going for a hosted version, we also have free Windows Amazon Machine Images (look further down in that page) but in that case I would strongly recommend going with a Linux-based AMI.