Deploying a flask app to a DO server under apache

2 minutes

January 2, 2023

Process

Prior: * Set up routing for site if multiple on server. * install wsgi for apache with apt install libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3

Create flask app as per the guidelines on the flask website.
Store on github
Create /var/www/mysite/
Clone from github into here
Create virtual environment in /var/www/mysite/venv/ and activate. upgrade pip
cd into the git repo /var/www/mysite/mysiterepo/ and install to venv with python3 -m pip install .
Create new virtualhosts file at /etc/apache/sites-available/mysite.com.conf with contents:

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<VirtualHost *:80>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [R=301,L]
    RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.mysite.com [OR]
    RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =mysite.com
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    SSLEngine on
    # enable HTTP/2, if available
    Protocols    h2 http/1.1

    # HTTP Strict Transport Security (mod_headers is required) (63072000 seconds)
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=60;"

    CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
    ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log

    ServerName mysite.com
    ServerAlias www.mysite.com
    WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/mysite.com/myapp.wsgi
    <Directory /var/www/mysite.com/mysiterepo/myapp/>
            Require all granted
    </Directory>

    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/mysite.com/privkey.pem
    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

# modern configuration, tweak to your needs
SSLProtocol             all -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
SSLHonorCipherOrder     off
SSLSessionTickets       off

SSLUseStapling On
SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/ssl_stapling(32768)"

Activate site with a2ensite mysite.com
Reload apache with systemctl reload apache2
Create /var/www/mysite.com/myapp.wsgi

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#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import logging
logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr)
sys.path.insert(0,"/var/www/mysite.com/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages")

from flaskr import create_app
application = create_app()
application.secret_key = 'mySecretKey'

This directs it to the venv installation

Prepare the site by running flask --app flaskr init-db from within the venv.
Go to the site

To update: * git pull into the repo * activate the venv and install again Unless there have been major changes to code or database then should be good to go

Jack Atkinson

Science, Archery, Computing

Jack Atkinson

Science, Archery, Computing

Deploying a flask app to a DO server under apache

Process