> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.fly.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Existing Django Apps

If you have an existing Django app that you want to move over to Fly, this guide
walks you through the initial deployment process and shows you techniques you
can use to troubleshoot issues you may encounter.

## Configure Django

The official [How to Deploy Django](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/howto/deployment/) guide and [Django Deployment Checklist](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/howto/deployment/checklist/) are a good first step to ensure your app is ready for deployment.

The third-party package [WhiteNoise](https://whitenoise.evans.io/en/stable/) is recommended for serving static files in production as this requires [additional configuration](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/howto/static-files/deployment/).

A production web server must be installed, typically either [Gunicorn](https://docs.gunicorn.org/en/latest/install.html) or [uWSGI](https://uwsgi-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/). The database adapter [Psycopg](https://www.psycopg.org/psycopg3/docs/) is commonly used along with [dj-database-url](https://pypi.org/project/dj-database-url/) to establish a Django database connection via a `DATABASE_URL` environment variable.

Be sure to have generated an up-to-date `requirements.txt` file for any new packages added for deployment.

## flyctl

Fly.io has its own command-line utility for managing apps, [flyctl](/flyctl). If not already installed, follow the instructions on the [installation guide](/flyctl/install) and [log in to Fly](/getting-started/sign-up-sign-in).

## Provision Django and Postgres Servers

To configure and launch the app, use the command `fly launch` and follow the wizard. You can set a name for the app, choose a default region, launch and attach a Postgres database. You can also set up a Redis database though we will not be doing so in this example.

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash cmd theme={null}
  fly launch
  ```

  ```output output theme={null}
  Scanning source code
  Detected a Django app
  Creating app in ~/django-existing-app
  We're about to launch your Django app on Fly.io. Here's what you're getting:

  Organization: Jane Smith             (fly launch defaults to the personal org)
  Name:         django-existing-app    (derived from your directory name)
  Region:       Ashburn, Virginia (US) (this is the fastest region for you)
  App Machines: shared-cpu-1x, 1GB RAM (most apps need about 1GB of RAM)
  Postgres:     <none>                 (not requested)
  Redis:        <none>                 (not requested)

  ? Do you want to tweak these settings before proceeding? Yes
  Opening https://fly.io/cli/launch/mo1ootho9ualooghoch3iih6cha2shah ...

  Waiting for launch data... Done
  Created app 'django-existing-app' in organization 'personal'
  Admin URL: https://fly.io/apps/django-existing-app
  Hostname: django-existing-app.fly.dev
  Set secrets on django-existing-app: SECRET_KEY
  Creating postgres cluster in organization personal
  Creating app...
  Setting secrets on app django-existing-app-db...
  Provisioning 1 of 1 machines with image flyio/postgres-flex:15.3@sha256:44b698752cf113110f2fa72443d7fe452b48228aafbb0d93045ef1e3282360a6
  Waiting for machine to start...
  Machine 217811c53e0896 is created
  ==> Monitoring health checks
    Waiting for 217811c53e0896 to become healthy (started, 3/3)

  Postgres cluster django-existing-app-db created
    Username:    postgres
    Password:    lt5JoEIVons5INJ
    Hostname:    django-existing-app-db.flycast
    Flycast:     fdaa:3:9f45:0:1::2
    Proxy port:  5432
    Postgres port:  5433
    Connection string: postgres://postgres:lt5JoEIVons5INJ@django-existing-app-db.flycast:5432

  Save your credentials in a secure place -- you won't be able to see them again!

  Connect to postgres
  Any app within the Jane Smith organization can connect to this Postgres using the above connection string

  Now that you've set up Postgres, here's what you need to understand: https://fly.io/docs/postgres/getting-started/what-you-should-know/
  Checking for existing attachments
  Registering attachment
  Creating database
  Creating user

  Postgres cluster django-existing-app-db is now attached to django-existing-app
  The following secret was added to django-existing-app:
    DATABASE_URL=postgres://django_existing_app:lt5JoEIVons5INJ@django-existing-app-db.flycast:5432/django_existing_app?sslmode=disable
  Postgres cluster django-existing-app-db is now attached to django-existing-app
  Wrote config file fly.toml

  [INFO] Python 3.10.12 was detected. 'python:3.10-slim-bullseye' image will be set in the Dockerfile.

  Validating ~/django-existing-app/fly.toml
  Platform: machines
  ✓ Configuration is valid

  Your Django app is ready to deploy!

  For detailed documentation, see https://fly.dev/docs/django/
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## Dockerfile and fly.toml

The `fly launch` command creates two new files in the project that are automatically configured: `Dockerfile` and `fly.toml`.

The [Dockerfile](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/) is essentially instructions for creating an image.

The [`fly.toml`](/reference/configuration) file is used by Fly.io to configure applications for deployment. Configuration of builds, environment variables, internet-exposed services, disk mounts and release commands go here.

<h2 id="allowedhosts-amp-csrf_trustedorigins">
  ALLOWED\_HOSTS & CSRF\_TRUSTED\_ORIGINS
</h2>

The dedicated URL for your deployment will be `<app_name>.fly.dev`. Update the [ALLOWED\_HOSTS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/settings/#allowed-hosts) and [CSRF\_TRUSTED\_ORIGINS](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/settings/#csrf-trusted-origins) configurations with your `<app_name>` to include it.

## Deploy Your Application

To deploy the application use the following command:

```bash theme={null}
fly deploy
```

This will take a few seconds as it uploads your application, verifies the app configuration, builds the image, and then monitors to ensure it starts successfully. Once complete, visit your app with the following command:

```bash theme={null}
fly apps open
```

If everything went as planned you will see your Django application homepage.

## Troubleshooting your initial deployment

Since this is an existing Django app, it is highly likely it might not boot because you probably need to configure secrets or other service dependencies. Let's walk through how to troubleshoot these issues so you can get your app running.

### View Log Files

If your application didn't boot on the first deploy, run `fly logs` to see
what's going on.

```bash theme={null}
fly logs
```

This shows the past few log file entries and tails your production log
files. [Additional flags](/flyctl/cmd/fly_logs) are available for filtering.

### Console

To SSH into your hosted Django application use the command `fly ssh console`. For example, to execute Django's `createsuperuser` command to log into the admin do the following:

```bash theme={null}
fly ssh console
# python manage.py createsuperuser
```

If you prefer, this can be run as one command instead:

```bash theme={null}
fly ssh console --pty -C 'python /code/manage.py createsuperuser'
```

<Info>
  The `--pty` flag tells the SSH server to run the command in a pseudo-terminal, which `createsuperuser` requires.
</Info>

### Secrets

Secrets allow sensitive values, such as credentials and API keys, to be securely passed to your Django applications. You can set, remove, or list all secrets with the [fly secrets](/apps/secrets) command.

### Git

Deployments are initiated via the `fly deploy` command--git isn't needed to deploy to Fly.io. The advantage of this approach is that your git history will be clean and not full of `git push` commits such as occurs on other hosting platforms.

This also means that `.gitignore` files are not ignored. If you have secrets or other sensitive information in your git history, it is recommended to create a `.dockerignore` file and add the git repo there.

### Databases

Fly.io has a [Postgres offering](/postgres) to automate provisioning, maintenance, and snapshot tasks for your Postgres database, but it does not manage it. If you run out of disk space, RAM, or other resources on your Fly Postgres instances, you'll have to scale those virtual machines from the Fly CLI. If you prefer, you can instead connect to an [external fully-managed Postgres database](/postgres#fully-managed-postgres).

<h3 id="custom-domain-amp-ssl-certificates">
  Custom Domain & SSL Certificates
</h3>

After you finish deploying your application to Fly.io and have tested it extensively, [read through the Custom Domain docs](/networking/custom-domain) and point your domain at Fly.

In addition to supporting [`CNAME` DNS records](/networking/custom-domain#option-i-cname-records), Fly.io also supports [`A` and `AAAA` records](/networking/custom-domain#option-ii-a-and-aaaa-records) for those who want to point `example.com` (without the `www.example.com`) directly at Fly.

### flyctl Commands

The [flyctl CLI docs](/flyctl) have an extensive inventory of `fly` commands. Here are a few common commands especially if you are coming from another hosting service like Heroku.

| Task               | Command           |
| ------------------ | ----------------- |
| Log in             | `fly login`       |
| Launch an app      | `fly launch`      |
| Deployments        | `fly deploy`      |
| Open web dashboard | `fly dashboard`   |
| SSH                | `fly ssh console` |
| Tail log files     | `fly logs`        |
| Secrets            | `fly secrets`     |
| View releases      | `fly releases`    |
| Help               | `fly help`        |