django-windows-tools 0.2.1
Helper Management commands to host Django applications on Windows Servers.
Keywords: Django Windows

Django-windows-tools
====================

django-windows-tools is a Django application providing management commands to host Django projects in Windows environments.

It provides management commands allowing to:

- Host a Django application behind IIS as a FastCGI application (requires IIS 7 and Up).
- Run Celery and Celery Beat background processes as a Windows Service.

It requires Django >= 1.4 and pywin32.

Compatibility notes
-------------------

- django-windows-tools 0.1.3 is the last version to work with Django <= 1.7
- the ``win_fcgi`` part is known to work with Django versions up to 1.11 and Python 3.6 (django-windows-tools 0.2 needed), and works with IIS up to version 10
- installing services with newer versions of Django and Python 3 is not tested and may not work (see also the open issues)
- newer Celery versions cannot be installed as a service as described (see #19)

The following gives a Quick overview of the project. For more information, please
read the `Project documentation <http://django-windows-tools.readthedocs.org>`_.

Installation and Configuration
##############################

You install the application with the command: ::

    pip install django-windows-tools

Or you may install the latest development version for more fixed bugs: ::

    pip install git+https://github.com/antoinemartin/django-windows-tools@master

Enable the ``django_windows_tools`` application to be able to use the management commands. Add the app to
the project's list in ``settings.py``: ::

    INSTALLED_APPS += (
        'django_windows_tools',
    )
    
FastCGI Configuration
#####################

Pre-requisites
--------------

On the host machine, you need to have :

- IIS 7 or better installed and running.
- The ``CGI`` module installed.

To host your Django project under ``IIS`` with the binding ``www.mydjangoapp.com``, 
you need first to collect your static files with the command: ::

    D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py collectstatic

And then run the following command with Administrator privileges : ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py winfcgi_install --binding=http://www.mydjangoapp.com:80

The command will do the following:

- Create the FastCGI application to serve your Django application dynamic content.
- Create a site name ``mydjangoapp`` with the ``www.mydjangoapp.com`` binding pointing to the root of your project.
- Install a ``web.config`` file in the root of the project that handles the 
  redirection of requests to the Django application.
- Create if needed a virtual directory to handle the serving of your static files through ``IIS``.

To remove the site created with the preceding command, type: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py winfcgi_install --delete

the ``winfcgi_install`` command provides numerous options. To list them, type: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python help winfcgi_install
    
More information on how the configuration is done is provided in 
this `Blog post <http://mrtn.me/blog/2012/06/27/running-django-under-windows-with-iis-using-fcgi/>`_.

Running Celery or other Background commands as a Windows Service
################################################################

With the application installed, on the root of your project, type the following command: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py winservice_install
  
It will create two files, ``service.py`` and ``service.ini`` in the 
root directory of your project. The first one will help you install,
run and remove the Windows Service. Ther later one contain the list of 
the management commands that will be run by the Windows Service.

Configuration
-------------

The ``service.ini`` is a configuration file that looks like the following: ::

    [services]
    # Services to be run on all machines
    run=celeryd
    clean=d:\logs\celery.log

    [BEATSERVER]
    # There should be only one machine with the celerybeat service
    run=celeryd celerybeat
    clean=d:\logs\celerybeat.pid;d:\logs\beat.log;d:\logs\celery.log

    [celeryd]
    command=celeryd
    parameters=-f d:\logs\celery.log -l info

    [celerybeat]
    command=celerybeat
    parameters=-f d:\logs\beat.log -l info --pidfile=d:\logs\celerybeat.pid

    [runserver]
    # Runs the debug server and listen on port 8000
    # This one is just an example to show that any manage command can be used
    command=runserver
    parameters=--noreload --insecure 0.0.0.0:8000

    [log]
    filename=d:\logs\service.log
    level=INFO

The ``services`` section contains :

- The list of background commands to run in the ``run`` directive.
- The list of files to delete when refreshed or stopped in the ``clean`` directive.

You can have several ``services`` sections in the same configuration file
for different host servers. The Windows Service will try to find the section which name
matches the name of the current server and will fallback to the ``services`` section if it
does not find it. This allows you to deploy the same configuration file on serveral 
machines but only have one machine run the celery beat background process. In the preceding
configuration, only the server named ``BEATSERVER`` will run the ``celerybeat`` command.
The other ones will only run the ``celeryd`` command.

For each command name specified in the ``run`` directive, there must be a matching configuration
section. The section contains two directives:

- ``command`` specifies the ``manage.py`` command to run.
- ``parameters`` specifies the parameters to the command.

In the previous configuration file, the ``celeryd`` configuration will spawn a process 
that will run the same command as : ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py celeryd -f d:\logs\celery.log -l info

Lastly, the ``log`` section defines the log level and the the log destination file
for the Windows Service.

Installation and start
----------------------

The windows service is installed with the following command (run with
Administrator privileges) : ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python service.py --startup=auto install
  
It is started and stopped with the commands: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python service.py start
  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python service.py stop
  
It can be removed with the following commands: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python service.py remove
  
The Windows Service monitor changes to the ``service.ini`` configuration
file. In case it is modified, the service does the following:

- Stop the background processes.
- Reread the configuration file.
- Start the background processes.

Customization
------------- 
  
The ``winservice_install`` management command provides several options
allowing to customize the name of the web service or of the script name.
To obtain information about them, type: ::

  D:\sites\mydjangoapp> python manage.py help winservice_install