Serve Django web app with nginx + SSL

[mhdaouas]

Hello,

I want to serve a Django web app with Channels on nginx with SSL and be able to call my Channels websocket with wss:// so I don't get a mixed content error in the Chrome browser. I've been unable to create a reverse proxy (with proxy pass) in the production environment. Can you explain to me clearly how to proceed.

Should I run a daphne instance or can I directly do it just by modifying the nginx config?
Should the daphne instance run with SSL?
What command should I use to run daphne?

When I try the following command:
daphne -e ssl:443:privateKey=/home/.../django/env/lib/python3.9/site-packages/sslserver/certs/development.crt:certKey=/home/.../django/env/lib/python3.9/site-packages/sslserver/certs/development.key apdjango.asgi:application

I get this error:

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

My asgi.py script:

application = ProtocolTypeRouter({
  "http": AsgiHandler(),
  "websocket": AuthMiddlewareStack(
        URLRouter(
            myapp.ws_urls.websocket_urlpatterns
        )
    ),
})

Here is the content of manage.py:

import os
import sys

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'apdjango.settings'
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "apdjango.settings")

os.environ['SECRET_KEY'] = 'm%w*qhawjr+!oz$6&^5o%13*08x=qmzfedzdu$i)r)%n#ju@k*'
os.environ.setdefault("SECRET_KEY", "m%w*qhawjr+!oz$6&^5o%13*08x=qmzfedzdu$i)r)%n#ju@k*")

# os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'apdjango.settings')
def main():
    os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'apdjango.settings')
    try:
        from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
    except ImportError as exc:
        raise ImportError(
            "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and "
            "available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you "
            "forget to activate a virtual environment?"
        ) from exc
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

In my settings.py, I have added these lines:

ASGI_APPLICATION = "apdjango.asgi.application"

CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
    'default': {
        "BACKEND": "channels.layers.InMemoryChannelLayer"
    },
}

Your help is appreciated.
Thanks.

[carltongibson]

Normally you have nginx terminate the SSL and then proxy to Daphne from there.

[mhdaouas]

Do I need Django app + daphne running at the same time? If yes, why? How to do it?

[briandeheus]

@mhdaouas you use Daphne to run your django app. Your error message seems to indicate that:

The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

You can read more about this setting here.