Installing python and dependencies

mkdir -p /usr/src/python26 && cd /usr/src/python26

Next, we have to download and install sqlite3 dependency. It's not needed if your Django instances will not run sqlite databases, but on a safe side it's better to install it than not.

wget http://www.sqlite.org/sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.4.tar.gz
tar zxvf sqlite-amalgamation-3.6.4.tar.gz
cd sqlite-3.6.4
./configure
make
make install

If all went well it's time to install python 2.6 as alternate install.

cd /usr/src/python26
wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6.5/Python-2.6.5.tgz
tar zxvf Python-2.6.5.tgz
cd Python-2.6.5
./configure --prefix=/opt/python2.6 --with-threads --enable-shared
make
make install

This will install python 2.6 in /opt/python2.6 and will not interfere with system python install. Let's make a symbolic link to our newly installed python:

ln -s /opt/python2.6/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.6<

Also we must instruct our system where it should find the libs for new python.

echo '/opt/python2.6/lib' >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/opt-python2.6.conf
ldconfig

You shoud check if your new python install is working as it should:

/usr/bin/python2.6
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Jul 15 2010, 16:55:23)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Type CTRL+D to exit. Next thing to do is installation of python-setup tools:

cd /usr/src/python26
wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.6/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg
sh setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg --prefix=/opt/python2.6

Make sure to define the prefix on where your new python 2.6 installation is residing. We should make a temporary alias for new python as it will be needed for installation of python mysql package:

alias python="/opt/python2.6/bin/python"

Let's check if everything is working ok:

python
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Jul 15 2010, 16:55:23)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> CTRL + D

So next in line is mysql for python:

cd /usr/src/python26
wget http://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/mysql-python/mysql-python/1.2.3/MySQL-python-1.2.3.tar.gz
tar zxvf MySQL-python-1.2.3.tar.gz
cd MySQL-python-1.2.3
python setup.py build
python setup.py install

Again let's verify the install:

cd /usr/src/python26
python
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Jul 15 2010, 17:57:29)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-48)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sqlite3
>>> import MySQLdb
>>> CTRL + D

It shouldn't return any errors while issuing import statements. Ok for the end let's install the virtualenv so we can create a virtual python enviroment for each user and his Django instances

cd /opt/python2.6/bin
./easy_install virtualenv

And here we conclude the python instalation. Next order of business is mod_wsgi

mod_wsgi installation

cd /opt/python2.6/lib/python2.6/config/
ln -s ../../libpython2.6.so .
cd /usr/src/python26
wget http://modwsgi.googlecode.com/files/mod_wsgi-3.2.tar.gz
tar zxvf mod_wsgi-3.2.tar.gz
cd mod_wsgi-3.2
./configure –with-python=/opt/python2.6/bin/python
make
make install

This will install mod_wsgi in /usr/local/apache/modules/mod_wsgi.so Note that this wsgi module is built with python 2.6 and will not work with any other version. All we have to do now is add the mod_wsgi in our apache conf. You can do that on cpanel servers via WHM. Log into WHM , click on Apache Configuration then Include Editor then Pre-Virtualhost Include and select All versions Paste this:

LoadModule wsgi_module /usr/local/apache/modules/mod_wsgi.so
AddHandler wsgi-script .wsgi

** Save and restart apache.** And that's it. Our apache is now ready to serve python scripts via mod_wsgi Now all we have to do is install some Django instances for our user.

Setting up Django projects

I'll use '[username] ' for cpanel username reference and '[domain] ' for that user's domain. To match your needs you will have to replace those where appropriate. First of all you will have to decide if you will do empty virtual environments so that the user can decide what python site-packages will he use or will you preinstall some packages so that user can only update his virtualenv with packages that are missing. If you are choosing the first method user will have to have compile rights under security setting of cpanel WHM otherwise he will not be able to install packages as python mysql, PIL and some others. If you choose the former method you can preinstall those packages systemwide for our alternate python install, but whenever you update those packages all virtual environments will be updated with them. It's a matter of personal preference. I for myself rather like the clean virtualenv, and before delivering it to the client you as root preinstall in his virtualenv those packages requiring gcc rights. So let's create a virtualenv for our user:

cd /home/[username]
/opt/python2.6/bin/virtualenv --no-site-packages --distribute virtualenv
chown -R [username].[username] virtualenv

this will create a new directory __ /home/[username]/virtualenv __ with our new virtual python environment for our user. You will have to enable normal shell for this user, let's first check what shell this user has.

cat /etc/passwd |grep [username]

it should return something like this:

[username]:x:928:923::/home/[username]:/usr/local/cpanel/bin/jailshell

This user has jailshell enabled to change that into normal shell do this:

usermod -s /bin/bash [username]

You can also do this via WHM-> Manage Shell Access. From this point on we will do everything as the user and not root, until told otherwise.

su [username]
source virtualenv/bin/activate

And the promt will change to something like this:

(virtualenv)[username]@[domain] [~]#

that way we know we are loged in as user and we are using his virtualenv. Now let's install Django in this users environment, simply enter:

easy_install django

Now is also a good time to install additional python site-packages like mysql and PIL. First temporarily enable compilers for this user via WHM->Compiler Access->Allow specific users to use the compilers do the modules install with:

easy_install [module_name]

disable the compiler access afterwards

So we have the django installed inside the users virtualenv, all we have to do now is start one of the instance. It's probably the best practice to keep django sites outside of public_html folders on cpanel servers. So we will do (still as a user)

cd
mkdir djangosites
cd djangosites
django-admin.py startproject [projectname]

So by now we should have a directory structure like this:

/home/[username]/virtualenv  < - python virtual environment
/home/[username]/djangosites <- django sites folder
/home/[username]/djangosites/[projectname] <- django project

Create the wsgi script for that project, usualy [projectname].wsgi in django sites folder

nano /home/[username]/djangosites/[projectname].wsgi

and paste the following code:

import sys
import site
import os

vepath = '/home/[username]/virtualenv/lib/python2.6/site-packages'
prev_sys_path = list(sys.path)
site.addsitedir(vepath)
sys.path.append('/home/[username]/djangosites')
new_sys_path = [p for p in sys.path if p not in prev_sys_path]
for item in new_sys_path:
    sys.path.remove(item)
sys.path[:0] = new_sys_path
from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = '[projectname].settings'
application = WSGIHandler()

give the scripts execute permissions:

chmod +x /home/[username]/djangosites/[projectname].wsgi

and exit user login with:

exit

now you will have your root propmt at the shell:

root@servername [/home/username]#

create the apache include folder for that virtualhost:

mkdir -p /usr/local/apache/conf/userdata/std/2/[username]/[domain]/
nano /usr/local/apache/conf/userdata/std/2/[username]/[domain]/django.conf

and add:

<ifmodule mod_wsgi.c>

WSGIScriptAlias / /home/[username]/djangosites/[projectname].wsgi

WSGIDaemonProcess [username] processes=7 threads=1 display-name=%{GROUP}

WSGIProcessGroup [username]

WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}

</ifmodule>

edit the virtualhost entry for that domain:

nano /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

and in that virtualhost add:

Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/userdata/std/2/[username]/[domain]/*.conf"

save & exit

test the apache configuration prior to reload:

service httpd configtest

Should say syntax OK at the end, if so reload the apache:

/scripts/restartsrv_httpd

And voila, you have your django instance up& running You can now add via User's cpanel media subdomain for django media files, and define the path to the subdomain root in setings.py media root can live inside public_html folder. You can also create additional subdomain for admin media and copy the admin media content to that subdoman. For example: admin-media.[domain]:

cp -r /home/[username]/virtualenv/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Django-1.2.1-py2.6.egg/django/contrib/admin/media/* /home/[username]/public_html/admin-media/