Deploying a source install
Once you’ve installed CKAN from source by following the instructions in Installing CKAN from source, you can follow these instructions to deploy your CKAN site using a rudimentary web server, so that it’s available to the Internet.
Because CKAN uses WSGI, a standard interface between web servers and Python web applications, CKAN can be used with a number of different web server and deployment configurations, however the CKAN project has now standardized on one NGINX with uwsgi
This guide explains how to deploy CKAN using a uwsgi web server and proxied with NGINX on an Ubuntu server. These instructions have been tested on Ubuntu 18.04.
1. Install Nginx
Install NGINX (a web server) which will proxy the content from one of the WSGI Servers and add a layer of caching:
sudo apt-get install nginx
2. Create the WSGI script file
The WSGI script file can be copied from the CKAN distribution:
sudo cp /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan/wsgi.py /etc/ckan/default/
Here is the file:
# -- coding: utf-8 --
import os
from ckan.config.middleware import make_app
from ckan.cli import CKANConfigLoader
from logging.config import fileConfig as loggingFileConfig
config_filepath = os.path.join(
os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)), 'ckan.ini')
abspath = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
loggingFileConfig(config_filepath)
config = CKANConfigLoader(config_filepath).get_config()
application = make_app(config)
The WSGI Server (configured next) will redirect requests to this WSGI script file. The script file then handles those requests by directing them on to your CKAN instance (after first configuring the Python environment for CKAN to run in).
3. Create the WSGI Server
Make sure you have activated the Python virtual environment before running this command:
. /usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/activate
uwsgi
Run pip install uwsgi
The uwsgi configuration file can be copied from the CKAN distribution:
sudo cp /usr/lib/ckan/default/src/ckan/ckan-uwsgi.ini /etc/ckan/default/
Here is the file:
[uwsgi]
http = 127.0.0.1:8080
uid = www-data
gid = www-data
wsgi-file = /etc/ckan/default/wsgi.py
virtualenv = /usr/lib/ckan/default
module = wsgi:application
master = true
pidfile = /tmp/%n.pid
harakiri = 50
max-requests = 5000
vacuum = true
callable = application
strict = true
If you notice database connection issues in the uwsgi log, try adding the following configurations to resolve them:
enable-threads = true
lazy-apps = true
4. Install Supervisor for the uwsgi
Install Supervisor (a Process Control System) used to control starting, stopping the uwsgi or gunicorn servers:
sudo apt-get install supervisor
sudo service supervisor restart
uwsgi
Create the /etc/supervisor/conf.d/ckan-uwsgi.conf file
[program:ckan-uwsgi]
command=/usr/lib/ckan/default/bin/uwsgi -i /etc/ckan/default/ckan-uwsgi.ini
; Start just a single worker. Increase this number if you have many or
; particularly long running background jobs.
numprocs=1
process_name=%(program_name)s-%(process_num)02d
; Log files - change this to point to the existing CKAN log files
stdout_logfile=/etc/ckan/default/uwsgi.OUT
stderr_logfile=/etc/ckan/default/uwsgi.ERR
; Make sure that the worker is started on system start and automatically
; restarted if it crashes unexpectedly.
autostart=true
autorestart=true
; Number of seconds the process has to run before it is considered to have
; started successfully.
startsecs=10
; Need to wait for currently executing tasks to finish at shutdown.
; Increase this if you have very long running tasks.
stopwaitsecs = 600
; Required for uWSGI as it does not obey SIGTERM.
stopsignal=QUIT
5. Install an email server
If one isn’t installed already, install an email server to enable CKAN’s email features (such as sending traceback emails to sysadmins when crashes occur, or sending new activity email notifications to users). For example, to install the Postfix email server, do:
sudo apt-get install postfix
When asked to choose a Postfix configuration, choose Internet Site and press return.
6. Create the NGINX config file
Create your site’s NGINX config file at /etc/nginx/sites-available/ckan, with the following contents:
proxy_temp_path /tmp/nginx_proxy 1 2;
server {
client_max_body_size 100M;
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080/;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
}
}
To prevent conflicts, disable your default nginx sites and restart:
sudo rm -vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/ckan /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ckan sudo service nginx restart
7. Generate JavaScript Translations
Some front-end features require translated strings from CKAN and its extensions. Run this command once to extract and make these strings available after initial installation, upgrades, enabling new plugins or enabling new languages.
ckan -c /etc/ckan/default/ckan.ini translation js
8. Access your CKAN site
You should now be able to visit your server in a web browser and see your new CKAN instance.
9. Setup a worker for background jobs
CKAN uses asynchronous Background jobs for long tasks. These jobs are executed by a separate process which is called a worker.
To run the worker in a robust way, install and configure Supervisor.
Deployment changes for CKAN 2.9
This section describes how to update your deployment for CKAN 2.9 or later, if you have an existing deployment of CKAN 2.8 or earlier. This is necessary, whether you continue running CKAN on Python 2 or Python 3, because the WSGI entry point for running CKAN has changed. If your existing deployment is different to that described in the official CKAN 2.8 deployment instructions (apache2 + mod_wsgi + nginx) then you’ll need to adapt these instructions to your setup.
We now recommend you activate the Python virtual environment in a different place, compared to earlier CKAN versions. For the WSGI server, activation is done in the uwsgi server config file (/etc/ckan/default/ckan-uwsgi.ini).
(In CKAN 2.8.x and earlier, the virtual environment was activated in the WSGI script file.)