Django schema migrations and deployments minus the misery

Django powers some of the world’s leading websites, offering a robust framework that propels projects from conception to production with ease. At its core, Django’s migration framework and static asset management streamline development, but the journey doesn’t stop there. As applications expand and evolve, scaling introduces new challenges, particularly when deploying updates across multiple instances.

How do we manage schema and static asset versions during rolling updates or blue/green deployments without disrupting the user experience? This presentation dives into the trenches of scaling Django applications. We’ll unravel the complexities of running multiple instances with varying schema and static assets, exploring the intricacies of forward and backward-compatible migrations and the nuances of serving static assets in a distributed environment. Prepare to get your hands dirty as we navigate through real-world scenarios, weighing compromises and strategizing for success. Whether you’re scaling your first project or optimizing an enterprise-level system, this session will arm you with the knowledge to tackle these challenges head-on.

Topic: Deployment Audience Level: Beginner Speaker: Antonis Kalipetis

Antonis is a Docker Captain and a Software Engineer at Platform.sh — a cloud platform for responsibly building, running, and scaling fleets of websites and applications. He is a Python lover and developer who helps teams embrace containers and improve their development workflow. He loves automating stuff and sharing knowledge around all things containers, DevOps and developer workflows.

Try Upsun for your Django projects: https://upsun.com/blog/setting-up-django-on-upsun/

Key moments: 0:00 - Intro 2:28 - Understanding Django deployments 2:36 - A typical Django application 3:20 - Proxy 4:20 - Application server 6:00 - Cache 6:37 - Database 7:30 - Static asset management in Django 10:59 - Static files app 13:28 - Storage 14:46 - Schema migrations in Django 16:29 - Challenges in horizontally scaling Django apps 17:29 - Static files 19:03 - Migrations 20:49 - GitHub repository and CLI 21:24 - Demo: Django deployments in Upsun 52:00 - Ending