Production deployment guide (Docker + Postgres + GitHub CD)

This guide gets this project live with a containerized app and database, optimized for very small traffic.

1) One-time prep in this repo

1. Copy environment template:

   cp .env.example .env
   

2. Edit .env with real values:
   • Strong SECRET_KEY
   • Real domain(s) in ALLOWED_HOSTS
   • HTTPS URLs in CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS
   • Strong POSTGRES_PASSWORD

2) Provision a low-cost server

For lowest cost, use an always-free VM (for example, Oracle Cloud Always Free ARM).

Install on the VM:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git docker.io docker-compose-v2
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out/in so docker group is applied.

3) Deploy app manually (first deploy)

sudo mkdir -p /opt/cantina
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/cantina
cd /opt/cantina
git clone <your-github-repo-url> .
cp .env.example .env
nano .env

docker compose build --pull
docker compose up -d

Check status:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f web

Create admin user:

docker compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

4) Put HTTPS in front (production)

Recommended simple setup:

• Put Nginx/Caddy on the VM as reverse proxy from 443 -> localhost:8000.
• Use Let's Encrypt certificates.

At minimum, keep port 8000 closed publicly and expose only 80/443.

5) Set up GitHub CD pipeline

This repo includes .github/workflows/deploy.yml, which deploys on each push to main.

In GitHub repo settings, add these Actions secrets:

• SSH_HOST (VM public IP or hostname)
• SSH_USER (VM user)
• SSH_PRIVATE_KEY (private key matching VM authorized key)
• SSH_PORT (usually 22)

On the VM, ensure repo is in /opt/cantina and branch is main.

6) Database backup (must-have)

Use cron on VM:

crontab -e

Example daily backup at 02:30:

30 2 * * * docker exec cantina-db pg_dump -U cantina cantina | gzip > /opt/cantina/backups/cantina_$(date +\%F).sql.gz

Also add a retention cleanup job and sync backups to external storage when possible.

7) Health checks and operations

• App logs: docker compose logs -f web
• DB logs: docker compose logs -f db
• Restart after config change: docker compose up -d --build
• Migrations run automatically on container startup via entrypoint.

8) Rollback approach

If a deploy breaks:

1. SSH into VM
2. cd /opt/cantina
3. git checkout <last-good-commit>
4. docker compose up -d --build

For safer rollbacks, deploy from Git tags/releases.