About deploying a Django project on Apache + mod_python

Question

I had problems deploying a Django project - Review Board. I did what the document says and but got "Error 403" errors when I tried visiting the site. Maybe I should have posted this question on serverfault.com, but I think this may help people write/deploy Django application in general.

Here is the installation:

I installed Review Board in /data/www/reviewboard:

.
|-- conf
|   |-- apache-modpython.conf
|   |-- search-cron.conf
|   `-- settings_local.py
|-- db
|   `-- reviewboard.db
|-- htdocs
|   |-- errordocs -> /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ReviewBoard-1.0.8-py2.6.egg/reviewboard/htdocs/errordocs
|   |-- media
|   |   |-- admin -> /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ReviewBoard-1.0.8-py2.6.egg/reviewboard/htdocs/media/admin
|   |   |-- djblets -> /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Djblets-0.6.2-py2.6.egg/djblets/media
|   |   |-- rb -> /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ReviewBoard-1.0.8-py2.6.egg/reviewboard/htdocs/media/rb
|   |   `-- uploaded
|   |       `-- images
|   `-- rb
|       |-- errordocs -> ../errordocs/
|       `-- media -> ../media/
|-- logs
`-- tmp

All files have read permission for the httpd user and the database and the uploaded directory have write permission for the httpd user.

The content of conf/apache-modpython.conf is:



  <VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName A.B.C.edu
DocumentRoot "/data/www/reviewboard/htdocs"

# Error handlers
ErrorDocument 500 /errordocs/500.html

# Serve django pages
<Location "/rb">
    PythonPath "['/data/www/reviewboard/conf'] + sys.path"
    SetEnv DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE reviewboard.settings
    SetEnv PYTHON_EGG_CACHE "/data/www/reviewboard/tmp/egg_cache"
    SetHandler mod_python
    PythonHandler django.core.handlers.modpython
    PythonAutoReload Off
    PythonDebug Off
    # Used to run multiple mod_python sites in the same apache
    PythonInterpreter reviewboard_reviewboard
</Location>

# Serve static media without running it through mod_python
# (overrides the above)
<Location "/media">
    SetHandler None
</Location>
<Location "/errordocs">
    SetHandler None
</Location>

<Directory "/data/www/reviewboard/htdocs">
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

# Alias static media requests to filesystem
Alias /media /data/www/reviewboard/htdocs/media
Alias /errordocs /data/www/reviewboard/htdocs/errordocs
  </VirtualHost>

I also cited this file in the main Apache configuration file, /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf like this:

Include /data/www/reviewboard/conf/apache-modpython.conf

When I tried to access the site by http://A.B.C.edu/rb, I got 403 error and saw this message in httpd error log:

[Tue Jun 22 08:52:57 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.11 (Mandriva Linux/PREFORK-10.1mdv2009.1) mod_python/3.3.1 Python/2.6.1 DAV/2 SVN/1.6.1 mod_ssl/2.2.11 OpenSSL/0.9.8k configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Jun 22 08:53:30 2010] [error] [client X.X.X.X] client denied by server configuration: /data/www/reviewboard/htdocs/rb

Does anybody know what I did wrong? Thanks in advance!

supersighs · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-22 15:45:15Z

1

You need to grant access to /data/www/reviewboard/htdocs

<Directory "/data/www/reviewboard/htdocs">
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from *
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

answered Jun 22, 2010 at 15:45

supersighs

9478 silver badges15 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

evergreen Over a year ago

Thanks for the answer. I added what you suggested, but I still got the same error in the log. It seems like the httpd tries to access "/data/www/reviewboard/htdocs/rb" directory, which does not exist. Doesn't configuration file tell httpd to run Django application instead of access the plain file system?

supersighs Over a year ago

oh, i see what you mean. Apache is picking up that dir instead of sending to mod_python. My answer was trying to help handle the 403. I generally use mod_wsgi, so I'm afraid the mod_python issue isn't immediately clear to me.

evergreen Over a year ago

Exactly. Any ideas about what I did wrong with mod_python? The configuration file was actually generated automatically by Review Board's "rb-site" script.

evergreen · Accepted Answer · 2010-06-23 15:20:39Z

1

Found the answer from the author of Review Board. The trick is to add

Options FollowSymlinks

in the <Location> tag that points to the media directory, because that directory contains symbolic links.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

About deploying a Django project on Apache + mod_python

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related