This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with Django web development. The sample code implements base views, models, and route configurations. Combined with the interactive Django admin, this code sample shows how to integrate managed databases, object storage, encrypted secrets, and build pipelines with serverless compute.
While this tutorial demonstrates Django specifically, you can use this deployment process with other Django-based frameworks, such as Wagtail and Django CMS.

Costs
Before you begin
-
Sign in to your Google Account.
If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.
-
In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.
-
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Cloud project. Learn how to confirm that billing is enabled for your project.
- Enable the Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Cloud Build, Secret Manager, and Compute Engine APIs.
- Install and initialize the Cloud SDK.
- Ensure sufficient permissions are available to the account used for this tutorial.
Clone the Django app
After you've completed the prerequisites, download and deploy the Django sample app. The following sections guide you through configuring, running, and deploying the app.
Cloning the Django app
The code for the Django sample app is in the
GoogleCloudPlatform/python-docs-samples
repository on GitHub.
You can either download the sample as a ZIP file and extract it or clone the repository to your local machine:
git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/python-docs-samples.git
Go to the directory that contains the sample code:
Linux/macOS
cd python-docs-samples/run/django
Windows
cd python-docs-samples\run\django
Preparing the backing services
This tutorial uses a number of Google Cloud services to provide the database, media storage, and secret storage that support the deployed Django project. These services are deployed in a specific region. For efficency between services, it is best that all services are deployed in the same region. For more information about the closest region to you, see Products available by region.
Set up a Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL instance
Django supports multiple relational databases, but offers the most support for PostgreSQL, which is one of the offered database types in Cloud SQL.
The following sections describes the creation of a PostgreSQL instance, database, and database user for the polls app.
Create a PostgreSQL instance
Console
In the Cloud Console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.
Click Create Instance.
Click PostgreSQL.
In the Instance ID field, enter a name for the instance (
INSTANCE_NAME
).Enter a password for the postgres user.
Use the default values for the other fields.
Click Create.
gcloud
Create the PostgreSQL instance:
gcloud sql instances create INSTANCE_NAME \ --project PROJECT_ID \ --database-version POSTGRES_12 \ --tier db-f1-micro \ --region REGION
Replace the following:
INSTANCE_NAME
: the Cloud SQL instance namePROJECT_ID
: the Google Cloud project IDREGION
: the Google Cloud region
It takes a few minutes to create the instance and for it to be ready for use.
Set a password for the
postgres
user:gcloud sql users set-password postgres \ --instance INSTANCE_NAME --prompt-for-password
Create a database
Console
In the Cloud Console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.
Select the INSTANCE_NAME instance.
Go to the Databases tab.
Click Create database.
In the Database name dialog, enter
DATABASE_NAME
.Click Create.
gcloud
Create the database within the recently created instance:
gcloud sql databases create DATABASE_NAME \ --instance INSTANCE_NAME
Replace
DATABASE_NAME
with a name for the database inside the instance.
Create a user
Console
-
In the Cloud Console, activate Cloud Shell.
In Cloud Shell, use the built-in
gcloud
client to connect to yourINSTANCE_NAME
instance:gcloud sql connect INSTANCE_NAME --user postgres
Enter the postgres user password.
You are now using
psql
. You should see thepostgres=>
prompt.Create a user:
CREATE USER 'django' WITH PASSWORD 'PASSWORD';
Replace
PASSWORD
with a sufficiently secret password.Grant full rights on the new database to the new user:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE 'DATABASE_NAME' TO 'django';
Exit
psql
:\q
gcloud
Start a connection to the SQL instance:
gcloud sql connect INSTANCE_NAME --user postgres
Replace
INSTANCE_NAME
with the created Cloud SQL instance.Enter the postgres user password.
You are now using
psql
. You should see thepostgres=>
prompt.Create a user:
CREATE USER 'django' WITH PASSWORD 'PASSWORD';
Grant full rights on the new database to the new user:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE 'DATABASE_NAME' TO 'django';
Exit
psql
:\q
Set up a Cloud Storage bucket
You can store Django's included static assets, as well as user-uploaded media,
in highly avaiable object storage using Cloud Storage.
The django-storages[google]
package handles
Django's interaction with this storage backend.
Console
- In the Cloud Console, go to the Cloud Storage Browser page.
- Click Create bucket.
- In the Create bucket dialog, specify the following attributes:
- A unique bucket name, subject to the bucket name requirements.
- Default storage class: Standard
- Location: MEDIA_BUCKET
- Click Create.
gcloud
The gsutil command-line tool was installed as part of installing the Cloud SDK.
Create a Cloud Storage bucket:
gsutil mb -l REGION gs://PROJECT_ID_MEDIA_BUCKET
Replace
MEDIA_BUCKET
with a suffix for the media bucket. Combined with the project ID, this creates a unique bucket name.
Store secret values in Secret Manager
Now that the backing services are configured, Django needs information about these services. Instead of putting these values directly into the Django source code, this tutorial uses Secret Manager to store this information securely.
Cloud Run and Cloud Build interact with secrets by using their respective service accounts, identified by an email address that contains the project number.
Create Django environment file as a Secret Manager secret
You store the settings required to start Django in a secured .env
file.
The sample code uses the Secret Manager API to retrieve the secret
value, and the django-environ
package to load the values into the Django environment. The secret is configured
to be accessible by both Cloud Build and Cloud Run, because both those
services will be running Django.
Create a file called
.env
, defining the database connection string, the media bucket name, and a newSECRET_KEY
value:DATABASE_URL=postgres://django:PASSWORD@//cloudsql/PROJECT_ID:REGION:INSTANCE_NAME/DATABASE_NAME GS_BUCKET_NAME=PROJECT_ID_MEDIA_BUCKET SECRET_KEY=(a random string, length 50)
Store the secret in Secret Manager:
Console
In the Cloud Console, go to the Secret Manager page.
Click Create secret
In the Name field, enter
django_settings
.In the Upload file dialog, select the locally stored
.env
file.Click Create secret.
In Details for django_settings, note the project number:
projects/PROJECTNUM/secrets/django_settings
Click Add Member
In the New Members field, enter
PROJECTNUM-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com
, and then pressEnter
.In the New Members field, enter
PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com
, and then pressEnter
.In the Role drop-down menu, select Secret Manager Secret Accessor.
Click Save.
gcloud
Create a new secret,
django_settings
:gcloud secrets create django_settings --replication-policy automatic
Add the
.env
file as a version of the secret.gcloud secrets versions add django_settings --data-file .env
To confirm the creation of the secret, check it:
gcloud secrets describe django_settings
Make a note of the project number:
projects/PROJECTNUM/secrets/django_settings
Grant access to the secret to the Cloud Run service account:
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding django_settings \ --member serviceAccount:PROJECTNUM-compute@developer.gserviceaccount.com \ --role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor
Grant access to the secret to the Cloud Build service account:
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding django_settings \ --member serviceAccount:PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com \ --role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor
In the output, confirm that
bindings
lists the two service accounts as members.
Create secret for Django's admin password
The Django admin user is normally created by running the interactive management command createsuperuser
.
This tutorial uses a data migration to create the admin user, retrieving said password from Secret Manager.
Console
- In the Cloud Console, go to the Secret Manager page.
Click Create secret.
In the Name field, enter
superuser_password
.In the Secret value field, enter a random password.
Click Create secret.
In Details for superuser_password, make a note of the project number (
projects/PROJECTNUM/secrets/superuser_password
).Click Add Member.
In the New Members field, enter
PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com
, and then pressEnter
.In the Role drop-down menu, select Secret Manager Secret Accessor.
Click Save
gcloud
Create a new secret,
superuser_password
:gcloud secrets create superuser_password --replication-policy automatic
Add a randomly generated password as a version of that secret:
cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9' | head -c30 > superuser_password gcloud secrets versions add superuser_password --data-file superuser_password
Grant access to the secret to Cloud Build:
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding superuser_password \ --member serviceAccount:PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com \ --role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor
In the output, confirm that
bindings
lists only the Cloud Build as a member.
Grant Cloud Build access to Cloud SQL
In order for Cloud Build to apply the database migrations, you need to grant permissions for Cloud Build to access Cloud SQL.
Console
In the Cloud Console, go to the Identity and Access Management page.
To edit the entry for
PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com
, click Edit.Click Add another role
In the Select a role dialog, select Cloud SQL Client.
Click Save
gcloud
Grant permission for Cloud Build to access Cloud SQL:
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \ --member serviceAccount:PROJECTNUM@cloudbuild.gserviceaccount.com \ --role roles/cloudsql.client
First deployment of the application
With the backing services setup, you can now deploy the Cloud Run service.
Using the supplied
cloudmigrate.yaml
, use Cloud Build to build the image, run the database migrations, and populate the static assets:gcloud builds submit --config cloudmigrate.yaml --substitutions _INSTANCE_NAME=INSTANCE_NAME,_REGION=REGION
This first build takes a few minutes to complete.
When the build is successful, deploy the Cloud Run service for the first time, setting the service region, base image, and connected Cloud SQL instance:
gcloud run deploy polls-service \ --platform managed \ --region REGION \ --image gcr.io/PROJECT_ID/polls \ --add-cloudsql-instances PROJECT_ID:REGION:INSTANCE_NAME \ --allow-unauthenticated
You should see output that shows the deployment succeeded, with a service URL:
Service [polls-service] revision [polls-service-00001-tug] has been deployed and is serving 100 percent of traffic at https://polls-service-
-uc.a.run.app To see the deployed service, go to the service URL.
If the service URL shows "You're at the polls index", the Django application has been successfully deployed. To log into the Django admin, append
/admin
to the URL, and login with the usernameadmin
, and the password set earlier.Once authenticated, the Django admin will display, showing the Questions model in the Polls app.
Setting minimum permissions (optional)
By default, this service is deployed with the default compute service account. However, in some cases, using the default service account can provide too many permissions. If you want to be more restrictive, you need to create your own service account and assign only the permissions that are required by your service. The permissions required can vary from service to service, depending on the resources used by a particular service.
The minimum project roles required by this service are the following:
- Cloud Run Invoker
- Cloud SQL Client
- Storage Admin, on the media bucket
- Secret Manager Accessor, on the Django settings secret. (Access to the Django admin secret is not required by the service itself.)
To create a service account with the required permissions, do the following:
In Cloud Shell, create a service account with the required roles:
gcloud iam service-accounts create polls-service-account SERVICE_ACCOUNT=polls-service-account@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com # Cloud Run Invoker gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \ --member serviceAccount:${SERVICE_ACCOUNT} \ --role roles/run.Invoker # Cloud SQL Client gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \ --member serviceAccount:${SERVICE_ACCOUNT} \ --role roles/cloudsql.client # Storage Admin, on the media bucket gsutil iam ch \ serviceAccount:${SERVICE_ACCOUNT}:roles/storage.objectAdmin \ gs://MEDIA_BUCKET # Secret Accessor, on the Django settings secret. gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding django_settings \ --member serviceAccount:${SERVICE_ACCOUNT} \ --role roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor
Deploy the service, associating it with the new service account:
gcloud run deploy polls-service \ --platform managed \ --region REGION \ --service-account ${SERVICE_ACCOUNT}
Redeploying the application
While the initial provisoning and deployment steps were complex, redeployment is relatively straightfoward.
Run the Cloud Build build and migration script:
gcloud builds submit --config cloudmigrate.yaml \ --substitutions _INSTANCE_NAME=INSTANCE_NAME,_REGION=REGION
Deploy the service, specifying only the region and image:
gcloud run deploy polls-service \ --platform managed \ --region REGION \ --image gcr.io/PROJECT_ID/polls
Understanding the code
The Django sample app was created using standard Django tooling. These commands create the project and the polls app:
django-admin startproject mysite .
python manage.py startapp polls
The base views, models, and route configurations were copied from Writing your first Django app (Part 1 and Part 2).
Secrets from Secret Manager
The settings.py
file contains code that uses the Secret Manager Python API to retrieve the latest version of the named secret, and pull it into the environment (using django-environ
):
The django_settings
was used to store multiple secret values to reduce the number of different secrets that needed to be configured.
While the superuser_password
could have been created directly from the command-line
, the file-based method was used instead. If generated from the command line, care was taken using head -c
to
determine the length of the randomly generated string used, while ensuring there
was no new-line character at the end of the file, which would have caused issues
when the password was entered into the Django admin.
Database connection
Because the django_settings
secret contained a specially-formed database connection
string, the database helper from django-environ
can be invoked to assign the DATABASES
value:
This method was used as opposed to defining separate values for the components of the database connection information.
Cloud-stored static
The settings.py
file also uses django-storages
to integrate the Cloud Storage media bucket directly into the project:
Automation with Cloud Build
The cloudmigrate.yaml
file performs not only the typical image build steps
(creating the container image and pushing that to the container registry), but
also the Django migrate
and collectstatic
commands. These require access to
the database, which is performed by using the
app-engine-exec-wrapper,
a helper for Cloud SQL Proxy:
Substitution variables
are used in this configuration. Changing the values in the file directly mean the --substitutions
flag can be dropped at migration time.
In this configuration, only existing migrations are applied. In order to extend
this configuration to generate migrations, add a
makemigrations
step.
To extend the Cloud Build configuration to include the deployment in the one configuration without having to run two commands, see Continuous deployment from git using Cloud Build. This requires IAM changes, as described.
Superuser creation with data migrations
The Django management command
createsuperuser
can only be run interactively -- that is, when the user can enter in information
in response to prompts. While you can use this command with Cloud SQL Proxy
and executing commands within a local Docker setup, another way is to create the
superuser as a data migration:
Cleanup
- In the Cloud Console, go to the Manage resources page.
- In the project list, select the project that you want to delete, and then click Delete.
- In the dialog, type the project ID, and then click Shut down to delete the project.