Baby Tracker Deployment Guide

Step-by-step instructions for deploying the Baby Tracker application

Deployment Options

Deploy Baby Tracker to your preferred hosting environment with complete privacy and control

EC2 + Docker Compose (Recommended)

Simple, cost-effective deployment using AWS EC2 with Docker Compose. Complete containerized setup with PostgreSQL and all dependencies included.

✓ Low cost (~$5-6/month)
✓ Simple configuration
✓ Full control

Local Docker Deployment

Run Baby Tracker on your own hardware using Docker Compose for local development or self-hosting.

✓ Complete privacy
✓ No cloud costs
✓ Simple setup

Other Cloud Options

Deploy to other cloud providers like GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, or platforms like Heroku, Render, or Railway.

✓ Alternative providers
✓ Platform-specific features
✓ Existing infrastructure

🚀 AWS EC2 Deployment with Docker Compose

The simplest and most cost-effective way to deploy Baby Tracker to production. Choose between standard HTTP deployment or secure HTTPS deployment:

1. Launch an EC2 Instance

# Key settings for your EC2 instance:

- Instance type: t3.nano (~$5-6/month)

- OS: Amazon Linux 2023 or Ubuntu Server

- Security group: Allow ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS)

- Storage: 8GB (default) is sufficient

# Connect to your instance

ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-instance-ip

2. Install Docker and Docker Compose

# For Amazon Linux 2023

sudo yum update -y

sudo yum install -y docker

sudo systemctl start docker

sudo systemctl enable docker

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install Docker Compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/latest/download/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

# Log out and back in for group changes

exit

# Then reconnect via SSH

3. Deploy the Application

# Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/theamazingmrb/baby-tracker-api.git

cd baby-tracker-api

# Configure environment

cp .env.example .env

nano .env # Edit with your production settings

# Option 1: Start with basic HTTP setup

docker-compose up -d

# OR Option 2: Start with HTTPS setup

mkdir -p nginx/conf nginx/certbot/conf nginx/certbot/www

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml up -d

# Create admin user

docker-compose exec web python manage.py createsuperuser

🎉 Deployment Complete!

Your Baby Tracker instance is now running. Access it at your server's IP address or domain.

Production Environment Configuration

Critical environment variables for production deployment:

Variable	Description	Production Value
DJANGO_DEBUG	Enable debug mode	False
SECRET_KEY	Django secret key	random-50-char-string
ENVIRONMENT	Environment type	production
NETWORK_HOST	Host to bind the Django server to	0.0.0.0
NETWORK_PORT	Port for the Django server	8000
WEB_PORT	Port to expose the web service on host	80
ALLOWED_HOSTS	Comma-separated list of allowed host names	yourdomain.com,www.yourdomain.com
PRODUCTION_DOMAIN	Your API backend domain	api.yourdomain.com
FRONTEND_DOMAIN	Your frontend application domain	app.yourdomain.com
CORS_ALLOW_ALL_ORIGINS	Allow all origins for CORS	False
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	Comma-separated list of allowed origins	https://yourdomain.com,https://www.yourdomain.com
DATABASE_URL	Database connection string	postgresql://user:pass@db/babytracker
POSTGRES_USER	PostgreSQL username (Docker)	postgres
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	PostgreSQL password (Docker)	secure-password-here
POSTGRES_DB	PostgreSQL database name (Docker)	baby_tracker
EMAIL_BACKEND	Django email backend	django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend
EMAIL_HOST	SMTP server hostname	smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT	SMTP server port	587
EMAIL_USE_TLS	Use TLS for email	True
EMAIL_HOST_USER	Email username	your-email@example.com
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD	Email password	your-email-password
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS access key (for S3/EB)	your-access-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS secret key (for S3/EB)	your-secret-key
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME	AWS S3 bucket name	your-bucket-name
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME	AWS region	us-west-2

SSL/HTTPS Setup with Let's Encrypt

Secure your EC2 deployment with free SSL certificates using our integrated HTTPS setup:

# Option 1: Using the Integrated HTTPS Setup (Recommended)

# Create required directories

mkdir -p nginx/conf nginx/certbot/conf nginx/certbot/www

# Create a basic Nginx configuration

cat > nginx/conf/app.conf << 'EOL'

server {

listen 80;

server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

location /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {

root /var/www/certbot;

}

location / {

return 301 https://$host$request_uri;

}

EOL

# Replace domain placeholders with your actual domain

sed -i 's/yourdomain.com/example.com/g' nginx/conf/app.conf # Replace example.com with your domain

# Start the application with HTTPS configuration

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml up -d

# Obtain SSL certificates (after DNS is properly configured)

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml exec certbot certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/certbot -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com --email your-email@example.com --agree-tos --no-eff-email

# Reload Nginx to apply the certificates

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml exec nginx nginx -s reload

Alternative manual setup (if needed):

# Option 2: Manual HTTPS Setup

# For Amazon Linux 2023

sudo dnf install -y augeas-libs

sudo python3 -m pip install certbot

# For Ubuntu

sudo apt install -y certbot

# Stop Docker containers to free port 80

docker-compose down

# Obtain SSL certificate for both domain and www subdomain

sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

# Set up Nginx as reverse proxy with SSL

mkdir -p nginx/conf

nano nginx/conf/app.conf # Configure with SSL paths

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml up -d

Monitoring & Maintenance

📊 EC2 & Container Monitoring

Check EC2 system status:

top

Check container status (HTTP setup):

cd ~/baby-tracker-api && docker-compose ps

Check container status (HTTPS setup):

cd ~/baby-tracker-api && docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml ps

View application logs:

docker-compose logs -f web

View HTTPS-related logs:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml logs -f nginx certbot

💾 Database Backups

Create backup script:

nano ~/backup-db.sh

Add these lines to the script:

#!/bin/bash DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) BACKUP_DIR=~/backups mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR cd ~/baby-tracker-api docker-compose exec -T db pg_dump -U postgres postgres > $BACKUP_DIR/backup-$DATE.sql

Schedule daily backups:

chmod +x ~/backup-db.sh && crontab -e

Add this line to crontab:

0 2 * * * ~/backup-db.sh

🔄 EC2 Application Updates

Update application code:

cd ~/baby-tracker-api && git pull origin main

Backup database before update:

./backup-db.sh

Rebuild and restart containers (HTTP deployment):

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d --build

OR for HTTPS deployment:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml down && docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml up -d --build

Run migrations:

docker-compose exec web python manage.py migrate

🚨 EC2 Troubleshooting

Check EC2 disk space:

df -h

Restart Docker service:

sudo systemctl restart docker

Restart application containers (HTTP):

cd ~/baby-tracker-api && docker-compose restart

Restart application containers (HTTPS):

cd ~/baby-tracker-api && docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml restart

View detailed application errors:

docker-compose logs -f web

View Nginx logs (HTTPS setup):

docker-compose -f docker-compose.https.yml logs -f nginx

Need help with deployment? Check our detailed guides and community support.

Deployment Guide Get Support

← Back to Home