Deployment Overview

FootyCollect can be deployed to production using either Docker Compose or directly on a VPS (bare metal). This section guides you through both deployment methods, environment configuration, and production best practices.

Deployment Options

Choose the deployment method that best fits your infrastructure:

Docker Production

Deploy the full stack with Docker Compose including Django, PostgreSQL, Redis, Traefik, and Celery workers

Bare Metal VPS

Deploy directly on Ubuntu/Debian servers using Nginx, Gunicorn, and systemd services

Architecture Overview

FootyCollect production deployment consists of these core components:

Core Services

Service	Purpose	Required
Django + Gunicorn	Application server	Yes
PostgreSQL	Database	Yes
Redis	Cache and Celery broker	Yes
Celery Worker	Background tasks (image downloads)	Recommended
Celery Beat	Scheduled tasks	Recommended
Nginx/Traefik	Reverse proxy and SSL termination	Yes
S3/R2	Static and media file storage	Recommended

Requirements

System Requirements

Docker
Bare Metal

Docker Engine 20.10+
Docker Compose v2+
2GB RAM minimum (4GB recommended)
20GB disk space
Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 11+

External Services

Service	Purpose	Required
Domain name	SSL certificates and production access	Yes
SendGrid	Email delivery	Recommended
Sentry	Error tracking and monitoring	Recommended
AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2	Static and media file storage	Recommended
FKAPI	Football Kit Archive integration	Optional

Domain Required: You need a domain name for SSL certificates. Let’s Encrypt cannot issue certificates for IP addresses.

Quick Start

Choose Deployment Method

Select either Docker production for containerized deployment or bare metal for traditional VPS deployment.

Configure Environment

Set up production environment variables following the environment setup guide. Generate a secure SECRET_KEY and configure database, Redis, email, and storage.

Deploy Application

Follow the deployment guide for your chosen method. Both guides include database setup, static file collection, and SSL configuration.

Verify Deployment

Complete the production checklist to ensure all security settings are configured and run Django’s deployment checks.

Static and Media Files

In production, FootyCollect serves static and media files from S3-compatible storage:

Storage Options

AWS S3

Configure AWS S3 for production static and media files:

STORAGE_BACKEND=aws
DJANGO_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
DJANGO_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
DJANGO_AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME=your-bucket
DJANGO_AWS_S3_REGION_NAME=us-east-1
DJANGO_AWS_S3_CUSTOM_DOMAIN=cdn.yourdomain.com  # Optional CDN

Static files are uploaded during deployment with collectstatic.

Cloudflare R2

Configure Cloudflare R2 for cost-effective S3-compatible storage:

STORAGE_BACKEND=r2
CLOUDFLARE_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
CLOUDFLARE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
CLOUDFLARE_BUCKET_NAME=your-bucket
CLOUDFLARE_R2_ENDPOINT_URL=https://account-id.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
CLOUDFLARE_R2_CUSTOM_DOMAIN=cdn.yourdomain.com  # Optional

R2 offers free egress bandwidth with S3-compatible API.

Local Storage (Not Recommended)

For testing only, you can serve files locally via Nginx:

location /static/ {
    alias /var/www/footycollect/staticfiles/;
    expires 30d;
}

location /media/ {
    alias /var/www/footycollect/media/;
    expires 7d;
}

Local storage doesn’t scale and complicates multi-server deployments. Use S3/R2 for production.

Security Considerations

Critical Security SettingsNever deploy to production without configuring these settings:

DEBUG=False - Prevents sensitive information exposure
Strong SECRET_KEY - Generate with Django’s get_random_secret_key()
ALLOWED_HOSTS - Restrict to your domain(s)
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT=True - Force HTTPS
SSL/TLS certificates - Use Let’s Encrypt (free)

Security Checklist

See the production checklist for the complete security configuration.

Monitoring and Health Checks

FootyCollect includes built-in health check endpoints:

Endpoint	Purpose
`/health/`	Basic health check (200 OK if running)
`/ready/`	Readiness check (includes database connectivity)

Django Deployment Checks

Run Django’s built-in deployment checks before going live:

python manage.py check --deploy

This validates:

DEBUG is disabled
SECRET_KEY is secure
ALLOWED_HOSTS is configured
Database connectivity
Redis connectivity
SSL/HTTPS settings
Storage credentials (S3/R2)

See config/checks.py:1 for all production validation checks.

Database Backups

Both deployment methods include automatic database backups: Docker: Uses the awscli container for automated backups to S3 Bare Metal: Automated backups during deployment via deploy.sh

Manual Backup

# Backup database
sudo -u postgres pg_dump footycollect_db > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Restore database
sudo -u postgres psql footycollect_db < backup_20260302.sql

Next Steps

Docker Deployment

Deploy with Docker Compose for containerized production environment

Bare Metal Deployment

Deploy on Ubuntu/Debian VPS with Nginx and Gunicorn

Environment Setup

Configure production environment variables and secrets

Production Checklist

Complete pre-deployment security and configuration checklist

Support

For deployment issues:

Check the troubleshooting sections in Docker or bare metal guides
Review deployment logs and Django checks
Open an issue on GitHub

Get Started

Installation

Core Features

User Guide

Architecture

Development

Deployment

Deployment Options

Docker Production

Bare Metal VPS

Architecture Overview

Core Services

Requirements

System Requirements

External Services

Quick Start

Static and Media Files

Storage Options

Security Considerations

Security Checklist

Monitoring and Health Checks

Django Deployment Checks

Database Backups

Manual Backup

Next Steps

Docker Deployment

Bare Metal Deployment

Environment Setup

Production Checklist

Support

​Deployment Options

Docker Production

Bare Metal VPS

​Architecture Overview

​Core Services

​Requirements

​System Requirements

​External Services

​Quick Start

​Static and Media Files

​Storage Options

​Security Considerations

​Security Checklist

​Monitoring and Health Checks

​Django Deployment Checks

​Database Backups

​Manual Backup

​Next Steps

Docker Deployment

Bare Metal Deployment

Environment Setup

Production Checklist

​Support

Deployment Options

Architecture Overview

Core Services

Requirements

System Requirements

External Services

Quick Start

Static and Media Files

Storage Options

Security Considerations

Security Checklist

Monitoring and Health Checks

Django Deployment Checks

Database Backups

Manual Backup

Next Steps

Support