<html lang="en"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

<meta charset="utf-8">

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

<meta name="author" content="Matt Makai">

<meta name="description" content="Full Stack Python explains each layer of the web application stack, from the server up through the rendering in a user's browser.">

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="theme/img/fsp-fav.png">

<title>Servers - Full Stack Python</title>

<!--[if lt IE 9]>

<style>

.toc-indent {padding-left: 25px;}

.toc-more-indent {padding-left: 37px;}

</style>

<script type="text/javascript">

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19910497-7']);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);

</script> </head>

<a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.github.com"><img style="position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; border: 0;" src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/a6677b08c955af8400f44c6298f40e7d19cc5b2d/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f6769746875622f726962626f6e732f666f726b6d655f72696768745f677261795f3664366436642e706e67" alt="Fork me on GitHub" data-canonical-src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/github/ribbons/forkme_right_gray_6d6d6d.png"></a>

<div class="container">

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-12">

<div class="logo-header-section">

<a href="/" style="text-decoration: none; border: none;"><img src="theme/img/fsp-logo.png" height="52" width="52" class="logo-image" style="padding-top: 1px;"/></a>

<span class="logo-title"><a href="/">Full Stack Python</a></span>

</div>

</div>

</div> <div class="row">

<div class="col-md-8">

<h1>Servers</h1>

<p>Servers are the physical infrastructure to run all the layers of software

so your web application can respond to requests from clients such as web

browsers.</p>

<h2>Why are servers necessary?</h2>

<p>Your web application must live somewhere other than your own desktop or

laptop. Servers should ideally be accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,

with no unplanned downtime. The servers that host your web application for

actual users (as opposed to test users) are known as <em>production</em> servers.

Production servers hold real data (again as opposed to test data) and must be

secure against unauthorized access.</p>

<h2>"Bare metal" servers</h2>

<p>The term <em>bare metal</em> refers to purchasing the actual hardware and hooking

it up to the Internet either through a business-class internet service

provider (ISP) or

<a href="http://webdesign.about.com/od/colocation/a/what_colocation.htm">co-locating the server</a>

with other servers. A "business-class" ISP is necessary because

most residential Internet service agreements explicitly prohibit running

web servers on their networks. You may be able to get away with low traffic

volume but if your site serves a lot of traffic it will alert an ISP's

filters.</p>

<p>The bare metal option offers the most control over the server configuration,

usually has the highest performance for the price, but also is the most

expensive upfront option and the highest ongoing maintenance. With bare

metal servers the ongoing operating cost is the electricity the server(s)

use as well as handling repairs when server components malfunction. You're

taking on manual labor working with hardware as well as the rest of the

software stack.</p>

<p>Buy actual hardware from a vendor either pre-built or as a collection of

components that you assemble yourself. You can also buy

pre-configured servers from Dell or HP. Those servers tend to be in

smaller case form factors (called "blades") but are correspondingly more

expensive than putting off-the-shelf components together yourself in a

standard computer case.</p>

<h2>Virtualized servers</h2>

<p>Virtual private servers (VPSs) are slices of hardware on top of a larger

bare metal server. Virtualization software such as

<a href="http://www.xen.org/">Xen</a> and

<a href="http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/what-is-virtualization.html">VMWare</a>

allow providers such as <a href="http://www.linode.com/">Linode</a> and

<a href="http://prgmr.com/xen/">prgmr</a> (as well as a many others) to provide

fractions of a full server that appear as their own instances. For example,

a server with an 8-core Xeon processor and 16 gigabytes of memory can be

sliced into 8 pieces with the equivalent of 1-core and 2 gigabytes of

memory.</p>

<p>The primary disadvantage of virtualized servers is that there is resource

overhead in the virtualization process. In addition, physical constraints

such as heavy I/O operations by a single virtualized instance on persistent

storage can cause performance bottlenecks for other virtualized instances on

the shared server. Choosing virtualized server hosting should be based on

your needs for urgency of service ticket requests and the frequency you

require for ongoing maintenance such as persistent storage backups.</p>

<h3>Virtualized servers resources</h3>

<p><a href="http://blog.redfern.me/choosing-a-low-cost-vps/">Choosing a low cost VPS</a>

reviews the factors that you should weigh when deciding on hosting

providers.</p>

<p>This post covers hosting types and host to

<a href="http://www.purefiremedia.com/choose-a-web-host/">choose a web host</a>.</p>

<h2>Infrastructure-as-a-service</h2>

<p>Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) overlaps with virtualized servers

because the resources are often presented in the same way. The

difference between virtualized servers and IaaS is the granularity of the

billing cycle. IaaS generally encourages a finer granularity based on minutes

or hours of server usage instead of on monthly billing cycles.</p>

<p>IaaS can be used in combination with virtualized servers to provide

dynamic upscaling for heavy traffic. When traffic is low then virtualized

servers can solely be used. This combination of resources reduces cost at

the expense of greater complexity in the dynamically scaled infrastructure. </p>

<p>The most common IaaS platforms are

<a href="http://aws.amazon.com/">Amazon Web Services</a> and

<a href="http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/">Rackspace Cloud</a>.</p>

<p>The disadvantage to IaaS platforms is the lock-in if you have to write

custom code to deploy, dynamically scale, and generally understand your

infrastructure. Every platform has its quirks. For example,

Amazon's standard <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/">Elastic Block Store</a> storage

infrastructure has at least an order of magnitude worse I/O throughput

than working with your local disk. Your application's database queries may

work great locally but then when you deploy the performance is inadequate.

Amazon has <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2012/07/31/announcing-provisioned-iops-for-amazon-ebs/">higher throughput EBS instances</a>

but you will pay correspondingly more for them. EBS throughput is just

one of many quirks you need to understand before committing to an

IaaS platform.</p>

<h3>Infrastructure-as-a-service resources</h3>

<p><a href="http://www.screamingatmyscreen.com/2012/12/the-cloud-vs-dedicated-servers/">The cloud versus dedicated servers</a></p>

<p><a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/5-common-server-setups-for-your-web-application">5 common server setups for your web application</a>

is a great introduction to how hosting can be arranged.</p>

<p><a href="http://libcloud.apache.org/">Apache Libcloud</a> is a Python library that

provides a unified API for many cloud service providers.</p>

<p><a href="http://aws.amazon.com/python/">Amazon Web Services has official documentation</a> for running Python web applications.</p>

<p><a href="https://github.com/boto/boto">boto</a> is an extensive and well-tested

Python library for working with Amazon Web Services.</p>

<p><a href="https://github.com/changhiskhan/poseidon">Poseidon</a> is a Python commandline

interface for managing Digital Ocean droplets (servers).</p>

<p>Rackspace also has <a href="http://docs.rackspace.com/sdks/guide/content/python.html">official documentation for Python</a>.</p>

<p><a href="http://feross.org/how-to-setup-your-linode/">How to set up your Linode for maximum awesomeness</a>

shows how to work with a VPS once you've got the server up and running.</p>

<h2>Servers learning checklist</h2>

<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>

Sign up for a hosting provider. I recommend getting a

<a href="https://www.linode.com/?r=bfeecaf55a83cd3dd224a5f2a3a001fdf95d4c3d">Linode VPS</a>

to set up your initial infrastructure and deploy your web application there.

<a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/">Digital Ocean</a> and

<a href="http://prgmr.com/xen/">prgrmr</a> are other VPS options. You can change

hosting providers later after the deployment process is automated.</p>

<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>

Provision your first server. It will be ready but in a shutdown state while

awaiting your instructions.</p>

<p><i class="fa fa-check-square-o"></i>

Move to the <a href="/operating-systems.html">operating systems</a> section to learn

how to load Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as a base OS for Python web applications.</p>

<h3>Keep going with setting up a server or try a PaaS?</h3>

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-4">

<div class="well select-next">

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-linux fa-inverse fa-2x"></i></a>

<p class="under-btn">

What operating system should I use once the server is set up?

</p>

</div>

</div>

<div class="col-md-4">

<div class="well select-next">

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-puzzle-piece fa-inverse fa-2x"></i></a>

</a>

<p class="under-btn">

Forget servers. Give me the easier platform-as-a-service option.

</p>

</div>

</div>

<div class="col-md-4">

<div class="well select-next">

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="btn btn-success btn-full"><i class="fa fa-cloud fa-2x"></i></a>

<p class="under-btn">

I'll install Linux as my OS. Which web server should I use?

</p>

</div>

</div>

</div> <div id="mc_embed_signup">

<form action="//mattmakai.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d&amp;id=b22335388d" method="post" id="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" name="mc-embedded-subscribe-form" class="validate" target="_blank" novalidate>

<div id="mc_embed_signup_scroll">

<h4>Interested in major updates to this site or an alert when a complete Full Stack Python book with detailed example code is released? Sign up here and you'll an occasional email only when there's big news to report.</h4>

<div class="row">

<div class="col-md-9">

<input type="email" value="" name="EMAIL" class="email form-control" id="mce-EMAIL" placeholder="email address" required>

<div style="position: absolute; left: -5000px;"><input type="text" name="b_b7e774f0c4f05dcebbfee183d_b22335388d" tabindex="-1" value=""></div>

</div>

<div class="col-md-3">

<div class="clear"><input type="submit" value="Subscribe" name="subscribe" id="mc-embedded-subscribe" class="btn btn-success" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"></div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

<div class="col-md-offset-1 col-md-3" id="sidebar">

<div class="panel panel-success">

<div class="panel-heading">

<h3 class="panel-head"><a href="/table-of-contents.html" style="color: #fff;">Table of Contents</a></h3>

</div>

<div class="list-group">

<a href="/introduction.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Introduction</a>

<a href="/web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/django.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Django</a>

<a href="/flask.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Flask</a>

<a href="/bottle.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Bottle</a>

<a href="/morepath.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Morepath</a>

<a href="/other-web-frameworks.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Other Web Frameworks</a>

<a href="/deployment.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Deployment</a>

<a href="/servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item active">Servers</a>

<a href="/platform-as-a-service.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Platform-as-a-service</a>

<a href="/operating-systems.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Operating Systems</a>

<a href="/web-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Servers</a>

<a href="/wsgi-servers.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">WSGI Servers</a>

<a href="/source-control.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Source Control</a>

<a href="/application-dependencies.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Dependencies</a>

<a href="/databases.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Databases</a>

<a href="/no-sql-datastore.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">NoSQL Data Stores</a>

<a href="/web-design.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Design</a>

<a href="/cascading-style-sheets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Cascading Style Sheets</a>

<a href="/javascript.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">JavaScript</a>

<a href="/continuous-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Continuous Integration</a>

<a href="/code-metrics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Code Metrics</a>

<a href="/configuration-management.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Configuration Management</a>

<a href="/static-content.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Static Content</a>

<a href="/caching.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Caching</a>

<a href="/task-queues.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Task Queues</a>

<a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Application Programming Interfaces</a>

<a href="/api-integration.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Integration</a>

<a href="/api-creation.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">API Creation</a>

<a href="/logging.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Logging</a>

<a href="/monitoring.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Monitoring</a>

<a href="/web-analytics.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Analytics</a>

<a href="/web-application-security.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Web Application Security</a>

<a href="/best-python-resources.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Best Python Resources</a>

<a href="/development-environments.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Development Environments</a>

<a href="/about-author.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">About the Author</a>

<a href="/change-log.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Change Log</a>

<a href="/future-directions.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Future Directions</a>

<a href="/what-full-stack-means.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">What "Full Stack" Means</a>

<a href="/why-use-python.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Why Use Python?</a>

<a href="/websockets.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">WebSockets</a>

<a href="/docker.html" class="list-group-item smaller-item ">Docker</a>

</div>

</div>

<div class="panel panel-success">

<div class="panel-heading"><h3 class="panel-head">Servers</h3></div>

<div class="panel-body">

<a href="/">Full Stack Python</a> is an open book that explains

each Python web application stack layer and provides the

best web resources for those topics.

<hr/>

There's a work-in-progress

<a href="/full-stack-python-map.pdf">subjects map (.pdf)</a>

that visually lays out each chapter in addition to the table of

contents found below.

<hr/>

Need more detailed tutorials and walkthroughs than you see here?

<a href="/email.html">Sign up for an email alert when that content is created.</a>

<hr/>

<a href="http://twitter.com/mattmakai">Matt Makai</a> built

this site with greatly appreciated assistance from community

<a href="https://github.com/makaimc/fullstackpython.github.com/pulls">pull requests</a>.

</div>

</div>

<hr/>

<div class="footer pull-right">

<a href="http://www.mattmakai.com/" class="underline">Matt Makai</a>

2015

</div>

</div>

<link href="theme/css/f.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

<link href="//netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.1.0/css/font-awesome.css" rel="stylesheet">