Verify Django installation and run the development server

Verify Django is working on your Arm-based VM

In this section, you’ll confirm that Django is installed correctly and can serve web requests on your Google Cloud C4A VM. You’ll create a Django project, run the development server, and access it from your browser. This hands-on verification ensures your environment is ready for development and testing.

By the end of this section, you’ll have:

• Created a Django project with proper directory structure
• Configured Django to accept requests from your VM’s external IP
• Run the development server and accessed it from your browser
• Built a simple Django app with custom routing and views
• Verified that Django can handle HTTP requests and render responses

Let’s get started!

Create and test a basic Django project

Run the following command to create a new Django project named myproject:

    

        
        
django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject

    

This generates the following directory structure:

    

        
        
myproject/
├── manage.py
└── myproject/
    ├── settings.py
    ├── urls.py
    ├── asgi.py
    └── wsgi.py

    

The manage.py file is Django’s command-line utility for project management. The inner myproject/ folder contains your project’s core settings and URL configuration.

Run initial database migrations

Set up your project’s database by running migrations, which create the required tables for Django’s built-in apps:

    

        
        
python3 manage.py migrate

    

The output shows all migrations applied successfully (marked “OK”).

Configure ALLOWED_HOSTS for external access

Before starting the Django development server, you must configure your ALLOWED_HOSTS setting to allow access from your VM’s external IP. This ensures that Django accepts HTTP requests from outside localhost (for example, when testing in a browser from another machine).

Navigate to your project settings directory:

    

        
        
cd ~/myproject/myproject/

    

Open settings.py using a text editor:

    

        
        
edit myproject/settings.py

    

• Locate the ALLOWED_HOSTS Line Inside the file, find the following line:

    

        
        
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

    

Update it to allow your VM’s external IP address:

• Allow All Hosts (for Testing Only) To make your Django app accessible from your VM’s external IP address, update it to:

      
  
          
          
  ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
  
      
  

    

        
        
ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['your-external-ip', 'your-domain.com']

    

Now that you’ve configured ALLOWED_HOSTS, start the development server:

    

        
        
python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

    

This starts the Django development server on port 8000, listening on all network interfaces.

Access Django in your browser

Open a web browser on your local machine and navigate to:

    

        
        
http://<YOUR_VM_EXTERNAL_IP>:8000

    

Replace <YOUR_VM_EXTERNAL_IP> with the public IP address of your GCP VM.

You should see the Django welcome page with the message “The install worked successfully!”:

Django welcome page

Build a simple Django app with custom routing

This section demonstrates that Django’s application routing and view rendering work correctly by creating a simple app with a custom view.

Stop the server

Press Ctrl + C in your terminal to stop the Django development server.

Create a new Django app

Within your Django project directory, create a new app named hello:

    

        
        
python3 manage.py startapp hello

    

This generates the following directory structure with files for views, models, configuration, and more:

    

        
        hello/
├── admin.py
├── apps.py
├── models.py
├── tests.py
├── views.py
└── urls.py

        
    

Define a view function

Edit hello/views.py and replace the entire file with:

    

        
        
from django.http import HttpResponse

def home(request):
    return HttpResponse("<h1>Hello, Django on Arm!</h1>")

    

This simple view function returns a basic HTML message as an HTTP response.

Create URL configuration for your app

Create a new file hello/urls.py:

    

        
        
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.home, name='home'),
]

    

This maps the root URL path to your home() view function.

Include the app in your project’s main URLs

Edit myproject/urls.py to include the hello app’s URLs:

    

        
        
"""myproject URL Configuration

The `urlpatterns` list routes URLs to views. For more information please see:
    https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/topics/http/urls/
Examples:
Function views
    1. Add an import:  from my_app import views
    2. Add a URL to urlpatterns:  path('', views.home, name='home')
Class-based views
    1. Add an import:  from other_app.views import Home
    2. Add a URL to urlpatterns:  path('', Home.as_view(), name='home')
Including another URLconf
    1. Import the include() function: from django.urls import include, path
    2. Add a URL to urlpatterns:  path('blog/', include('blog.urls'))
"""

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('hello.urls')),
]

    

This tells Django to route the root path to your hello app.

Register the app in Django settings

Django needs to know about your new app. Edit myproject/settings.py and add 'hello' to the INSTALLED_APPS list:

    

        
        
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'hello',
]

    

Start the server again

Restart the Django development server:

    

        
        
python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

    

Test your custom app

Open your browser and navigate to:

    

        
        
http://<YOUR_VM_EXTERNAL_IP>:8000

    

You should now see your custom message displayed:

Django custom app

Summary and what’s next

You’ve successfully verified that Django is installed and working on your Arm-based VM. Your application can serve web requests, handle routing, and render custom views. Great job, you’re ready to benchmark your Django application!