######################
Quickstart from source
######################
This guide provides instructions for running your own certificate authority by installing django-ca from
source. This method requires a lot of manual configuration and a lot of expert knowledge, but is a good choice
if you use an exotic system or other options do not work for you for some reason. If you're looking for a
faster and easier option, you might consider using :doc:`Docker Compose `.
.. NOTE::
All commands below assume that you have a shell with superuser privileges.
This tutorial will give you a CA with
* A root and intermediate CA.
* A browsable admin interface, protected by TLS (using certificates signed by your CA).
* Certificate revocation using CRLs and OCSP.
* (Optional) ACMEv2 support (= get certificates using certbot).
************
Requirements
************
.. jinja:: requirements-from-source
:file: /include/guide-requirements.rst.jinja
:header_update_levels:
Required software
=================
To run **django-ca**, you need Python. You will also need at least a `supported database
`_ and a web server (like NGINX or Apache) to serve
static files.
In our guide, we are going to run PostgreSQL as a database, Redis as a cache and NGINX as a front-facing web
server installed via APT. Please refer to your operating system installation instructions for how to install
the software on your own.
On Debian/Ubuntu, simply do:
.. tab:: PostgreSQL
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# apt update
root@host:~# apt install build-essential postgresql-client libpq-dev
.. tab:: MariaDB
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# apt update
root@host:~# apt install build-essential pkg-config mariadb-client libmariadb-dev
Additionally, this guide uses `uv` to set up a Python Virtual Environment. Please refer to the `installation
instructions `_ for how to install it.
Environment
===========
To make the guide less error-prone, we export the domain name for your certificate authority to
``$HOSTNAME``. In all commands below assume that you have set the environment variable like this:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# export HOSTNAME=ca.example.com
************
Installation
************
With this guide, you will install **django-ca** to ``/opt/django-ca/``, with your local configuration residing
in ``/etc/django-ca/``. You also need to create a system user to run the uWSGI application server and Celery
task worker:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# mkdir -p /opt/django-ca/src/ /etc/django-ca/
root@host:~# adduser --system --group --disabled-login --home=/opt/django-ca/home/ django-ca
root@host:~# adduser django-ca www-data
Get the source
==============
You can clone django-ca from git or download an archive `from GitHub
`_. In the example below, we extract the source to
``/opt/django-ca/src/`` and create a symlink without a version so that you can roll back to old versions
during an update:
.. jinja::
:file: /include/guide-get-source.rst.jinja
Create a virtualenv
===================
We use `uv `_ to create and manage the Python environment. By default, ``uv`` will
manage both a local Python installation and `virtualenv `_ for
you, but you can instruct it to use the system Python installation (try ``uv sync --help``).
.. tab:: PostgreSQL
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# cd /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# uv sync --no-default-groups \
> --all-extras --no-extra mysql
.. tab:: MariaDB
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# cd /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# uv sync --no-default-groups \
> --all-extras --no-extra postgres
Depending on your needs you might also want to disable other extras as well. This is a list of all currently
available extras:
.. include:: /include/pip-extras.rst
You can of course use a regular `virtualenv` and ``pip`` to manage your environment as well. For example:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# cd /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# python3 -m venv .venv/
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# .venv/bin/pip install -U \
> pip setuptools wheel
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# .venv/bin/pip install -U \
> -e /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca[api,hsm,postgres,celery,redis,yaml]
PostgreSQL database
===================
Create a PostgreSQL database and make sure to use a randomly generated password and keep it for later
configuration:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# openssl rand -base64 32
...
root@host:~# sudo -u postgres psql
postgres=# CREATE DATABASE django_ca;
CREATE DATABASE
postgres=# CREATE USER django_ca WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'random-password';
CREATE ROLE
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE django_ca TO django_ca;
GRANT
.. _from-source-add-systemd-services:
Add SystemD services
====================
SystemD services are included with **django-ca**. You need to add three services, one for the uWSGI
application server (``django-ca``), one for the Celery task worker (``django-ca-celery``) and one for the
Celery task scheduler (``django-ca-celerybeat``):
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# ln -s /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/systemd/systemd.conf /etc/django-ca/
root@host:~# ln -s /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/systemd/*.service /etc/systemd/system/
root@host:~# systemctl daemon-reload
root@host:~# systemctl enable django-ca django-ca-celery django-ca-celerybeat
Note that the services will not yet start due to :ref:`missing configuration `.
If you use an installation directory other then ``/opt/django-ca``, set ``INSTALL_BASE`` in
:file:`/etc/systemd/systemd-local.conf` (see :ref:`systemd-configuration`) *and* add a SystemD override for
``WorkingDirectory=``.
.. _from-source-configuration:
*************
Configuration
*************
**django-ca** will load configuration from all ``*.yaml`` files in ``/etc/django-ca/`` in alphabetical order.
These files can contain any `Django setting `_, `Celery
setting `_ or :doc:`django-ca setting
`.
If you (mostly) followed the above examples, you can symlink :file:`conf/source/00-settings.yaml` to
``/etc/django-ca`` and just override a few settings in :file:`/etc/django-ca/10-localsettings.yaml`. To create
the symlink:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# ln -s /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/conf/source/00-settings.yaml /etc/django-ca/
And then simply create a minimal :file:`/etc/django-ca/10-localsettings.yaml` - but you can override any other
setting here as well:
.. template-include:: yaml /include/quickstart_from_source/localsettings.yaml.jinja
:caption: /etc/django-ca/10-localsettings.yaml
:context: quickstart-from-source
Please see :doc:`/settings` for a list of available settings and especially :ref:`settings-yaml-configuration`
for more YAML configuration examples.
.. _systemd-configuration:
SystemD configuration
=====================
When you :ref:`added SystemD services ` you also created a symlink for
:file:`/etc/django-ca/systemd.conf`. If settings there do not suit you, you can override them in
:file:`/etc/django-ca/systemd-local.conf`.
.. _from-source-add-manage-py-shortcut:
Add manage.py shortcut
======================
As optional convenience, you can create a symlink to a small wrapper script that allows you to easily run
``manage.py`` commands. In the examples below the guide assumes you created this symlink at
:file:`/usr/local/bin/django-ca`, but of course you can name the symlink anything you like:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# ln -s /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/conf/source/manage /usr/local/bin/django-ca
root@host:~# django-ca check
System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
Setup Database and static files
===============================
Populate the database and setup the static files directory:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# django-ca migrate
root@host:~# FORCE_USER=root django-ca collectstatic
The ``collectstatic`` command needs to run as root.
*****
Start
*****
You can now finally start the uWSGI application server and the Celery worker (omit ``django-ca`` service if
you do not intend to run a web server):
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# systemctl start django-ca django-ca-celery django-ca-celerybeat
Create admin user and set up CAs
================================
Because we :ref:`created a shortcut above ` above, we can use
``django-ca`` to use **django-ca** from the command line.
.. jinja:: manage-from-source
:file: /include/create-user.rst.jinja
Setup NGINX
===========
A web server is required for the admin interface, certificate revocation status via OCSP or CRLs and ACMEv2
(the protocol used by Let's Encrypt/certbot integration).
.. WARNING::
While theoretically possible, do not use a local CAs ACMEv2 interface to get certificates. Any
misconfiguration might make it impossible to retrieve a certificate!
In this setup, we'll create certificates using the CA we created above. If you want to use Let's Encrypt
certificates instead, you can have a look at our :doc:`/quickstart/docker_compose` for an example.
Create a private/public key pair for NGINX to use:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# openssl genrsa -out /etc/ssl/$HOSTNAME.key 4096
root@host:~# openssl req -new -key /etc/ssl/$HOSTNAME.key -out /tmp/ca.csr -utf8 -batch
root@host:~# django-ca sign_cert --ca=Intermediate --csr=/tmp/ca.csr --bundle --webserver --subject CN=$HOSTNAME \
> > /etc/ssl/$HOSTNAME.pem
Create DH parameters:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# mkdir -p /etc/nginx/dhparams/
root@host:~# openssl dhparam -dsaparam -out /etc/nginx/dhparams/dhparam.pem 4096
**django-ca** includes a template for :manpage:`envsubst(1)` that you can use. The template assumes that you
have set ``$HOSTNAME``:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# envsubst < /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/nginx/source.template \
> > /etc/nginx/sites-available/django-ca.conf
root@host:~# ln -fs /etc/nginx/sites-available/django-ca.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
root@host:~# nginx -t
root@host:~# systemctl restart nginx
.. jinja:: guide-source-where-to-go
:file: /include/guide-where-to-go.rst.jinja
:header_update_levels:
******
Update
******
.. include:: /include/update_intro.rst
Downloading the new release works the same as before, but you have to remove the old symlink before creating
the new one:
.. jinja::
:file: /include/guide-update-source.rst.jinja
Create a new virtual environment (with updated dependencies) using ``uv``:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# cd /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/
root@host:/opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/# uv sync --no-default-groups \
> --all-extras --no-extra postgres
Update the database schema and static files:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# django-ca migrate
root@host:~# FORCE_USER=root django-ca collectstatic
Restart services:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# systemctl restart django-ca django-ca-celery django-ca-celerybeat
Update the NGINX configuration:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# envsubst < /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/nginx/source.template \
> < /opt/django-ca/src/django-ca/nginx/source.template \
> > /etc/nginx/sites-available/django-ca.conf
root@host:~# nginx -t
root@host:~# systemctl restart nginx
*********
Uninstall
*********
To completely uninstall **django-ca**, stop related services and remove files that where created:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# systemctl stop django-ca django-ca-celery django-ca-celerybeat
root@host:~# systemctl disable django-ca django-ca-celery django-ca-celerybeat
root@host:~# rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-*/django-ca.conf
root@host:~# rm -f /var/log/nginx/$HOSTNAME*.log
root@host:~# rm -f /usr/local/bin/django-ca
root@host:~# rm -rf /etc/django-ca/ /opt/django-ca/ /var/log/django-ca
root@host:~# rm -f /etc/ssl/$HOSTNAME.{key,pem}
Restart NGINX so that it no longer knows about the configurations:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# systemctl restart nginx
Remove the system user:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# deluser django-ca
Drop the PostgreSQL database:
.. code-block:: console
root@host:~# sudo -u postgres psql
postgres=# DROP DATABASE django_ca;
DROP DATABASE
postgres=# DROP USER django_ca;
DROP ROLE