Deployment options for Tornado applications

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss various deployment options for Tornado applications. By the end of this tutorial, you should have a clear understanding of how to deploy a Tornado application using different methods.

Deployment Options for Tornado Applications

There are various ways to deploy Tornado applications, each with its pros and cons. We'll discuss three main options: manual deployment, using WSGI servers, and using reverse proxy servers.

Manual Deployment

Tornado includes a simple HTTP server in Python, which means you can deploy your application manually. This is the simplest deployment method and it's a good option for beginners or for small scale applications.

Here is a basic example of how to start a Tornado application manually:

import tornado.ioloop
import tornado.web

class MainHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
    def get(self):
        self.write("Hello, world")

def make_app():
    return tornado.web.Application([
        (r"/", MainHandler),
    ])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = make_app()
    app.listen(8888)
    tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current().start()

In this script, we define a simple Tornado application and start it manually using Tornado's built-in server.

Using WSGI Servers

WSGI (Web Server Gateway Interface) is a common interface between web servers and web applications. Tornado applications can be served using WSGI compatible servers like Gunicorn or uWSGI.

Here is an example of deploying a Tornado application using Gunicorn:

gunicorn -w 4 myapp:app

In this command, -w 4 specifies the number of worker processes and myapp:app specifies the Tornado application to be served.

Using Reverse Proxy Servers

Reverse proxy servers like Nginx or Apache can serve Tornado applications. These servers provide additional features like load balancing, SSL termination, and static file serving.

Here is an example of a Nginx configuration to serve a Tornado application:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8888;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

In this configuration, Nginx serves the Tornado application running on localhost:8888.

Conclusion

In this article, we've discussed different ways to deploy Tornado applications. We've covered manual deployment, using WSGI servers, and using reverse proxy servers. Each method has its pros and cons, and the best choice depends on your application's requirements.

Remember, deployment is a crucial part of the software development process. It's important to understand the deployment options and choose the one that fits your application the best.

Deployment options for Tornado applications

Introduction​