Django on GKE Autopilot

Django is a battle-tested Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design, powering some of the world's most demanding web applications. This module deploys Django on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services Django uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

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1. Overview

Django runs as a Python/Gunicorn web workload. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	GKE Autopilot	Python/Gunicorn pods, 1 vCPU / 512 MiB by default, horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15	Required — Django's DB_ENGINE is fixed to django.db.backends.postgresql
Shared files	Filestore (NFS)	Shared media and uploads across all replicas
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated media bucket provisioned by Django_Common
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Django SECRET_KEY and database password
Cache (optional)	Redis / Cloud Memorystore	Disabled by default; enable for session storage and caching
Ingress	Cloud Load Balancing	External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• PostgreSQL 15 is fixed. Django_Common hard-wires DB_ENGINE to PostgreSQL; MySQL and NONE are not supported through this module.
• The Django SECRET_KEY is auto-generated and stored in Secret Manager; it is injected at runtime and never set in plain text.
• Four PostgreSQL extensions are installed automatically (pg_trgm, unaccent, hstore, citext) by the db-init job, so you do not need to configure them.
• Two initialization jobs run by default — db-init (creates the database and user) and db-migrate (runs manage.py migrate and collectstatic).
• NFS is enabled by default. All pod replicas share the same Filestore volume for uploaded media files. Session affinity defaults to ClientIP.
• Redis is disabled by default. Enable with enable_redis = true and point at a Cloud Memorystore instance for production session storage and caching.
• Scale to zero by default. min_instance_count defaults to 0; set to 1 for production to eliminate cold starts.

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2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume you have run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project> and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. GKE Autopilot — the Django workload

Django pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the Deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.

• Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Django workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
• CLI:

  kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
  kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"          # current vs target utilisation

See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.

B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15

Django stores all application data in a managed Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 15 instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar over a Unix socket, so no public IP is exposed. A db-init job runs on every apply (idempotent) and creates the application database and user, installs the required extensions, and grants privileges. The db-migrate job then runs manage.py migrate and manage.py collectstatic.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  # Open an interactive shell to inspect schema/data:
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"
  # Confirm DB env vars are injected into the running pod:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -E "^(DB_|SECRET_KEY)"

The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.

C. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Uploaded media is written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every pod so all replicas see the same files. A dedicated Cloud Storage media bucket is also provisioned automatically by Django_Common; the workload service account is granted access.

• Console: Filestore → Instances for the NFS share; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the media bucket.
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<media-bucket>/          # bucket name is in the Outputs
  # Confirm the share is mounted inside a pod:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- df -h | grep -i nfs

See App_GKE for NFS provisioning, GCS Fuse, and CMEK options.

D. Redis cache

Redis is disabled by default. When enable_redis = true, Django receives REDIS_HOST and REDIS_PORT as environment variables. Configure settings.py to use these for CACHES and SESSION_ENGINE. The module does not provision a Redis instance — use a Cloud Memorystore instance and set redis_host to its private IP.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping        # from a host with network access
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace
  # Confirm REDIS_HOST and REDIS_PORT are injected:
  kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep REDIS

E. Secret Manager

The Django SECRET_KEY and the database password are stored as Secret Manager secrets and injected into pods at runtime; plaintext never appears in configuration. The superuser password (if you create one via DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD) should also be stored here.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.

F. Networking & ingress

By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled via enable_custom_domain, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.

• Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
• CLI:

  kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
    --project "$PROJECT" --limit 50

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3. Django Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. A db-init job creates the PostgreSQL database and user, grants privileges, and installs the four required extensions (pg_trgm, unaccent, hstore, citext) using the ROOT_PASSWORD superuser secret. The job is idempotent and safe to re-run.
• Migrations on first deploy. A db-migrate job runs manage.py migrate and manage.py collectstatic --noinput --clear after db-init completes. These jobs run with execute_on_apply = true by default. Override initialization_jobs with a non-empty list to replace them with custom jobs.
• SECRET_KEY management. A 50-character random key is generated by Django_Common and stored in Secret Manager. It is injected as SECRET_KEY. Do not set SECRET_KEY in environment_variables.
• Superuser creation. If DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME, DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL, and DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD are present as environment variables when the container starts, entrypoint.sh creates a Django superuser on first boot. Use secret_environment_variables for the password:

  # Retrieve the SECRET_KEY or superuser password from Secret Manager
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

• Scheduled tasks. Django management commands (e.g., clearsessions) can be scheduled as Kubernetes CronJobs via the cron_jobs variable:

  kubectl get cronjobs -n "$NAMESPACE"
  kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE" --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

• Health probes. The default startup probe targets GET / with a 90-second initial delay (to allow first-boot migrations) and the liveness probe targets GET / with a 60-second initial delay. Implement a lightweight /healthz/ view that returns HTTP 200 and set path = "/healthz/" in both probe variables for cleaner health signalling.
• Session affinity. Defaults to ClientIP so that a given user's requests are routed to the same pod. Set session_affinity = "None" when all session state is externalised to the database or Redis.

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4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Django are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the workload and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	django	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
application_display_name	Django Application	Friendly name shown in the Console.
application_description	(set)	Workload description annotation.
application_version	latest	Image version tag; increment to roll out a new build. Pin to a specific tag in production.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	custom	custom builds via Cloud Build; prebuilt deploys an existing image URI.
container_image	us-docker.pkg.dev/cloudrun/container/hello	Override container image URI.
container_resources	{ cpu_limit = "1000m", memory_limit = "512Mi" }	CPU and memory limits per pod.
min_instance_count	0	Minimum replicas. Set ≥ 1 to eliminate cold starts in production.
max_instance_count	1	Maximum replicas (autoscaler ceiling).
container_port	8080	Django/Gunicorn listens on port 8080.
enable_cloudsql_volume	true	Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections.
enable_vertical_pod_autoscaling	false	Let Autopilot tune resource requests automatically.

Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings. Do not include SECRET_KEY or DB_* here.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name (e.g., DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD).
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster

Variable	Default	Description
service_type	LoadBalancer	How the Service is exposed.
session_affinity	ClientIP	Sticky routing recommended for in-process session storage.
workload_type	null	Auto-resolves to StatefulSet when stateful_pvc_enabled is set.
network_tags	["nfsserver"]	Node/pod tags; nfsserver is required for NFS connectivity.

Group 7 — StatefulSet / PVC

Variable	Default	Description
stateful_pvc_enabled	null	Enable PVC templates in a StatefulSet. Not normally needed for Django.
stateful_pvc_size	10Gi	Storage size for each per-pod PVC.
stateful_pvc_mount_path	/data	Container path where the PVC is mounted.
stateful_pvc_storage_class	standard-rwo	Kubernetes StorageClass for PVCs.

Group 8 — Resource Quota

Variable	Default	Description
enable_resource_quota	false	Cap namespace CPU/memory/object counts.
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits	""	Must use binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are read as bytes and block scheduling.

Group 9 — Reliability Policies

Variable	Default	Description
enable_pod_disruption_budget	false	Protect availability during node upgrades. Disabled by default because the default max_instance_count is 1.
pdb_min_available	1	Raise min_instance_count above 1 if you need eviction headroom.
enable_topology_spread	false	Spread pods across zones.

Group 10 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	HTTP GET /, 90s initial delay	Startup probe passed to Django_Common. Increase delay for large migration sets.
liveness_probe	HTTP GET /, 60s initial delay	Liveness probe passed to Django_Common. Use a lightweight /healthz/ endpoint.
startup_probe_config	TCP, 240s timeout	App_GKE-level infrastructure startup probe.
health_check_config	HTTP GET /, 1s timeout	App_GKE-level infrastructure liveness probe.
uptime_check_config	disabled, path /	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check; disabled by default.
alert_policies	[]	Optional metric alert policies.

Group 11 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[] (uses built-in db-init + db-migrate)	Leave empty to use the default database setup and migration jobs. Provide a non-empty list to replace them with custom jobs.
cron_jobs	[]	Scheduled Kubernetes CronJobs (e.g., clearsessions, cleartokens).
additional_services	[]	Sidecar or helper GKE services deployed alongside Django.

Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration

Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy.

Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_nfs	true	Shared Filestore volume for Django media (keep enabled for multi-replica).
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs	Mount path inside the container. Must match MEDIA_ROOT in settings.py.

Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Provision the additional data bucket. The media bucket is always provisioned by Django_Common.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix = "data" }]	Additional buckets beyond the auto-provisioned media bucket.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse mounts.
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.
max_images_to_retain	7	Maximum recent container images kept in Artifact Registry per deployment.
delete_untagged_images	true	Automatically delete untagged/dangling images from the inline-created repository.
image_retention_days	30	Days after which images become eligible for deletion; 0 disables age-based deletion.

Group 15 — Redis Cache

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Enable Redis for session storage and caching.
redis_host	""	Redis host IP or hostname. Leave empty to fall back to the NFS server IP when enabled.
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 16 — Database Backend

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	POSTGRES	PostgreSQL required. Django does not support MySQL through this module.
application_database_name	gkeapp	Database name. Recommended: set to django_db. Immutable after first deploy.
application_database_user	gkeapp	Application user. Recommended: set to django_user. Immutable after first deploy.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length (16–64).
enable_auto_password_rotation	false	Zero-downtime DB password rotation.
enable_postgres_extensions	false	Set true only to install additional extensions beyond pg_trgm, unaccent, hstore, and citext (which are always installed).
postgres_extensions	[]	Additional PostgreSQL extensions (e.g., postgis, uuid-ossp).

Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise to 30–90 for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy. Set enable_backup_import = false after a successful import.

Group 18 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_GKE.

Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking

Variable	Default	Description
enable_custom_domain	true	Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate.
application_domains	[]	Hostnames to serve.
reserve_static_ip	true	Stable external IP across redeploys.

Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)

Variable	Default	Description
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in in front of Django.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access.
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret	""	Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive).
iap_support_email	""	Shown on the OAuth consent screen.

Group 21 — Cloud Armor

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDRs allowed privileged access.
cloud_armor_policy_name	default-waf-policy	Policy name.

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

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5. Outputs

These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Kubernetes Service name.
namespace	Namespace the workload runs in.
service_cluster_ip	In-cluster ClusterIP.
stage_service_cluster_ips	Map of ClusterIPs for Cloud Deploy stage services.
service_external_ip	External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved).
service_url	URL to reach Django.
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name	Application database name.
database_user	Application database user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, available regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels	Monitoring status and channels.
initialization_jobs / db_import_job	Names of the setup and (optional) import jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details (repo, trigger, registry).
github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name	CI/CD repo details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
kubernetes_ready	Whether the cluster/workload is ready.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

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6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
database_type	POSTGRES or POSTGRES_15	Critical	Django requires PostgreSQL; MySQL or NONE will fail the db-init job.
application_name / tenant_deployment_id	set once	Critical	Embedded in resource names; changing recreates all named resources and destroys data.
application_database_name / _user	set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys data.
quota_memory_requests / _limits	binary units (4Gi)	Critical	Bare integers are bytes and block all pod scheduling.
startup_probe failure_threshold	≥ 30 with migrations	Critical	Too low: Kubernetes kills the pod before migrations finish, causing a restart loop.
cloudsql_volume_mount_path	/cloudsql (default)	Critical	Wrong path: db-init.sh cannot find the Auth Proxy socket; all DB operations fail.
enable_backup_import	false after restore	High	Leaving true re-runs the import on every apply, overwriting live data with stale backup.
enable_nfs	true (default)	High	Disabling with max_instance_count > 1 means each pod has isolated ephemeral storage; uploads are lost on restart.
nfs_mount_path	/mnt/nfs — must match MEDIA_ROOT	High	Mismatch causes Django to write media to ephemeral local storage; files lost on pod restart.
container_resources memory	≥ 512Mi; raise for ORM-heavy workloads	High	Too little memory: pod is OOMKilled (exit code 137) on large querysets or file processing.
min_instance_count	1 for production	Medium	0 causes cold starts (>60 s) on first request after idle; scheduled tasks may find no pod.
application_version	pinned tag, not latest	Medium	latest makes rollback ambiguous; Kubernetes cannot distinguish two latest pulls.
enable_redis	true when using Redis-backed sessions	Medium	Left false with Redis-configured settings.py: ConnectionRefusedError on every cache/session access.
session_affinity	ClientIP for database-backed sessions	Medium	None with in-process caching: requests from the same user may hit different pods, losing cache.
enable_pod_disruption_budget	false when max_instance_count = 1	High	true with a single replica blocks node drains and stalls cluster maintenance.
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor	enable for admin-facing	Medium	Django admin UI is otherwise publicly reachable.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

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For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Django-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Django_Common.