Installation and Setup Guide for Flask 3.0 with Nginx

Flask framework is one of the most popular and widely used frameworks in Python for web development. With version 3.0, several improvements have been made in performance, security, and compatibility with the large-scale deployments. One of the best ways to run a Flask-based application in a production environment is to use the powerful web server Nginx, which can assist you in managing load traffic and providing optimizations for performance enhancement.

In this article, we aim to familiarize you with the configuration and installation of Flask 3.0 through Nginx. First, make sure that all necessary prerequisites, such as Python and pip, are installed on your server. Next, we will install Nginx and carry out the necessary configurations to ensure a proper connection between Nginx and Flask.

Additionally, while it’s possible that nothing can serve as a substitute for observing a practical example, it can help you understand the concepts correctly. Therefore, we will provide you with a code example along with explanations that will show you how to properly deploy a Flask application on an Nginx web server.

One important point to note is that Nginx does not directly execute Python applications, and for this task, you need to use Gunicorn or uWSGI as a mediator between Nginx and Flask. These tools help Nginx forward requests to your Flask application and serve responses back to the users.

Installing and Configuring Nginx

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install nginx

First, you should make sure to update your system’s repositories. Then, install Nginx from the repository.

Installing and Configuring Gunicorn

$ pip install gunicorn

Use pip to install Gunicorn, which is a well-known WSGI server for Python applications.

Configuring Nginx to Use Gunicorn

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Establish a new server block for Nginx that will forward requests to Gunicorn.

listen 80; - allows requests on port 80.

server_name example.com; - defines the domain that the server will respond to.

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; - forwards requests to Gunicorn running on port 8000.

proxy_set_header Host $host; - sets the host header for the request.

proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; - adds the real user IP address to the request.