Deploy Flask on Windows Server (Azure Virtual Machine) using Apache & Wsgi

1. Pre-Preparation

• Open ports 80, 443, 5000 (🪟 > Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security > Inbound Rules > New Rules …
• Install Microsoft C++ Build Tools, Please refer to https://github.com/bycloudai/InstallVSBuildToolsWindows for detail. Windows 11 SDK is pretty large yet is still needed.
• Install Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (Maybe not needed if the above step has already finished doing so)

2. Install & Test Run Apache

• Dowload Apache from Apache 2.4 VS17 Windows Binaries and Modules, Unzip the file you will find a ReadMe.txt, on it will be the instructions about how to install it.
• After copying files over to C:/Apache24, open a CMD terminal as Administrator.

  cd C:\Apache24\bin
  httpd.exe
  # Test your installation open address http://localhost at local and open address http://[ip address] at remote. You can shut down Apache by pressing Ctrl+C (It may take a few seconds).
  httpd.exe -k install
  httpd.exe -k start
  httpd.exe -k stop
  httpd.exe -k restart
  

• Restart the computer and test the server local and remote again. Make sure it’s http://[ip address] not https://[ip_address].
  E: (OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. :
  AH00072: make_sock: could not bind to address [::]:80
  (OS 10048)Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. :
  AH00072: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
  AH00451: no listening sockets available, shutting down
  AH00015: Unable to open logs

  netstat -aon | findstr :80
  TCP    0.0.0.0:80             0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       2660
  TCP    [::]:80                [::]:0                 LISTENING       2660
  
  taskkill /PID 2660 /F
  SUCCESS: The process with PID 2660 has been terminated.
  

3. Install Python, MySQL, etc

python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
# Test flask test server local and remote on port 5000
pip install mod_wsgi
mod_wsgi-express module-config
LoadFile "C:/Users/Developer/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312/python312.dll"
LoadModule wsgi_module "C:/flask_blog/venv/Lib/site-packages/mod_wsgi/server/mod_wsgi.cp312-win_amd64.pyd"
WSGIPythonHome "C:/flask_blog/venv"

4. Copy the flask application into server and here is the project structure

C:\flask_blog\
  +-- flaskblog
  |   +-- __init__.py          
  +-- deploy
  |   +-- flaskblog.wsgi
  +-- logs
  +-- venv
  +-- requirements.txt
  +-- run.py
  +-- flaskblog.conf

flaskblog.wsgi

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, 'C:\\flask_blog')
from flaskblog import create_app 
application = create_app()

flaskblog.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>

  ServerName 104.208.86.219

  WSGIScriptAlias / C:/flask_blog/deploy/flaskblog.wsgi

  <Directory C:/flask_blog>

  Require all granted

  </Directory>

  Alias /static C:/flask_blog/flaskblog/static

  ErrorLog C:/flask_blog/logs/error.log

  CustomLog C:/flask_blog/logs/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

5. Configure Apache httpd.conf

										......
LoadFile "C:/Users/Developer/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312/python312.dll"
LoadModule wsgi_module "C:/flask_blog/venv/Lib/site-packages/mod_wsgi/server/mod_wsgi.cp312-win_amd64.pyd"
WSGIPythonHome "C:/flask_blog/venv"
Include C:/flask_blog/flaskblog.conf

6. Restart Apache server and test open the webpage on a remote browser

E: In the error.log: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘_socket’\r
S: Add WSGIPythonPath in httpd.conf file under WSGIPythonHome

WSGIPythonHome "C:/Users/12506/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python311"
WSGIPythonPath "C:/Users/12506/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python311\DLLs" 

E: httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 538 of C:/Apache24/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load C:/flask_blog/venv/Lib/site-packages/mod_wsgi/server/mod_wsgi.cp312-win_amd64.pyd into server: The specified module could not be found. .
S: Get rid of virtual environment

7. Enable HTTPS after adding a domain name

• Get a free SSL certificate from ZeroSSL

  Troubleshooting - DNS (CNAME) Verification  
  Please check if you have added the correct Name record:  
  For example, your Name record in ZeroSSL is _D5856C5EEC87E5505EF3F53E95B414EB.domain.com, please enter only_D5856C5EEC87E5505EF3F53E95B414EB without the domain part as most DNS providers filter this part out automatically. 
  

• Download the certificate files and paste it into C:\Apache24\conf directory
• Edit C:\Apache24\conf\httpd.conf by un-commenting these 3 lines

  LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
  LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
  Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
  

  and comment out the original “Include” (We will stop using flaskblog.conf config setups from now on)

  LoadFile "C:/Users/Developer/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312/python312.dll"
  LoadModule wsgi_module "C:/Users/Developer/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312/Lib/site-packages/mod_wsgi/server/mod_wsgi.cp312-win_amd64.pyd"
  WSGIPythonHome "C:/Users/Developer/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python312"
  # Include C:/flask_blog/flaskblog.conf
  

• Edit C:\Apache24\conf\extra\httpd-ssl.con

  <VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.peng.codes
  Redirect / https://www.peng.codes/
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost _default_:443>
  ServerName www.peng.codes:443
  WSGIScriptAlias / C:/flask_blog/deploy/flaskblog.wsgi
  
  <Directory C:/flask_blog>
  Require all granted
  </Directory>
  
  Alias /static C:/flask_blog/flaskblog/static
  
  ErrorLog C:/flask_blog/logs/error.log
  CustomLog C:/flask_blog/logs/access.log combined
  
  SSLEngine on
  SSLCertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/certificate.crt"
  SSLCertificateKeyFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/private.key"
  SSLCertificateChainFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ca_bundle.crt"
  
  #  Since I don't know what below lines mean, I will keep them for safety.
  <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
  SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
  </FilesMatch>
  <Directory "${SRVROOT}/cgi-bin">
  SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
  </Directory>
  BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-5]" \
  nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
  downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
  CustomLog "${SRVROOT}/logs/ssl_request.log" \
  "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x \"%r\" %b"
  </VirtualHost>      
  

• Restart the apache service and it should work instantly.

8. References

• https://dev.to/willmvs/flask-deployment-on-windows-139b