Django + MSSQL with Docker

In this post, I will explain how to set up Django with MSSQL using Docker Compose.

Pre-requisites

Before we start, make sure you have the following tools installed on your system:

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Step 1: Create a Django project

The first step is to create a new Django project. Open a terminal and run the following command:

python -m django startproject myproject

This will create a new Django project called “myproject”. Navigate into the project directory:

cd myproject

Step 2: Create dependencies

Next, we need to create the required dependencies for Django to work with MSSQL. We will be using the mssql-django library to connect to the database.

Add the following lines to the requirements.txt file in your project directory:

Django==4.1.9
mssql-django==1.2
pyodbc==4.0.39

Step 3: Create a Dockerfile

Create a new file Dockerfile in your project directory with the following contents:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
FROM python:3

# set environment variables
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .

# mssql dependency (Debian 11)
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/11/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
RUN apt-get update
RUN ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install msodbcsql17 -y



# python dependencies
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade -r requirements.txt

This Dockerfile will create a container with Python 3 installed and copy the contents of the current directory into /app the container, install the required Python dependencies listed above, using pip, and the Microsoft ODBC driver 17 (see this, using Debian 11 image).

Step 4: Create a docker-compose.yml file

Create a new file docker-compose.yml in your project directory with the following contents:

version: '3'

services:
  bd:
    image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest 
    environment:
      - MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD=MyPass@word
      - ACCEPT_EULA=Y
    ports:
      - "1433:1433"

    
  web:
    build: .
    command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
    environment:
      - DB_HOST=bd
      - DB_NAME=master
      - DB_USER=sa
      - DB_PASS=MyPass@word
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    depends_on:
      - bd

This docker-compose.yml file defines two services: db and web. The db service uses the official MSSQL Server 2022 image, sets the SA password and accepts the end-user license agreement. The port 1433 is exposed to allow connections from other containers.

The web service builds the Dockerfile we created earlier and runs the Django app, exposing port 8000. It also sets the database connection settings using environment variables.

At this point, the folder structure should look like this:

myproject
  ├── Dockerfile
  ├── docker-compose.yml
  ├── myproject/
  │     ├── asgi.py
  │     ├── __init__.py
  │     ├── settings.py
  │     ├── urls.py
  │     └── wsgi.py
  ├── manage.py
  └── requirements.txt

Step 5: Update the Django Settings

Once you have installed and configured the ODBC driver, you can update the Django settings to use MSSQL as the database backend. In your Django settings file (myproject/myproject/settings.py), add the following lines:

import os


DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'mssql',
        'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST'),
        'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_NAME'),
        'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER'),
        'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASS'),
        'PORT': '1433',

        'OPTIONS': {
            'driver': 'ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server',
        },
    },
}

DATABASE_CONNECTION_POOLING = False

Make sure to update the HOST, NAME, USER, PASSWORD, and OPTIONS settings based on your configuration.

Step 6: Run Docker Compose

Now that we have everything set up, we can run the following command to start the containers:

docker compose up

That’s it! You should now be able to open http://localhost:8000 to see the Django app running.