How to Install Mezzanine CMS on Ubuntu Linux

Mezzanine CMS is a free, fast, elegant, open-source content management system (CMS) built on top of the popular web development framework Django. It is a powerful and modern content management system for developing modern websites.

If you’re a developer who will be developing apps in Django, it may be good to use Mezzanine to make the process seamless with rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

For more about Mezzanine, please visit its homepage.

There are multiple ways to install Mezzanine on Ubuntu. However, the quickest way is to use Python and PIP to get it installed.

When you’re ready to get Mezzanine on Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

Install Prerequisites

By default, Ubuntu has some packages but not everything that allows you to install the Mezzanine web framework. For example, Python might not come standard with Ubuntu, so you may have to install it. Run the commands below to install Python and Python-pip.

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install python python-pip virtualenv

That should install what you need to get the Mezzanine installed on Ubuntu.

To verify what version of Python is installed, run the commands below

python -V

, and for PIP, run the commands below

pip -V

Install Mezzanine

Now that the basic requirements to get Mezzanine on Ubuntu are installed run the commands below to download and install Mezzanine packages.

The Mezzanine has its source code on Github that you can download and use. However, the quickest way is to use Python PIP.

Run the commands below to download and install Mezzanine using Python virtual environment (virtualenv).

virtualenv mezzanine_env
cd mezzanine_env
source bin/activate
pip install mezzanine

That should get the Mezzanine installed and ready to use.

Create Mezzanine App

Now that the Mezzanine is installed go and create your first app. You can create it in your home directory or anywhere on the system. For this tutorial, we will create the app in the home directory.

cd ~/mezzanine_env
mezzanine-project mezzanine_app
cd mezzanine_app
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py createdb

After that, you’ll be prompted to access the default hostname or create your site URL.

 Applying pages.0001_initial. OK
  Applying forms.0001_initial. OK
  Applying forms.0002_auto_20141227_0224. OK
  Applying forms.0003_emailfield. OK
  Applying forms.0004_auto_20150517_0510. OK

A site record is required.
Please enter the domain and optional port in the format 'domain:port'.
For example 'localhost:8000' or 'www.example.com'. 
Hit enter to use the default (127.0.0.1:8000): localhost:8000

That should set up the Mezzanine environment. You will also be prompted to create the default admin account to log on to the backend. This account will be used to access the Mezzanine backend portal.

Creating default account .

Username (leave blank to use 'richard'): admin
Email address: admin@example.com
Password: 
Password (again): 
Superuser created successfully.
Installed 2 object(s) from 1 fixture(s)

Would you like to install some initial demo pages?
Please enter either 'yes' or 'no': yes

Creating demo pages: About us, Contact form, Gallery .

Installed 16 object(s) from 3 fixture(s)

When you’re done, run the commands below to start up and run the Mezzanine server.

python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000

Now, open your browser and go to the server hostname or IP address followed by port 8000

http://localhost:8000

You should see a Mezzanine welcome page similar to the one below

To go to the admin backend portal, type

http://localhost:8000/admin

That should prompt you for the superuser account and password… and allow you to log on to the backend…

That’s it!

Although that are many other settings you must configure to suit your environment, the steps above are the bare minimum to get the Mezzanine installed…

To get external access to the Mezzanine server, open its settings.py page and add the IPs

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