Encountering Server Error (500) During Website Deployment Without Clear Error Messages On Render.com

Question

During deployment on Render.com, I encounter a Server Error (500) without receiving any warnings or errors in the logs. Interestingly, only pages that don't interact with the database load successfully, suggesting potential issues with database permissions or connection configurations. Unfortunately, the lack of detailed error messages makes it challenging to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem. Seeking insights and solutions to resolve this deployment issue.

from pathlib import Path
import os
import dj_database_url

# Build paths inside the project like this: BASE_DIR / 'subdir'.
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent


# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/howto/deployment/checklist/

# SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!

SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('SECRET_KEY', default='your secret key')

# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!

DEBUG = 'RENDER' not in os.environ

ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME = os.environ.get('RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME')

if RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME:
    ALLOWED_HOSTS.append(RENDER_EXTERNAL_HOSTNAME)

# Application definition

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'catalogoApp',
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'whitenoise.middleware.WhiteNoiseMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

ROOT_URLCONF = 'panelBM.urls'

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
        'DIRS': [],
        'APP_DIRS': True,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'context_processors': [
                'django.template.context_processors.debug',
                'django.template.context_processors.request',
                'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
                'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
            ],
        },
    },
]

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'panelBM.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        # Feel free to alter this value to suit your needs.
        default='postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/mysite',
        conn_max_age=600
    )
}


# Password validation
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators

AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator',
    },
    {
        'NAME': 'django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator',
    },
]


# Internationalization
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/topics/i18n/

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'

TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'

USE_I18N = True

USE_TZ = True


# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/howto/static-files/

STATIC_URL = 'static/'

if not DEBUG:    # Tell Django to copy statics to the `staticfiles` directory
    # in your application directory on Render.
    STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'staticfiles')

    STATICFILES_STORAGE = 'whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage'

# Default primary key field type
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.0/ref/settings/#default-auto-field

DEFAULT_AUTO_FIELD = 'django.db.models.BigAutoField'

MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "files"
MEDIA_URL = "/media-files/"

At first i had a warning issue with the staticFiles folder, but I solved it with the command py manage.py collectstatic, then I had the problem with the Server Error (500), I tried changing the ALLOWED_HOSTS to ['*'], but it didn't work.

Answer 1

Looks like you have the database URL hardcoded to your localhost DB:

DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        # Feel free to alter this value to suit your needs.
        default='postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/mysite',

In production, you need to use the URL of your production Render DB.

It sounds like both your Django web service and the Postgres DB are deployed on Render. If you deployed them in the same region, the web service can connect to the DB using the DB's "internal URL": https://docs.render.com/databases#connecting-with-the-internal-url

Otherwise, you must use the DB's "external URL".

Important note: Use environment variables

You don't want to put the database connection string into your code, because it has a password in it.

Instead, you can put the database connection string into an environment variable. So your code might look like this:

DATABASES = {
    'default': dj_database_url.config(
        default=os.environ["DB_URL"],

and then

1. In your local development environment (e.g. your laptop?), you'll need to set the DB_URL environment variable.
2. On Render, you'll need to set the DB_URL environment variable on your web service. Here's how: https://docs.render.com/configure-environment-variables