I am working with Django and want to maximize the ability to handle web requests per second that interact with a db

Hi @Gordon Long
Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

Optimizing a Django application to handle a higher number of web requests per second, especially when interacting with a PostgreSQL database, involves several strategies.

Database Optimization

• Indexing: Ensure that your database tables are properly indexed. This can significantly speed up query performance.
• Query Optimization: Use Django's select_related and prefetch_related to reduce the number of queries. Avoid N+1 query problems by fetching related objects in a single query.
• Statement Timeout: Set a statement timeout to prevent long-running queries from consuming resources.

Asynchronous Processing

• Async Views: Use Django's asynchronous views to handle non-blocking I/O operations. This can help manage more requests concurrently.
• Celery: Offload long-running tasks to background workers using Celery. This can help keep your web requests fast and responsive.

Caching

• Database Caching: Use Django’s caching framework to cache query results. This can reduce the load on your database.
• View Caching: Cache entire views or parts of views to serve repeated requests quickly.

Load Balancing and Scaling

• Horizontal Scaling: Deploy multiple instances of your Django application behind a load balancer. This can distribute the load and improve your application's ability to handle more requests.
• Vertical Scaling: Increase the resources (CPU, RAM) of your existing servers. However, this has limits and should be combined with horizontal scaling.

Connection Pooling

• Database Connection Pooling: Use a connection pooler like pgbouncer to manage database connections efficiently. This can reduce the overhead of establishing new connections.

Profiling and Monitoring

• Profiling: Use tools like Django Debug Toolbar and New Relic to profile your application and identify bottlenecks.
• Monitoring: Continuously monitor your application's performance to catch and address issues promptly.

I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks for the response Laxman, I have been trying to get async views to work but apparently django wants database queries to be sychronous due to its ORM. I have tried using sync_to_async but keep running into issues with it. As for load balancing (especially Horizontal Scaling), are there easy resources for how to do this on Azure? Thanks for all of the great tips! Would you also recommend have a standalone database server which the separate django servers reach out to for db operations?

Hi @Gordon Long
We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if you have a resolution yet. In case if you have any resolution please do share that same with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, will respond with more details and we will try to help.