Does the actual setup of the middleware

def setup(self, settings):
        '''
        Does the actual setup of the middleware
        '''
        # set up the default sc logger
        my_level = settings.get('SC_LOG_LEVEL', 'INFO')
        my_name = settings.get('SClogger_NAME', 'sc-logger')
        my_output = settings.get('SC_LOG_STDOUT', True)
        my_json = settings.get('SC_LOG_JSON', False)
        my_dir = settings.get('SC_LOG_DIR', 'logs')
        my_bytes = settings.get('SC_LOG_MAX_BYTES', '10MB')
        my_file = settings.get('SC_LOG_FILE', 'main.log')
        my_backups = settings.get('SC_LOG_BACKUPS', 5)

        self.logger = LogFactory.get_instance(json=my_json,
                                         name=my_name,
                                         stdout=my_output,
                                         level=my_level,
                                         dir=my_dir,
                                         file=my_file,
                                         bytes=my_bytes,
                                         backups=my_backups)

        self.settings = settings
        self.stats_dict = {}

        # set up redis
        self.redis_conn = redis.Redis(host=settings.get('REDIS_HOST'),
            port=settings.get('REDIS_PORT'),
            db=settings.get('REDIS_DB'))

        try:
            self.redis_conn.info()
            self.logger.debug("Connected to Redis in ScraperHandler")
        except ConnectionError:
            self.logger.error("Failed to connect to Redis in Stats Middleware")
            # plugin is essential to functionality
            sys.exit(1)