title: docker, nginx, django and how to serve static files
body: <p>Goal: The set of docker containers for a production django website deployment.</p>
  
  <p>My hang up in this process is that usually nginx directly serves the static files... Based on my understanding of a good architecture using docker, you would have a container for your wsgi server (probably gunicorn), a separate nginx container with an upstream server configuration pointing to your gunicorn container.  The nginx container can load balance between multiple gunicorn containers.</p>
  
  <p>But what this implies is that I have to install my django app's static files in the nginx container, which seems like bad practice since it's primary goal is really load balancing</p>
  
  <p>Is it better to have three containers: nginx, gunicorn, and a dedicated static server (possibly nginx or lighthttpd) for static files?</p>