django admin url not found (404) - django

Question

I am a django beginner.
I receive the following message in /var/log/apache2/error.log (apache is set to debug level)
[Thu Aug 30 16:15:11 2012] [info] mod_wsgi (pid=5616): Initializing Python.
[Thu Aug 30 16:15:11 2012] [info] mod_wsgi (pid=5616): Attach interpreter ''.
[Thu Aug 30 16:15:15 2012] [error] [client 172.24.113.130] File does not exist: /var/www/netvistra3
[Thu Aug 30 16:15:19 2012] [error] [client 172.24.113.130] File does not exist: /var/www/netvistra3
My wsgi file is located in /usr/local/django/netvistra3/apache/netvistra3.wsgi
The admin site only seems to work with django's embedded webserver.
Snippet from apache2 virtual directory site:
Alias /static/admin /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/admin
WSGIDaemonProcess netvistra3 user=pbensel group=staff threads=5
WSGIScriptAlias /netvistra3 /usr/local/django/netvistra/apache/netvistra3.wsgi
<Directory /usr/local/django/netvistra3>
WSGIScriptReloading On
WSGIProcessGroup netvistra3
WSGIApplicationGroup %{GLOBAL}
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
I greatly appreciate any help

Answer 1

Django has a bit of magic when running under it's own server that helps with this. When deploying on Apache, etc you are you're responsible for setting up Apache, or whichever media server you're using, to serve the admin files. The Django docs are pretty good on the topic. Please see the following link to the Django docs.
It's a pretty common problem. So, don't feel bad. Just Google if you need any more specific help for "deploy django admin"
Btw, I use the "collectstatic" approach for my projects and server them from an s3 bucket. It works great and seems to be a pretty common practice. At least with Django 1.3.

Answer 2

As David said, you have to take the right steps to set up static files. You have:
Alias /static/admin /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/static/admin
but are missing corresponding:
<Directory /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/static>
Order allow, deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Don't have that and you will find static files fail with forbidden error.
I would though also check whether you have set up settings properly to say under what URL the static media is available.
If the static files are not served properly, you will be missing all the stlying for the admin pages, which could be considered as not working properly.
Also look into collectstatic as suggested as not always a good idea to refer to static media out of the Python installation like you are doing.