PyWPS on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS by cloudimg

PyWPS on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

PyWPS is the Python implementation of the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) standard, the open specification for publishing geoprocessing operations as a standard HTTP API: GetCapabilities lists what a server can do, DescribeProcess describes a process's inputs and outputs, and Execute runs it. On its own PyWPS is a library, not a turnkey server - this cloudimg image ships it as a running WPS 1.0.0 service with 4 working example processes already registered, so you get a genuine, callable geoprocessing endpoint the moment the VM boots.

What you get

• PyWPS 4.7.0 running in a dedicated Python virtual environment, served by gunicorn and fronted by nginx
• 4 hand-picked demo processes, each pure in-memory Python with no file uploads, no shell commands and no outbound network calls: say_hello, ultimate_question, boundingbox and buffer (a real Shapely/GEOS geometry computation)
• A minimal, explicit HTTP surface: only the WPS endpoint is exposed, every other path returns 404
• pywps.service + nginx.service as systemd units, enabled and active on boot

Secure by default

This is a public by design, read and compute only service. GetCapabilities, DescribeProcess and Execute are meant to be reached the way any OGC WPS endpoint is - there is no admin console or application account of any kind, so none ship or are generated. Every bundled process was individually read and risk assessed before shipping: processes that shelled out to external tools, parsed untrusted files, wrote outside their sandbox, or allowed an unbounded resource hold were rejected. The 4 shipped processes take only literal (non-file) inputs, which also closes off the WPS spec's own href-reference vector entirely. The only way onto the VM itself is the SSH key you supply at deploy time.

Licensing

PyWPS is free and open source under the MIT licence - no BYOL, no licence key. The cloudimg charge (0.04 US dollars per vCPU per hour) covers packaging, security patching, image maintenance and 24/7 expert support.

Sizing and prerequisites

Recommended: Standard_B2s (2 vCPU / 4 GB), a comfortable starting point for the bundled demo processes and light custom process development. You need an Azure subscription, a VNet and an SSH key. Open port 22 from your management network and port 80 for the WPS API, which is intended to be publicly reachable.

See the deployment guide at https://www.cloudimg.co.uk/guides/pywps-on-ubuntu-24-04-azure/ . 24/7 support: support@cloudimg.co.uk.