Installing Odoo 8 on your own Linux server

Running Odoo on your own hardware or cloud server is straightforward once you know its three parts: the Odoo server, the web client (embedded in the server since version 7) and the PostgreSQL database.

Note: this article was written for Odoo 8.0 on Ubuntu; today we deploy Odoo in Docker with PostgreSQL 16, see our hosting service. Menu names have changed in later versions, but the concept and the configuration logic still apply. Ask if you want the current-version equivalent.

1. PostgreSQL

sudo apt-get install postgresql
sudo apt-get install pgadmin3   # optional graphical client

2. A database user for Odoo

Odoo connects to PostgreSQL with a database role that should match the system user running the server. Create it as the postgres superuser:

sudo su postgres
createuser --createdb --username postgres --no-createrole --no-superuser --pwprompt odoo
exit

Without this role the web client cannot create databases.

3. Odoo itself

Install the Odoo package (or clone the source and install its Python dependencies), point the configuration file at the database user and password, and start the service. The web client answers on port 8069.

4. First database

Open http://<server>:8069, create a database with a master password, pick the country for the chart of accounts, and install the apps you need.

For production, add a reverse proxy with HTTPS, worker processes, daily backups and monitoring; a bare install is fine for evaluation only.