Install an Odoo 11 Stack on Ubuntu 16.04

Odoo (formerly known as OpenERP) is a self-hosted suite of over 10,000 open source applications for a variety of business needs, including CRM, eCommerce, accounting, inventory, point of sale, and project management. These applications are all fully integrated and can be installed and accessed through a web interface, making it easy to automate and manage your company’s processes.

For simple installations, Odoo and its dependencies can be installed on a single Linode (see our Install Odoo 10 on Ubuntu guide for details). However, this single-server setup is not suited for production deployments. This guide covers how to configure a production Odoo 11 cluster in which the Odoo server and PostgreSQL database are hosted on separate Linodes, with database replication for added performance and reliability.

The setup in this guide requires the following minimal Linode specifications:

• PostgreSQL databases (primary and standby) - Linode 2GB
• Odoo 11 web application - Linode 1GB

Keep in mind that your implementation may need more nodes or higher-memory plans depending on the number of end-users you want to serve and the number of modules you plan to incorporate.

All examples in this guide are for Ubuntu 16.04. If you plan to use a different operating system, adapt the commands as necessary.

1. Familiarize yourself with our Getting Started guide and complete the steps for setting your Linode’s hostname and timezone.

2. This guide will use sudo wherever possible. Complete the sections of our Securing Your Server to create a standard user account, harden SSH access and remove unnecessary network services.

3. Update your system:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
   

4. Install software-properties-common:

   sudo apt install software-properties-common
   

If you want to configure a firewall for your Linodes, open the following ports:

Ports 22, 80, and 5432 are the defaults for SSH, HTTP and PostgreSQL communications respectively. Port 6010 is used for Odoo communications and port 8070 is used by Odoo’s webserver. To open a particular port you can use:

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

For more detailed information about firewall setup please read our guide How to Configure a Firewall with UFW.

In order to simplify communication between Linodes, set hostnames for each server. You can use private IPs if the Linodes are all in the same data center, or Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) if available. This guide will use the following FQDN and hostname conventions:

1. PostgreSQL Primary:

   File: /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1       localhost
   127.0.1.1       primarydb.yourdomain.com   primarydb
   
   10.1.1.20       standbydb.yourdomain.com    standbydb
   10.1.3.10       odoo.yourdomain.com       odoo

2. PostgreSQL Standby:

   File: /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1       localhost
   127.0.1.1       standbydb.yourdomain.com    standbydb
   
   10.1.1.10       primarydb.yourdomain.com   primarydb
   10.1.3.10       odoo.yourdomain.com       odoo

3. Odoo 11 server:

   File: /etc/hosts

   127.0.0.1       localhost
   127.0.1.1       odoo.yourdomain.com       odoo
   
   10.1.1.10       primarydb.yourdomain.com   primarydb
   10.1.1.20       standbydb.yourdomain.com    standbydb

FQDNs will be used throughout this guide whenever possible to avoid confusion.

Configure the database backend. A Primary node will be in charge of all transactions and additionally will stream to a secondary server: the Standby.

PostgreSQL version 9.6 offers significant improvements for database replication, but unfortunately, it is not included in the default Ubuntu 16.04 repositories. Install the newest version on all database nodes.

1. Add the official PostgreSQL-Xenial repository to your system:

   sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt/ xenial-pgdg main"
   

2. Import the repository key:

   wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
   

3. Update apt cache:

   sudo apt update
   

4. Install PostgreSQL 9.6 in the database nodes:

   sudo apt install postgresql-9.6 postgresql-server-dev-9.6
   

Begin with the PostgreSQL user needed for Odoo communications. Create this user on both Primary and Standby nodes.

1. Switch to the postgres user and create the database user odoo in charge of all operations. Use a strong password and save it in a secure location, you will need it later:

   sudo -u postgres createuser odoo -U postgres -dRSP
   

   Use the same password for the Odoo postgres user on all nodes. Odoo is not aware of database replication, so it will be easier to trigger an eventual failover procedure if both servers share the same information.

2. Now you need to create the replicauser on the Primary node:

   sudo -u postgres createuser replicauser -U postgres -P --replication
   

   Set a strong password that you’ll remember.

   The replicauser user has fewer privileges than the odoo user because the replicauser’s only purpose is to allow the Standby to read information from the Primary nodes. The --replication option grants the required privilege that replicauser need to perform its job.

1. Stop the PostgreSQL service on all nodes:

   sudo systemctl stop postgresql
   

2. Edit pg_hba.conf to allow PostgreSQL nodes to communicate with each other. Add the following lines to the Primary database server:

   File: /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf

   host    replication     replicauser      standbydb.yourdomain.com         md5
   host    all             odoo             odoo.yourdomain.com            md5

   Each line provides the client authentication permissions to connect to a specific database. For example, the first line allows the Standby to connect to the Primary node using replicauser, and the second line grants the odoo user the rights connect to all databases within this server.

3. Add a similar configuration to the Standby node, this will make it easier to promote it to primary status if necessary:

   File: /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf

   host    all             odoo             odoo.yourdomain.com            md5

The settings in the pg_hba.conf file are:

• host: Enables connections using Unix-domain sockets.
• replication: Specifies a replication connection for the given user. No database name is required for this type of connection.
• replicauser: The user created in the previous section.
• md5: Make use of client-supplied MD5-encrypted password for authentication.
• all: Match all databases in the server. You could provide specific Odoo database names (separated by commas if more than one) if you know them beforehand.
• odoo: The Odoo user responsible for application/database communications.

On the Primary node

1. Create an archive directory for WAL files:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/archive/
   

2. Change the archive directory permissions to allow the postgres user to read and write:

   sudo chown postgres: -R /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/archive/
   

3. Edit postgresql.conf, and uncomment lines as necessary:

   File: /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf

   #From CONNECTIONS AND AUTHENTICATION Section
   listen_addresses = '*'
   #From WRITE AHEAD LOG Section
   wal_level = replica
   min_wal_size = 80MB
   max_wal_size = 1GB
   archive_mode = on
   archive_command = 'cp %p /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/archive/%f'
   archive_timeout = 1h
   #From REPLICATION Section
   max_wal_senders = 3
   wal_keep_segments = 10

On the Standby node

Edit the Standby’s postgresql.conf:

File: /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/postgresql.conf

listen_addresses = '*'
#From WRITE AHEAD LOG Section
wal_level = replica
#From REPLICATION Section
max_wal_senders = 3
wal_keep_segments = 10
hot_standby = on

These settings are:

• listen_addresses: What IP addresses lo listen on. The '*' means that the server will listen to all IP addresses. You can limit this to only include the IP addresses that you consider safe.
• wal_level: Set to replica to perform the required operations.
• min_wal_size: Minimum size the transaction log will be.
• max_wal_size: Actual target size of WAL at which a new checkpoint is triggered.
• archive_mode: Set to on to activate the archive storage (see below).
• archive_timeout: Forces the server to send a WAL segment periodically (even if min_wal_size is not reached). This is useful if you expect little WAL traffic.
• archive_command: Local shell command to execute in order to archive a completed WAL file segment.
• max_wal_senders: Maximum number of concurrent connections from the Standby node.
• wal_keep_segments: Minimum number of past log file segments kept in the pg_xlog directory, in case a standby server (Standby node) needs to fetch them for streaming replication.
• hot_standby = on: Specifies that the Standby server can connect and run queries during recovery.

1. Confirm that the Standby PostgreSQL service is not running:

   sudo systemctl status postgresql
   

2. Start the Primary PostgreSQL service:

   sudo systemctl start postgresql
   

3. Rename the Standby’s data directory before continuing:

   sudo mv /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main_old
   

4. From the Standby node, enter the following to transfer all of the Primary’s data over:

   sudo -u postgres pg_basebackup -h primarydb.yourdomain.com --xlog-method=stream \
    -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/ -U replicauser -v -P
   

   You will be prompted with the replicauser password. Once the transfer is complete your Standby will be synchronized with the Primary database. This puts an exact replica of the Primary database on the Standby.

Caution

Do not start the Standby’s PostgreSQL service until Step 3 of the next section, when all configuration is complete.

1. Copy the sample recovery file as a template for your requirements:

   sudo cp -avr /usr/share/postgresql/9.6/recovery.conf.sample \
   /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/recovery.conf
   

2. Edit the new copy of the recovery file:

   File: /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/recovery.conf

   standby_mode = 'on'
   primary_conninfo = 'host=primarydb.yourdomain.com port=5432 user=replicauser password=REPLICAUSER_PWD'
   restore_command = 'cp /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/archive/%f %p'
   trigger_file = '/tmp/postgresql.trigger.5432'

3. Start the PostgreSQL service on the Standby node:

   sudo systemctl start postgresql
   

These parameters configure your Standby to restore data. Failover and more options are described in the PostgreSQL documentation for recovery.

Test your setup to check that everything works as expected.

1. In the Primary server change to the postgres user and verify the replication status:

   sudo -u postgres psql -x -c "select * from pg_stat_replication;"
   

   -[ RECORD 1 ]----+------------------------------
   pid              | 6005
   usesysid         | 16385
   usename          | replicauser
   application_name | walreceiver
   client_addr      | 66.228.54.56
   client_hostname  |
   client_port      | 36676
   backend_start    | 2018-01-23 19:14:26.573184+00
   backend_xmin     |
   state            | streaming
   sent_location    | 0/6000F60
   write_location   | 0/6000F60
   flush_location   | 0/6000F60
   replay_location  | 0/6000F60
   sync_priority    | 0
   sync_state       | async

2. To see the replication in action, create a test database on your Primary server with the odoo user:

   sudo createdb -h localhost -p 5432 -U odoo helloworld
   

3. On the Standby, check the presence of the new database you just created using the postgres user and psql:

   sudo -u postgres psql
   

4. List all databases:

   \l
   

5. Exit psql:

   \q
   

This test not only confirms that replication is working, but also that the odoo user is ready to perform database operations.

Enable the postgresql service on both primarydb and standbydb:

sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Configure your Odoo 11 web application to work with the PostgreSQL database backend.

In order to separate Odoo from other services, create a new Odoo system user to run its processes:

sudo adduser --system --home=/opt/odoo --group odoo

The examples in this guide use a separate file for logging Odoo activity:

sudo mkdir /var/log/odoo

1. Install git:

   sudo apt install git
   

2. Use Git to clone the Odoo files onto your server:

   sudo git clone https://www.github.com/odoo/odoo --depth 1 \
   --branch 11.0 --single-branch /opt/odoo
   

   Note

   Odoo 11 application now uses Python 3.x instead of Python 2.7. If you are using Ubuntu 14.04 this may mean additional steps for your installation. Dependencies are now grouped to highlight the new changes.

3. Enforce the use of POSIX locale this will prevent possible errors during installation (this has nothing to do with the Odoo language):

   export LC_ALL=C
   

4. Install new Python3 dependencies:

   sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip python3-suds python3-all-dev \
   python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-tk
   

5. Install global dependencies (common to Odoo version 10):

   sudo apt install git libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libevent-dev libsasl2-dev libldap2-dev \
   pkg-config libtiff5-dev libjpeg8-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev \
   liblcms2-dev liblcms2-utils libwebp-dev tcl8.6-dev tk8.6-dev libyaml-dev fontconfig
   

6. Install Odoo 11 specific Python dependencies:

   sudo -H pip3 install --upgrade pip
   sudo -H pip3 install -r /opt/odoo/doc/requirements.txt
   sudo -H pip3 install -r /opt/odoo/requirements.txt
   

7. Install Less CSS via Node.js and npm:

   sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash - \
   && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs \
   && sudo npm install -g less less-plugin-clean-css
   

8. Download the wkhtmltopdf stable package. Replace the version number 0.12.4 in this command with the latest release on Github:

   cd /tmp
   wget https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf/releases/download/0.12.4/wkhtmltox-0.12.4_linux-generic-amd64.tar.xz
   

9. Extract the package:

   tar -xvf wkhtmltox-0.12.4_linux-generic-amd64.tar.xz
   

10. To ensure that wkhtmltopdf functions properly, move the binaries to a location in your executable path and give them the necessary permission for execution:

    sudo mv wkhtmltox/bin/wk* /usr/bin/
    && sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/wk*

1. Copy the included configuration file to /etc/ and change its name to odoo-server.conf

   sudo cp /opt/odoo/debian/odoo.conf /etc/odoo-server.conf
   

2. Modify the configuration file. The complete file should look similar to the following, depending on your deployment needs:

   File: /etc/odoo-server.conf

   [options]
   admin_passwd = admin
   db_host = primarydb.yourdomain.com
   db_port = False
   db_user = odoo
   db_password = odoo_password
   addons_path = /opt/odoo/addons
   logfile = /var/log/odoo/odoo-server.log
   xmlrpc_port = 8070

• admin_passwd: The password that allows administrative operations within Odoo GUI. Be sure to change admin to something more secure.
• db_host: The primarydb FQDN.
• db_port: Odoo uses PostgreSQL’s default port 5432, change this only if you’re using custom PostgreSQL settings.
• db_user: Name of the PostgreSQL database user.
• db_password: Use the PostgreSQL odoo user password you created previously.
• addons_path: Default addons path, you can add custom paths separating them with commas: </path/to/custom/modules>
• logfile: Path to your Odoo logfiles.
• xmlrpc_port: Port that Odoo will listen on.

Create a systemd unit called odoo-server to allow your application to behave as a service. Create a new file at /lib/systemd/system/odoo-server.service and add the following:

File: /lib/systemd/system/odoo-server.service

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

[Unit] Description=Odoo Open Source ERP and CRM [Service] Type=simple PermissionsStartOnly=true SyslogIdentifier=odoo-server User=odoo Group=odoo ExecStart=/opt/odoo/odoo-bin --config=/etc/odoo-server.conf --addons-path=/opt/odoo/addons/ WorkingDirectory=/opt/odoo/ [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

1. Change the odoo-server service permissions and ownership so only root can write to it, while the odoo user will only be able to read and execute it:

   sudo chmod 755 /lib/systemd/system/odoo-server.service \
   && sudo chown root: /lib/systemd/system/odoo-server.service
   

2. Since the odoo user will run the application, change its ownership accordingly:

   sudo chown -R odoo: /opt/odoo/
   

3. Set the odoo user as the owner of log directory as well:

   sudo chown odoo:root /var/log/odoo
   

4. Protect the server configuration file. Change its ownership and permissions so no other non-root user can access it:

   sudo chown odoo: /etc/odoo-server.conf \
   && sudo chmod 640 /etc/odoo-server.conf
   

Confirm that everything is working as expected.

1. Start the Odoo server:

   sudo systemctl start odoo-server
   

2. Confirm that odoo-server is running:

   sudo systemctl status odoo-server
   

3. In a browser, navigate to odoo.yourdomain.com or the IP address of the odoo Linode. If your proxy and your DNS configuration are working properly a login screen will appear.

4. Click on the Manage Databases link:

   

   Now you can see the test database you created earlier.

5. Click Create Database and fill out the form with a test database. Check the Load demonstation data box to populate your database with sample data.

   

6. In the browser, you should see a list of available apps, indicating that database creation was successful:

   

   The first time you create a database, Odoo may take several minutes to load all of its add-ons. Do not reload the page during this process.

1. Enable the odoo-server service to start automatically on reboot:

   sudo systemctl enable odoo-server
   

2. Reboot your Linode from the Linode Manager.

3. Check the Odoo logs to verify that the Odoo server is running:

   sudo cat /var/log/odoo/odoo-server.log
   

If all components of the Odoo stack are running on a single server, it is simple to back up your databases using the Odoo web interface. However, this will not work with the configuration in this guide, since PostgreSQL was not installed on the odoo Linode.

You have two options to backup or transfer your production database:

1. You can install PostgreSQL 9.6 on the odoo server using the procedure used for primarydb and standbydb. This will install pg_dump and other utilities, allowing you to use the Odoo GUI as before. Since Odoo configuration is explicit about database connection you will not have to worry about anything else. This method will restore the database to the primarydb server rather than odoo.

2. You can also use a procedure similar to the one in Synchronize Primary and Standby Node Data. Instead of synchronizing with a standby node, you can synchronize to a test or backup database server:

   1. Edit /etc/postgresql/9.6/main/pg_hba.conf on primarydb to allow the test server to connect to it.

   2. On the test server, stop the PostgreSQL service, move/rename/delete its current data, and run the pg_basebackup command as before:

      sudo systemctl stop postgresql
      
      sudo mv /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main_old
      
      sudo -u postgres pg_basebackup -h <primarydb public ip> --xlog-method=stream -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.6/main/ -U replicauser -v -P
      

Once you have restored, transferred, or synchronized your production database to the testing server you can update Odoo modules.

From your test server restart the Odoo service using the following flags to instruct the system to search for updates and apply any changes to modules:

sudo service odoo-server restart -u all -d <production_database_name>

If all your tests pass, you can safely update your installation.

1. From your Linode download the new code from source:

   cd /opt/odoo \
   && sudo git fetch origin 11.0
   

2. Apply the changes to your repository:

   sudo git reset --hard origin/11.0
   

Note

Do not confuse the Odoo system update with an Odoo version upgrade. With the method explained above, you are updating your Odoo application within the same version rather than upgrading to a newer Odoo version. Migrating from one version to another often requires several tests and manual modifications on the PostgreSQL database which are highly dependent on the version of Odoo you are upgrading from.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Odoo User Documentation
• Odoo Developer Documentation
• PostgreSQL 9.6 Documentation
• Install an SSL certificate with LetsEncrypt
• How to Set up tinc, a Peer-to-Peer VPN
• Using Terraform to Provision Linode Environments