Server Preparation & PostgreSQL

Overview

This chapter starts immediately after your Oracle Cloud VM is created and reachable via SSH, running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. By the end of this chapter, your server will have a clean package baseline, PostgreSQL installed and running, and a dedicated directory structure for Odoo.

Prerequisites

Oracle Cloud VM running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
SSH access to the VM
A user account with sudo privileges

Install Required Packages

Start by updating the package index and upgrading all installed packages to ensure a clean, secure baseline.

bash

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Tip

Run sudo reboot if the kernel or critical system libraries were upgraded. Reconnect via SSH after the reboot completes.

Install all build dependencies that Odoo's Python packages require during compilation.

bash

sudo apt install -y \
    git python3 python3-venv python3-pip \
    build-essential gcc g++ \
    libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev \
    libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev \
    libpq-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev \
    node-less npm

Why these packages?

Packages like libxml2-dev, libldap2-dev and libpq-dev are C-level headers required to compile Python wheels for lxml, python-ldap and psycopg2. Without them, pip install will fail during the Odoo setup step.

Install PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL from the official Ubuntu repositories.

bash

sudo apt install -y postgresql

Verify that the service started correctly.

bash

sudo systemctl status postgresql --no-pager

Create the Odoo Database User

Create a dedicated PostgreSQL role named odoo. This role has permission to create databases (required so Odoo can create and manage its own database), but is not a superuser.

bash

sudo -u postgres createuser -d -R -S odoo

Flag reference

Flag	Meaning
`-d`	Allow the role to create databases
`-R`	Prevent the role from creating other roles
`-S`	Not a superuser

Security: local socket authentication

This guide intentionally uses local peer authentication via Unix sockets. Odoo connects to PostgreSQL through a socket, not over TCP/IP, so no password needs to be stored in odoo.conf. Never expose PostgreSQL directly to the Internet.

Recommended Directory Layout

Create a clean, self-contained directory at /opt/odoo that will hold all Odoo-related files. Keeping everything under a single directory makes backups, upgrades, and permission management straightforward.

bash

sudo mkdir -p /opt/odoo/{community,enterprise,custom,logs,venv}
sudo chown -R odoo:odoo /opt/odoo

tree

/opt/odoo/
├── community/   ← Odoo Community source (git clone)
├── enterprise/  ← Odoo Enterprise source (git clone)
├── custom/      ← Your custom addons
├── logs/        ← Odoo log files
└── venv/        ← Python virtual environment

Best practice

Keeping custom modules outside the Community and Enterprise repositories makes upgrades much easier. You can pull the latest Community/Enterprise code without touching your customizations.

Verification

Before proceeding to the next chapter, confirm the following.

Check	Command	Expected Result
Ubuntu updated	`uname -r`	Current kernel version
Dependencies installed	`python3 --version`	Python 3.x.x
PostgreSQL running	`sudo systemctl is-active postgresql`	`active`
Odoo DB user created	`sudo -u postgres psql -c "\du odoo"`	Role listed
Directory created	`ls /opt/odoo`	community, enterprise, custom, logs, venv

✓ Ubuntu updated and optionally rebooted
✓ System dependencies installed without errors
✓ PostgreSQL is running
✓ odoo PostgreSQL role exists
✓ /opt/odoo directory structure created

Next step

The next chapter covers cloning the Community and Enterprise repositories, creating the Python virtual environment, and installing all Python dependencies.