Can I deploy Odoo on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose?

Yes. Odoo can run on Ubuntu 24.04 using Docker Compose with a PostgreSQL container, persistent volumes, and a reverse proxy for HTTPS.

What VM size do I need for Odoo?

This tutorial is written for a Raff VM with 2 vCPU, 4 GB DDR5 RAM, and 40 GB NVMe storage. That is suitable for a small test or lightweight internal deployment. Larger teams should monitor CPU, memory, database size, and Odoo worker requirements.

Why does this tutorial use PostgreSQL with Odoo?

Odoo requires PostgreSQL for its database layer. The Docker Compose stack in this tutorial runs PostgreSQL as a separate container with a persistent named volume.

Why does this tutorial use Caddy with Odoo?

Caddy handles public web traffic and automatic HTTPS, while Odoo stays inside the internal Docker network. This keeps the Odoo container from exposing a raw public host port.

How do I back up Odoo?

Back up both the PostgreSQL database and the Odoo filestore. This tutorial creates a compressed database dump and a compressed filestore archive, then verifies that both backup files exist.

Deploy Odoo on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose

In this tutorial, you will deploy Odoo on a Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM with Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, Caddy automatic HTTPS, persistent storage, database listing lock-down, and a first verified backup.

Odoo is an open-source business application suite used for CRM, sales, inventory, accounting, websites, and operations. This tutorial installs Odoo 18 behind HTTPS, creates the first Odoo database, disables public database listing, and verifies backups before storing business data.

Raff Technologies runs over 10,000 VMs across its compute platform in Vint Hill, Virginia, on AMD EPYC hardware with NVMe storage.

Prerequisites:

A Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM
SSH access with sudo privileges
A domain or subdomain pointing to your Raff VM, for example erp.example.com
Ports 80/tcp and 443/tcp open for HTTPS certificate issuance and web access

This tutorial was tested on a Raff VM with 2 vCPU, 4 GB DDR5 RAM, 40 GB NVMe storage, and Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS.

Tested on Raff infrastructure by Aybars Altınyay, platform engineer and technical writer at Raff Technologies.

📌 Note: Use a domain or subdomain for browser-trusted HTTPS. A raw IP address is acceptable for basic HTTP testing, but it will not receive a normal browser-trusted certificate in this Caddy setup.

Step 1 — Update the Ubuntu server

Update the package index and upgrade installed packages. The upgrade command uses noninteractive options so Ubuntu keeps existing modified configuration files, including SSH configuration, during automated tutorial runs.

bashsudo apt update

sudo env DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive NEEDRESTART_MODE=a apt upgrade -y \
  -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef \
  -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release ufw dnsutils openssl

📌 Note: If Ubuntu still asks what to do with a modified /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, select keep the local version currently installed. This preserves the current SSH login configuration on the Raff VM.

Verify the server is running Ubuntu 24.04:

bashlsb_release -ds

Expected output:

textUbuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Minor point releases such as Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04.x LTS are acceptable.

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

Install Docker Engine and the Docker Compose plugin from Docker’s official Ubuntu repository.

bashsudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings

sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
  -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources > /dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Verify Docker and Docker Compose:

bashsudo docker run --rm hello-world
docker compose version

Expected output includes:

textHello from Docker!
Docker Compose version v5.1.3

Any current Docker Compose plugin version is acceptable.

Step 3 — Configure DNS and firewall rules

Set your Odoo domain and ACME email address. Caddy uses the email when registering the certificate account.

bashread -rp "Odoo domain, for example erp.example.com: " ODOO_DOMAIN
read -rp "ACME email, for example admin@example.com: " ACME_EMAIL

dig +short "$ODOO_DOMAIN"
ip -4 addr show scope global

The DNS result must show the public IPv4 address of your Raff VM.

📌 Note: Use your own domain or subdomain for production. Temporary wildcard DNS services such as sslip.io or nip.io can hit shared certificate rate limits and are only suitable for testing.

Enable the firewall and allow only SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS:

bashsudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable
sudo ufw status numbered

Expected output includes:

textStatus: active
[ 1] OpenSSH                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 2] 80/tcp                     ALLOW IN    Anywhere
[ 3] 443/tcp                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere

📌 Note: Odoo will not expose a public host port. Only Caddy listens publicly on ports 80 and 443.

Step 4 — Create the Odoo Compose stack

Create the deployment directory, configuration directory, addon directory, secret directory, and backup directory.

bashsudo mkdir -p /opt/odoo/{config,addons,secrets,backups}
sudo chown -R "$USER":"$USER" /opt/odoo
cd /opt/odoo

Generate a PostgreSQL password and an Odoo master password. Hex passwords are used to avoid copy-and-paste problems with special characters on the Odoo database creation page.

bashopenssl rand -hex 32 > secrets/postgresql_password
openssl rand -hex 32 > .odoo_master_password

chmod 700 secrets
chmod 644 secrets/postgresql_password
chmod 600 .odoo_master_password

📌 Note: With local Docker Compose file-based secrets, the Odoo container must be able to read the PostgreSQL password file. Keep the secrets directory restricted, but leave secrets/postgresql_password readable by the container.

Create the .env file for Compose and Caddy:

bashcat > .env <<EOF
ODOO_DOMAIN=$ODOO_DOMAIN
ACME_EMAIL=$ACME_EMAIL
EOF

Create the Odoo configuration file:

bashODOO_MASTER_PASSWORD="$(cat .odoo_master_password)"

cat > config/odoo.conf <<EOF
[options]
admin_passwd = $ODOO_MASTER_PASSWORD
addons_path = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/odoo/addons,/mnt/extra-addons
data_dir = /var/lib/odoo
proxy_mode = True
list_db = True
log_level = warn
EOF

chmod 644 config/odoo.conf

Create the Docker Compose file:

bashcat > compose.yaml <<'EOF'
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:15
    container_name: odoo-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: postgres
      POSTGRES_USER: odoo
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/postgresql_password
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
    secrets:
      - postgresql_password
    volumes:
      - odoo_db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
    networks:
      - odoo_net
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U odoo -d postgres"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  odoo:
    image: odoo:18.0
    container_name: odoo
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      HOST: db
      USER: odoo
      PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/postgresql_password
    secrets:
      - postgresql_password
    volumes:
      - odoo_web_data:/var/lib/odoo
      - ./config:/etc/odoo
      - ./addons:/mnt/extra-addons
    networks:
      - odoo_net

  caddy:
    image: caddy:2
    container_name: odoo-caddy
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - odoo
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    environment:
      ODOO_DOMAIN: ${ODOO_DOMAIN}
      ACME_EMAIL: ${ACME_EMAIL}
      LOG_FILE: /data/access.log
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
      - caddy_data:/data
      - caddy_config:/config
    networks:
      - odoo_net

secrets:
  postgresql_password:
    file: ./secrets/postgresql_password

networks:
  odoo_net:
    driver: bridge

volumes:
  odoo_web_data:
    name: odoo_web_data
  odoo_db_data:
    name: odoo_db_data
  caddy_data:
  caddy_config:
EOF

Create the Caddy reverse proxy configuration. This file enables automatic HTTPS, uses the ACME email from .env, forwards normal Odoo traffic to port 8069, and forwards Odoo websocket traffic to port 8072.

bashcat > Caddyfile <<'EOF'
{
  email {$ACME_EMAIL}
}

{$ODOO_DOMAIN} {
  log {
    level INFO
    output file {$LOG_FILE} {
      roll_size 10MB
      roll_keep 10
    }
  }

  encode zstd gzip

  header {
    Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000"
    X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
    Referrer-Policy "no-referrer"
    -Server
  }

  @websocket path /websocket
  reverse_proxy @websocket odoo:8072
  reverse_proxy odoo:8069
}
EOF

Validate the Compose configuration:

bashsudo docker compose config >/dev/null && echo "Compose config is valid"

Expected output:

textCompose config is valid

Step 5 — Start Odoo, PostgreSQL, and Caddy

Start the stack:

bashcd /opt/odoo
sudo docker compose up -d

Verify the containers:

bashsudo docker compose ps

Expected output includes:

textNAME          SERVICE   STATUS
odoo          odoo      Up
odoo-caddy    caddy     Up
odoo-db       db        Up

Verify PostgreSQL is ready:

bashsudo docker compose exec -T db pg_isready -U odoo -d postgres

Expected output:

text/var/run/postgresql:5432 - accepting connections

Check the Caddy logs for certificate issuance:

bashsudo docker compose logs --tail=80 caddy

Expected output includes:

textcertificate obtained successfully

Verify Odoo loads over HTTPS:

bashODOO_DOMAIN=$(grep '^ODOO_DOMAIN=' /opt/odoo/.env | cut -d= -f2)
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$ODOO_DOMAIN"

Before the first database exists, expected output is similar to:

text200 https://erp.example.com/web/database/selector

Step 6 — Create the first Odoo database

Open your Odoo URL in a browser:

bashecho "https://$(grep '^ODOO_DOMAIN=' /opt/odoo/.env | cut -d= -f2)"

Display the Odoo master password:

bashsudo cat /opt/odoo/.odoo_master_password

Use the Odoo database creation page to create the first database.

Use these values:

textMaster Password: paste the value from /opt/odoo/.odoo_master_password
Database Name: raff_odoo
Email: admin@example.com
Password: use a strong password that is not reused anywhere else
Language: English
Country: your country
Demo data: leave unchecked for production

⚠️ Warning: Store the Odoo master password and first admin password in a secure password manager. The master password controls database creation, backup, restore, and deletion actions.

📌 Note: Use the database creation form for a new deployment. Do not use the restore form unless you are importing an existing Odoo backup archive.

Visible state check:

textThe browser shows the Odoo database creation page over HTTPS.
You can create the first database.
You can log in to the Odoo dashboard with the first admin account.

Odoo database creation page on Ubuntu 24.04 with HTTPS

After the database is created, log in and confirm the Apps dashboard loads.

Odoo Apps dashboard on Ubuntu 24.04 after Docker Compose deployment

Step 7 — Lock down database listing

After the first database exists, disable public database listing and restrict Odoo to the database you created.

bashcd /opt/odoo

read -rp "Odoo database name created in Step 6, for example raff_odoo: " ODOO_DB_NAME

if ! [[ "$ODOO_DB_NAME" =~ ^[A-Za-z0-9_]+$ ]]; then
  echo "Use only letters, numbers, and underscores in the database name."
  exit 1
fi

printf "%s\n" "$ODOO_DB_NAME" > .odoo_db_name

if grep -q '^list_db =' config/odoo.conf; then
  sed -i 's/^list_db = .*/list_db = False/' config/odoo.conf
else
  printf "\nlist_db = False\n" >> config/odoo.conf
fi

if grep -q '^dbfilter =' config/odoo.conf; then
  sed -i "s|^dbfilter = .*|dbfilter = ^${ODOO_DB_NAME}$|" config/odoo.conf
else
  printf "\ndbfilter = ^%s$\n" "$ODOO_DB_NAME" >> config/odoo.conf
fi

sudo docker compose restart odoo

Verify database listing is disabled and the database filter is active:

bashgrep '^list_db = False' /opt/odoo/config/odoo.conf
grep '^dbfilter =' /opt/odoo/config/odoo.conf

Expected output:

textlist_db = False
dbfilter = ^raff_odoo$

Verify Odoo still loads after the restart:

bashODOO_DOMAIN=$(grep '^ODOO_DOMAIN=' /opt/odoo/.env | cut -d= -f2)
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$ODOO_DOMAIN"

Expected output includes:

text200

Step 8 — Create the first Odoo backup

Create a first backup of the Odoo PostgreSQL database and Odoo filestore before adding business data.

bashcd /opt/odoo

ODOO_DB_NAME="$(cat .odoo_db_name)"
STAMP="$(date +%F-%H%M%S)"

sudo docker compose exec -T db pg_dump -U odoo "$ODOO_DB_NAME" \
  | gzip > "backups/odoo-db-${ODOO_DB_NAME}-${STAMP}.sql.gz"

sudo docker run --rm \
  -v odoo_web_data:/data:ro \
  -v /opt/odoo/backups:/backup \
  alpine:3.20 \
  tar -czf "/backup/odoo-filestore-${ODOO_DB_NAME}-${STAMP}.tar.gz" -C /data .

Verify both backup files exist and are readable:

bashcd /opt/odoo

ODOO_DB_NAME="$(cat .odoo_db_name)"
LATEST_DB_BACKUP="$(ls -1t backups/odoo-db-"$ODOO_DB_NAME"-*.sql.gz | head -n 1)"
LATEST_FILESTORE_BACKUP="$(ls -1t backups/odoo-filestore-"$ODOO_DB_NAME"-*.tar.gz | head -n 1)"

ls -lh "$LATEST_DB_BACKUP" "$LATEST_FILESTORE_BACKUP"

gzip -t "$LATEST_DB_BACKUP" \
  && echo "Database backup archive is valid"

sudo tar -tzf "$LATEST_FILESTORE_BACKUP" | head

Expected output includes:

textodoo-db-raff_odoo-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.sql.gz
odoo-filestore-raff_odoo-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.tar.gz
Database backup archive is valid
./filestore/

⚠️ Warning: Store Odoo backups off-server. Local backups are useful for quick recovery, but production backups should also exist outside the VM.

Step 9 — Verify the complete Odoo deployment

Odoo Apps dashboard after Docker Compose deployment on Ubuntu 24.04

Verify HTTPS, container status, PostgreSQL readiness, database lock-down, and backup files.

bashcd /opt/odoo

ODOO_DOMAIN=$(grep '^ODOO_DOMAIN=' .env | cut -d= -f2)
ODOO_DB_NAME=$(cat .odoo_db_name)

echo "Checking HTTPS:"
curl -L -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code} %{url_effective}\n' "https://$ODOO_DOMAIN"

echo "Checking containers:"
sudo docker compose ps

echo "Checking PostgreSQL:"
sudo docker compose exec -T db pg_isready -U odoo -d postgres

echo "Checking Odoo database lock-down:"
grep '^list_db = False' config/odoo.conf
grep '^dbfilter =' config/odoo.conf

echo "Checking backups:"
ls -1 backups/odoo-db-"$ODOO_DB_NAME"-*.sql.gz backups/odoo-filestore-"$ODOO_DB_NAME"-*.tar.gz | tail -n 4

Expected output includes:

text200 https://erp.example.com/web/login
odoo          odoo      Up
odoo-caddy    caddy     Up
odoo-db       db        Up
/var/run/postgresql:5432 - accepting connections
list_db = False
dbfilter = ^raff_odoo$
backups/odoo-db-raff_odoo-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.sql.gz
backups/odoo-filestore-raff_odoo-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.tar.gz

Complete the browser verification:

text1. Open https://your-odoo-domain.
2. Log in with the first Odoo admin account.
3. Confirm the Odoo Apps dashboard loads.
4. Open the user menu and confirm you are logged in as the admin user.
5. Refresh the page and confirm the dashboard still loads over HTTPS.

The Odoo deployment is complete when HTTPS works, the Odoo dashboard loads, PostgreSQL accepts connections, database listing is disabled, the database filter is active, and the first backup files exist.

Cleanup (Optional)

Use this section only if you want to remove Odoo from the Raff VM.

⚠️ Warning: The following commands permanently delete the Odoo containers, PostgreSQL data volume, Odoo filestore volume, Caddy certificate storage, configuration files, backups, and uploaded business data. Back up anything you need before proceeding.

bashcd /opt/odoo

sudo docker compose down -v

sudo rm -rf /opt/odoo

Close the firewall ports if this VM no longer hosts public web services:

bashsudo ufw delete allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw status numbered

Expected output no longer lists 80/tcp or 443/tcp rules.

Troubleshooting

HTTPS certificate issuance fails

Cause: The domain does not point to the Raff VM, ports 80/tcp and 443/tcp are blocked, or the certificate service cannot reach Caddy.

Fix:

bashODOO_DOMAIN=$(grep '^ODOO_DOMAIN=' /opt/odoo/.env | cut -d= -f2)

dig +short "$ODOO_DOMAIN"
sudo ufw status numbered
cd /opt/odoo
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 caddy

The DNS output must show the Raff VM public IP. The firewall output must allow 80/tcp and 443/tcp.

Odoo shows a 502 error

Cause: Caddy is running, but the Odoo container is not reachable on the Docker network.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/odoo

sudo docker compose ps
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 odoo
sudo docker compose restart odoo caddy

Expected output from sudo docker compose ps shows odoo and odoo-caddy as Up.

Odoo restarts with a PostgreSQL secret permission error

Cause: The Odoo container cannot read /run/secrets/postgresql_password.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/odoo

chmod 700 secrets
chmod 644 secrets/postgresql_password

sudo docker compose restart odoo
sudo docker compose logs --tail=50 odoo

Odoo cannot connect to PostgreSQL

Cause: PostgreSQL is not healthy, the password secret was changed after the database volume was created, or the database container did not start correctly.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/odoo

sudo docker compose ps
sudo docker compose exec -T db pg_isready -U odoo -d postgres
sudo docker compose logs --tail=100 db

Expected output:

text/var/run/postgresql:5432 - accepting connections

⚠️ Warning: Do not delete the PostgreSQL volume to fix a password mismatch unless you intentionally want to erase all Odoo databases.

Database creation shows Access Denied

Cause: The value entered in the Odoo Master Password field does not exactly match admin_passwd in /opt/odoo/config/odoo.conf.

Fix:

bashsudo cat /opt/odoo/.odoo_master_password
grep '^admin_passwd =' /opt/odoo/config/odoo.conf

If the password is hard to copy, rotate it to a hex-only value:

bashcd /opt/odoo

openssl rand -hex 32 > .odoo_master_password
NEW_MASTER_PASSWORD="$(cat .odoo_master_password)"

sed -i "s/^admin_passwd = .*/admin_passwd = ${NEW_MASTER_PASSWORD}/" config/odoo.conf
chmod 600 .odoo_master_password

sudo docker compose restart odoo
echo "$NEW_MASTER_PASSWORD"

Store the new master password immediately.

Fix for a new test deployment with no business data:

⚠️ Warning: This removes the test Odoo database. Do not run this on a production database that contains business data.

bashcd /opt/odoo

sudo docker compose stop odoo
sudo docker compose exec -T db dropdb -U odoo raff_odoo
sudo docker compose start odoo

Then open the Odoo database creation page and create the database again.

Backup creation fails

Cause: The Odoo database name does not match the database created in Step 6, or the backup directory is missing.

Fix:

bashcd /opt/odoo

cat .odoo_db_name
ls -ld backups
sudo docker compose exec -T db psql -U odoo -d postgres -c '\l'

The database list must include the name stored in .odoo_db_name.

Conclusion

You now have Odoo 18 running on a Raff Ubuntu 24.04 VM with Docker Compose, PostgreSQL 15, Caddy HTTPS, persistent Docker volumes, database listing disabled, a database filter enabled, and a first verified backup. If you have not deployed your Raff VM yet, you can spin one up in 60 seconds at rafftechnologies.com.

Next: How to Install Docker on Ubuntu 24.04
Related: Automate Server Backups with Cron and Rsync on Ubuntu 24.04
Guide: Cloud Server Backup Strategies

How to Deploy Odoo on Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Compose

Prerequisites

Step 1 — Update the Ubuntu server

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

Step 3 — Configure DNS and firewall rules

Step 4 — Create the Odoo Compose stack

Step 5 — Start Odoo, PostgreSQL, and Caddy

Step 6 — Create the first Odoo database

Step 7 — Lock down database listing

Step 8 — Create the first Odoo backup

Step 9 — Verify the complete Odoo deployment

Cleanup (Optional)

Troubleshooting

HTTPS certificate issuance fails

Odoo shows a 502 error

Odoo restarts with a PostgreSQL secret permission error

Odoo cannot connect to PostgreSQL

Database creation shows Access Denied

Backup creation fails

Conclusion

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