How to Install Odoo 18 Community Edition on Ubuntu Server
A practical walkthrough for preparing Ubuntu, installing Odoo 18 Community dependencies, configuring PostgreSQL, and starting the server.
Odoo is an open-source ERP suite used to manage business operations in one system. This guide outlines the original setup flow for Odoo 18 Community Edition on Ubuntu, from server preparation to the first startup.
Prerequisites
Start with a clean Ubuntu 22.04 or later server and root or sudo access. The original guide recommends at least 2 GB RAM (4 GB or more is preferable), a domain or static IP where needed, and basic familiarity with the Linux command line.
Install system dependencies
Update package lists and install the tools, development libraries, and services needed by Odoo and its Python dependencies:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y openssh-server fail2ban python3-pip python3-dev python3-venv \
libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev zlib1g-dev libsasl2-dev libldap2-dev build-essential \
libssl-dev libffi-dev libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev libjpeg8-dev liblcms2-dev \
libblas-dev libatlas-base-dev git curl fontconfig libxrender1 xfonts-75dpi xfonts-base
The source guide also documents installing OpenSSL 1.1 for environments that need it, and installing a matching wkhtmltopdf package for PDF reports. Check compatibility with the Ubuntu release and Odoo deployment before installing older system packages.
Get Odoo and its Python requirements
Clone the Community 18.0 branch and install the listed Python requirements in the environment you intend to run Odoo with:
git clone -b 18.0 --single-branch --depth 1 https://github.com/odoo/odoo.git odoo_ce
cd odoo_ce
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
Odoo can generate an initial configuration file with odoo-bin --save --config /etc/odoo/odoo.conf --stop-after-init. Configure PostgreSQL with a dedicated user and database, and restrict remote database access to the hosts that need it.
Start the server
Run Odoo with the configuration file and install the base web modules:
/srv/odoo_ce/odoo-bin -c /etc/odoo/odoo.conf -i base,web
The default web port is 8069. Visit http://<your-server-ip>:8069 to complete the initial setup. For a production deployment, configure service management, firewall rules, and HTTPS before exposing the instance publicly.
Originally published on Koderstory Devlog.
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