Certification track: Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE)
Odoo on GKE Autopilot
Odoo is a comprehensive open-source ERP suite with 12M+ users and modules spanning CRM, accounting, inventory, manufacturing, HR, and eCommerce. This module deploys Odoo Community Edition on GKE Autopilot on top of the App_GKE foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.
This guide focuses on the cloud services Odoo uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics that are common to every GKE application — Workload Identity, ingress, autoscaling, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_GKE foundation guide rather than repeating them here.
What Odoo costs on RAD, and how that compares
For a team of ten, Odoo on RAD's GKE Autopilot module costs about US$130–300 a month with no per-user licence. The same team pays about £220–410 a month on Odoo Online and about £470 on Odoo.sh. GKE suits Odoo that must stay up, scale across pods or run beside other Kubernetes workloads; for the lowest cost, the Cloud Run module runs the same Odoo for about US$84 a month. A self-managed server is cheaper in cash, but then you run the database, backups, security patches and upgrades yourself. Figures are as at 8 October 2026; sources are listed at the end of this section.
If you only need it occasionally — studying for a certification, a demo, a seasonal business — a RAD-managed project can be deleted and restored within 30 days for a few credits, so that US$130-150 becomes a few dollars a month instead. See Pause it for free, below.
What you pay on RAD
RAD deploys Odoo Community Edition, which is open source (LGPL), so there is no licence fee per user. You pay for three things:
| In a Google Cloud project you own | In a project RAD manages for you | |
|---|---|---|
| Module fee, once per deployment | 175 credits (US$17.50 at the top-up price) | 157.5 credits (10% lower) |
| Build time | About 3 credits per build (an Odoo build takes about 27 minutes) | The same |
| Google Cloud running cost | Billed by Google to your own billing account, about US$150 a month for the default configuration (table below) | Metered hourly in credits; RAD publishes 99 credits a day, about 2,970 a month (about US$297 at the top-up price, US$238 at the Scale plan's rate) |
| Who owns what | You own the project and its billing; RAD deploys and updates it | RAD owns the project, with guardrails, quotas and budget alerts; you get console access, and a minimum purchased balance is held in reserve |
10 credits cost US$1 on a one-off top-up, and less on a monthly plan. In a project RAD manages, the database, file server and network are shared by every application in the project, so a second application does not add a second database.
Default running cost in your own project (us-central1, Google list prices):
| Resource (module default) | Per month |
|---|---|
| Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL 17, 1 vCPU, 3.75 GB, zonal, 10 GB SSD | US$51 |
| NFS file server: an e2-small VM with 20 GB of disk | US$14 |
| GKE Autopilot, one Odoo pod with 1 vCPU and 2 GiB, running all the time | US$40 |
| Load balancing: the Service's load balancer, plus the gateway for the custom domain that is on by default | US$18–37 |
| Cloud NAT gateway and IP address | US$5 |
| Cloud Storage for add-ons and daily backups | US$1 |
| GKE cluster management fee | US$0 under GKE's free tier, otherwise US$73 |
| Total | about US$130–150, or about US$220 without the free tier |
GKE's free tier covers the management fee of one Autopilot or zonal cluster per billing account, so it applies only if this is your only such cluster. In africa-south1 (Johannesburg) Cloud SQL costs the same, and the pod and VM about 10% more. Two things shape the figure:
- GKE does not scale to zero. At least one Odoo pod always runs, so scheduled actions (fetching mail, recurring invoices, reminders) keep working, and the cost is the same whether anyone uses Odoo or not. Extra pods, up to three by default, are added only under load.
- Avoid Filestore for a small deployment. The module uses a small NFS VM by default. Filestore's smallest instance is 1 TiB, which costs about US$164 a month on its own.
How it compares, for ten internal users
| Option | Edition | Per month | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odoo Online, Standard plan | Enterprise | £220 (10 × £22, billed yearly; £180 in the first year) | Odoo. Custom modules are not allowed |
| Odoo Online, Custom plan | Enterprise | £410 (10 × £41, billed yearly) | Odoo. Adds Studio, the external API and multi-company |
| Odoo.sh, 1 worker, 20 GB, 1 staging branch | Enterprise | About £468 (£58 hosting + £410 Custom licence) | Odoo hosts; you manage your code |
| Enterprise on your own servers | Enterprise | £410 licence, plus the servers | You |
| Managed Community hosting (Cloudpepper Pro, medium server) | Community | €73 | The provider, on shared hosting |
| Your own server (Hetzner CPX22 or DigitalOcean 2 vCPU, 4 GB) | Community | €20, or US$24 plus US$7 for daily backups | You: operating system, PostgreSQL, backups, patches, upgrades |
| RAD, GKE Autopilot, your own project | Community | About US$130–150, plus US$17.50 once per deployment | RAD's automation, in your project |
| RAD, GKE Autopilot, a RAD-managed project | Community | About 2,970 credits (US$238–297) | RAD |
| RAD, Cloud Run | Community | About US$84, or 960 credits; see the Cloud Run guide | RAD |
Odoo's prices were read from odoo.com from the United Kingdom. Odoo sets prices by country, and its prices in many African countries are lower, so check odoo.com/pricing from your own country. What the table shows:
- Licences grow with every user; RAD's cost grows with load. Odoo's plans charge for each user with back-office access. RAD's cost is the infrastructure, which a growing team reaches only when it needs more capacity. At ten users RAD on GKE costs between a quarter and a half of the Odoo Online Custom plan, and the gap widens as the team grows.
- Community is not Enterprise. Enterprise adds full accounting, Studio, the mobile apps, Helpdesk, Field Service, Planning and other apps (see Odoo's edition comparison). If you need those, compare against Odoo Online or Odoo.sh: RAD's module deploys Community.
- A cheap server is cheap until something breaks. On RAD the database is Cloud SQL, with daily backups and seven days of point-in-time recovery, plus a nightly export of the database and files. Passwords are kept in Secret Manager, and logs and monitoring come from Google Cloud. On your own server, each of those is a job someone has to do.
Pause it for free: delete a RAD-managed project, restore it when you need it
If Odoo runs in a project RAD manages for you, you have a second option that goes well beyond scaling to zero: delete the whole project, and restore it within 30 days for close to nothing. This suits Odoo you only need occasionally — studying for a certification, a demo environment, a seasonal business — far better than running it continuously.
- How it works. Deleting a RAD-managed project unlinks its billing first, then asks Google to delete the project. Google does not remove the project immediately: it keeps it, recoverable, for 30 days. Because billing is already unlinked, nothing is charged while it waits. Unlike deleting one module, this does not tear down Cloud SQL, the VM or Cloud Run one by one — the whole project, and everything in it, simply stops.
- Restoring costs a few credits, not a rebuild. Within 30 days, the project's owner can restore it. RAD asks Google to undelete the project and reattaches its billing account, then asks you to run Update on each deployment to confirm everything came back. Because nothing was individually destroyed, that Update finds the same resources already there — it is a check, not a rebuild, and an Update never charges the module fee again. For Odoo on GKE behind a small Services_GCP and Project_GCP, that is about 7 credits in total (under US$1), against the 185 credits a full redeploy costs.
- So a month of occasional use can cost a few dollars, not US$130-150. Deploy Odoo, use it for an evening, delete the project. Restore it next time you want it, confirm with Update, and delete it again when you're done. You pay only for the module fee once, the builds, and whatever hours Odoo was actually live.
- What this needs. You must own the project (not a bring-your-own one RAD only manages billing for), and you restore it yourself within the 30 days — after that, Google deletes it for good. Restoring is admitted like creating a new project: your purchased credit balance must still clear the tier's floor (100 credits for the sandbox tier most study and demo use fits). Google says most services are fully working again within 36 hours of a restore.
- One real gap: the backup bucket does not survive. Odoo's nightly database and file backups are written to a bucket inside the project, and that bucket is not protected by Cloud Storage's soft-delete, so it is very likely gone as soon as you delete the project — even though the project itself is recoverable for 30 days. If you have made changes to Odoo you want to keep, copy a backup out (to Google Drive, or a bucket outside the project) before you delete, the same as the redeploy workflow below. For a default installation with nothing irreplaceable in it, this does not matter.
Pay only while you use it, the other way: delete and redeploy
GKE keeps at least one pod running, so it never scales to zero on its own. The option above only applies to a RAD-managed project; in your own project, or once the 30-day window has passed, the way to stop paying is to delete the deployment and deploy it again when you need it.
- What a redeploy costs. The module fee again plus the builds: about 185 credits (US$18.50) and about an hour, because RAD recreates the project and shared services before Odoo. Deleting saves money if Odoo would otherwise sit unused for about four days or more in your own project (about US$5 a day), or about two days in a RAD-managed one (99 credits a day).
- Delete everything Odoo uses. Most of the running cost is the database and file server. They stop only when nothing else in the project uses them, so deleting Odoo while other applications share the project saves only the GKE part.
- Keep your data first. The nightly backups are written to a bucket inside the deployment, and that bucket is deleted with it. Before deleting, copy the latest backup to Google Drive, or to a bucket you keep.
- Restore when you redeploy. Deploy again with
enable_backup_import = true,backup_source = "gdrive",backup_fileset to the Drive file ID andbackup_formattosql,tarorzip. The import reads from Google Drive or from the new deployment's own backup bucket, so a copy kept elsewhere in Cloud Storage has to be uploaded there first. Check your attachments after the import. - Note your settings. RAD does not recreate a deleted deployment for you; you enter the settings again when you deploy.
Lab sessions and Managed Environments
- Lab sessions, for training. A trainer runs an Odoo session for a class. Each participant gets Odoo in their own Google Cloud project for 15 minutes to 24 hours, within an allowance the trainer sets. Either the trainer funds every place up front, or each participant pays for their own. Everything is deleted when the session ends, and unused credits go back to the trainer. A three-hour session costs roughly 20 credits (US$2) per participant in builds and running cost, plus the module fee unless fees are waived for the session.
- Managed Environments, for consultancies. A partner runs Odoo for a client from a ring-fenced wallet it funds, and settles with the client directly. If the wallet runs low, billing pauses and the data is kept, so nobody receives an unexpected charge. At the end of the engagement the partner hands the project over, and the deployments become the client's own.
Credits can be bought in more than 20 currencies, including XAF, XOF, NGN, GHS, KES and ZAR, by card, bank transfer or mobile money.
Sources (8 October 2026): Google Cloud list prices from the Cloud Billing Catalog API; Delete and restore projects for the 30-day recovery window and what it says about Cloud Storage objects without soft delete; RAD fees and the 99-credit daily estimate from radmodules.dev/pricing; Odoo pricing, Odoo.sh pricing and Odoo editions; Cloudpepper, Hetzner Cloud and DigitalOcean. Prices change; check each source before relying on a figure.
1. Overview
Odoo runs as a Python/PostgreSQL ERP workload. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:
| Capability | Google Cloud service | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | GKE Autopilot | Python/Odoo pods, 1 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, horizontally autoscaled from one to three pods |
| Database | Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL | Required — Odoo does not support MySQL or SQL Server; PostgreSQL 17 by default, from the shared services |
| Shared files | NFS file server (Compute Engine VM) | Odoo's filestore, sessions, and extra-addons directories shared across all replicas; a small e2-small VM by default, with Filestore available as an option |
| Object storage | Cloud Storage | A dedicated addons bucket (odoo-addons) for custom and community addons |
| Cache & sessions | Redis (optional) | Disabled by default; required when max_instance_count > 1 to share session state |
| Secrets | Secret Manager | Auto-generated master password (ODOO_MASTER_PASS) and database password |
| Ingress | Cloud Load Balancing | External LoadBalancer, optional custom domain + managed certificate |
Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:
- PostgreSQL is mandatory. The database engine is fixed; selecting MySQL or
NONEbreaks startup. - NFS is required. Without the shared NFS volume, Odoo's filestore (attachments, binary fields, compiled assets) is isolated to each pod and lost on restart.
- Session affinity is
ClientIP. Odoo stores sessions on NFS; pinning requests to the same pod avoids cross-pod session lookups. - Two init jobs run on every deploy.
nfs-initsets up NFS directory ownership anddb-initcreates the PostgreSQL database and user — both are idempotent. - The Odoo master password is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager; you never set it in plain text.
- First boot is slow. Odoo installs the base module and runs schema migrations on first start; the startup probe allows up to 9 minutes (180s delay + 3 × 120s period).
2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them
All commands assume you have run
gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster> --region <region> --project <project>
and that PROJECT, REGION, and NAMESPACE are set. The namespace and other identifiers
are reported in the deployment Outputs.
A. GKE Autopilot — the Odoo workload
Odoo pods are scheduled on Autopilot, which bills for the CPU/memory the pods actually request. Horizontal Pod Autoscaling sizes the deployment between the minimum and maximum replica counts.
- Console: Kubernetes Engine → Workloads → select the Odoo workload to see pods, revisions, and events. Kubernetes Engine → Services & Ingress shows the external IP.
- CLI:
kubectl get pods,svc,hpa -n "$NAMESPACE"
kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> --tail=100
kubectl describe hpa -n "$NAMESPACE" # current vs target utilisation
# Check Odoo version running in the container:
kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- odoo --version
See App_GKE for how Autopilot, scaling, and the workload type (Deployment vs StatefulSet) are managed.
B. Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL
Odoo stores all ERP data (contacts, invoices, inventory, orders) in a managed Cloud SQL
for PostgreSQL instance. Pods reach it privately through the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy
sidecar over a Unix socket, so no public IP is exposed. On first deploy the db-init job
creates the application database and user.
- Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, and metrics.
- CLI:
gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
# Open an interactive shell to inspect schema/data:
gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=<db-user> --project "$PROJECT"
# Confirm database and user were created:
gcloud sql databases list --instance=<instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud sql users list --instance=<instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
The instance name, database name, user, and the Secret Manager secret holding the password are all surfaced in the Outputs. For the connection model, automated backups, and password rotation, see App_GKE.
C. NFS file server and Cloud Storage
Odoo's filestore (binary attachments, images, compiled assets), session data, and
extra-addons directories are written to an NFS share served by a small Compute Engine VM
and mounted into every pod, so all replicas see the same files. Filestore can replace the VM,
but its smallest instance is 1 TiB. A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket
(odoo-addons) is also provisioned for custom and community addons.
- Console: Compute Engine → VM instances for the NFS server; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the addons bucket.
- CLI:
gcloud compute instances list --project "$PROJECT" # the NFS server VM
gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
gcloud storage ls gs://<addons-bucket>/ # bucket name is in the Outputs
# Confirm the NFS share is mounted inside a pod:
kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- df -h | grep -i nfs
# List NFS directories:
kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- ls /mnt/
See App_GKE for NFS provisioning, GCS Fuse, and CMEK options.
D. Redis cache (optional)
Redis backs Odoo's session store when multiple replicas are running. Without Redis,
session affinity (ClientIP) is the only protection against session loss on pod restart.
Redis is disabled by default; set enable_redis = true and redis_host to enable it.
- Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
- CLI:
redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace
# Confirm Redis env vars are injected into the running pod:
kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- env | grep -E "^REDIS_"
E. Secret Manager
The Odoo master password (ODOO_MASTER_PASS) and the database password are stored as
Secret Manager secrets and injected into pods at runtime; plaintext never appears in
configuration.
- Console: Security → Secret Manager.
- CLI:
gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
# Retrieve the master password:
gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~master-password"
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<master-password-secret> --project "$PROJECT"
The database password secret name is in the Outputs. See App_GKE for the Secret Store CSI integration and rotation.
F. Networking & ingress
By default the workload is exposed through an external Cloud Load Balancing IP. A custom domain with a Google-managed certificate can be enabled, and a static IP can be reserved so the address survives redeploys.
- Console: Network services → Load balancing; VPC network → IP addresses.
- CLI:
kubectl get ingress,svc -n "$NAMESPACE"
gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"
See App_GKE for custom domains, Cloud CDN, and static IP details.
G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring
Pod stdout/stderr flow to Cloud Logging; GKE and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring. Optional uptime checks and alert policies are available.
- Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
- CLI:
gcloud logging read 'resource.type="k8s_container" AND resource.labels.namespace_name="'"$NAMESPACE"'"' \
--project "$PROJECT" --limit 50
# Monitor startup progress:
kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" -l app=odoo --follow | grep -E "odoo.modules|http.server"
3. Odoo Application Behaviour
- Two init jobs on every deploy.
nfs-init— mounts the NFS share and creates/mnt/filestore,/mnt/sessions, and/mnt/extra-addonswith ownership101:101(the Odoo process user). Must succeed before Odoo starts.db-init— runs afternfs-initand idempotently creates the PostgreSQL database and application user. Both jobs are safe to re-run.
kubectl get jobs -n "$NAMESPACE"
kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" -l job-name=nfs-init
kubectl logs -n "$NAMESPACE" -l job-name=db-init - Schema migration on start. The container starts Odoo with
-i base, which applies any pending schema migrations automatically. Version upgrades are applied on next pod start. - Odoo master password. An auto-generated 16-character alphanumeric password is stored in
Secret Manager and injected as
ODOO_MASTER_PASS. It protects the database management interface at/web/database/manager. Override it usingexplicit_secret_values:gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT" --filter="name~master-password"
gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<master-password-secret> --project "$PROJECT" - SMTP for outbound email. Odoo uses environment variables for its outbound mail
transport (order confirmations, password resets, CRM notifications). Configure
SMTP_HOST,SMTP_PORT,SMTP_USER,SMTP_SSL, andEMAIL_FROMinenvironment_variablesbefore going live; moveSMTP_PASSWORDtosecret_environment_variables. - Health path. The startup probe allows 180 seconds of initial delay then checks
GET /web/health(HTTP 200 only when Odoo has a live database connection). The liveness probe continues checking/web/healthevery 30 seconds. On first boot (schema creation from scratch), the startup can take 2–10 minutes depending on available CPU.kubectl exec -n "$NAMESPACE" deploy/<service-name> -- \
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" http://localhost:8069/web/health
# Expect: 200 - Odoo background scheduler (cron). Odoo's built-in scheduler requires at least one
running pod. Keep
min_instance_count = 1in production to prevent cron disruption.
4. Configuration Variables
Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for Odoo are listed; every other input is inherited from App_GKE with its standard behaviour and defaults.
Group 1 — Project & Identity
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
project_id | (required) | Target Google Cloud project. |
region | us-central1 | Region for the workload and regional resources. |
Group 2 — Deployment Environment
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
tenant_id | demo | Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment. |
support_users | [] | Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts. |
resource_labels | {} | Labels applied to all resources for cost/ownership tracking. |
Group 3 — Application Identity
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
application_name | odoo | Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy. |
application_display_name | Odoo ERP | Friendly name shown in the Console. |
application_description | Odoo ERP on GKE Autopilot | Workload description annotation. |
application_version | 18.0 | Odoo nightly channel to install ("18.0", "17.0", "16.0"). Increment to upgrade. |
Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
deploy_application | true | Set false to provision infrastructure only. |
container_image_source | custom | "custom" builds from the Odoo nightly Dockerfile; "prebuilt" deploys an existing image. |
container_image | "" | Override image URI (used with "prebuilt"). |
container_resources | { cpu_limit = "1000m", memory_limit = "512Mi" } | Resource limits per pod. Raise to ≥ 2 vCPU / 4 GiB for production. |
min_instance_count | 1 | Minimum replicas. Keep ≥ 1 to preserve the Odoo cron scheduler. |
max_instance_count | 3 | Maximum replicas (autoscaler ceiling). |
container_port | 8069 | Port Odoo listens on. Do not change unless the Odoo server is reconfigured. |
enable_cloudsql_volume | true | Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar for socket connections. |
enable_vertical_pod_autoscaling | false | Let Autopilot tune resource requests automatically. |
enable_image_mirroring | true | Mirror the container image into Artifact Registry. |
Group 5 — Environment Variables & Secrets
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
environment_variables | {} | Plain-text settings. Empty by default — set SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_SSL, and EMAIL_FROM here for outbound email. |
secret_environment_variables | {} | Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name (e.g. SMTP_PASSWORD). |
explicit_secret_values | {} | Sensitive values written to Secret Manager during deploy. Use to set a custom ODOO_MASTER_PASS. |
Group 6 — GKE Backend & Cluster
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
service_type | LoadBalancer | How the Service is exposed. |
session_affinity | ClientIP | Sticky routing; required when Redis is not enabled for session sharing. |
workload_type | null | Auto-resolves to StatefulSet when stateful_pvc_enabled = true. |
network_tags | ['nfsserver'] | Pod tags; nfsserver is required for NFS firewall connectivity. |
gke_cluster_name | "" | Target cluster name; leave empty for auto-discovery. |
namespace_name | "" | Kubernetes namespace; leave empty to auto-generate. |
Group 7 — StatefulSet
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
stateful_pvc_enabled | null | Enable per-pod PVCs in the StatefulSet. |
stateful_pvc_size | 10Gi | PVC size per pod. Plan for 100 GiB+ in active ERP deployments. |
stateful_pvc_mount_path | /data | Mount path inside the pod for the PVC. |
stateful_pvc_storage_class | standard-rwo | Kubernetes StorageClass for PVCs. |
Group 8 — Resource Quota
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_resource_quota | false | Cap namespace CPU/memory/object counts. |
quota_memory_requests / quota_memory_limits | "" | Must use binary units (4Gi, 8192Mi) — bare integers are treated as bytes by Kubernetes and block scheduling. |
Group 9 — Reliability Policies
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_pod_disruption_budget | true | Protect availability during node upgrades. |
pdb_min_available | 1 | Raise min_instance_count above 1 if you need eviction headroom. |
enable_topology_spread | false | Spread pods across zones. |
Group 10 — Observability & Health
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
startup_probe_config | { path = "/web/health", initial_delay_seconds = 180, timeout_seconds = 60, period_seconds = 120, failure_threshold = 3 } | Generous delay for first-boot schema creation. Increase failure_threshold to 5 on very first deploys. |
health_check_config | { path = "/web/health", initial_delay_seconds = 30, timeout_seconds = 5, period_seconds = 30, failure_threshold = 3 } | Liveness check. /web/health returns 200 only when Odoo has a live database connection. |
uptime_check_config | { enabled = false, path = "/" } | Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check; disabled by default. |
alert_policies | [] | Optional metric alert policies. |
Group 11 — Jobs & Scheduled Tasks
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
initialization_jobs | [] | Leave empty to use the built-in nfs-init + db-init jobs. |
cron_jobs | [] | User-defined scheduled tasks (Kubernetes CronJobs). |
Group 12 — CI/CD & GitHub Integration
Standard App_GKE Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see
App_GKE. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger,
github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy.
Group 13 — Filesystem (NFS)
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_nfs | true | Required — Odoo's filestore, sessions, and addons directories must reside on shared storage. |
nfs_mount_path | /mnt | NFS mount path inside the container as seen by App_GKE. |
Group 14 — Cloud Storage & Artifact Registry
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
create_cloud_storage | true | Provision the addons bucket. |
storage_buckets | [{ name_suffix = "data" }] | Additional buckets beyond the Odoo-managed odoo-addons bucket. |
gcs_volumes | [] | Additional GCS Fuse mounts. |
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek | false | CMEK options. |
max_images_to_retain | 7 | Maximum recent Artifact Registry images to keep. |
Group 15 — Redis Cache
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_redis | false | Enable Redis for session storage. Required when max_instance_count > 1. |
redis_host | "" | Redis endpoint. Required when enable_redis = true. |
redis_port | 6379 | Redis port. |
redis_auth | "" | Optional Redis auth password (sensitive). |
Group 16 — Database Backend
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
database_type | POSTGRES | Fixed — do not change to MySQL or NONE. |
application_database_name | gkeappdb | Database name. Immutable after first deploy. |
application_database_user | gkeappuser | Application user. Immutable after first deploy. |
database_password_length | 32 | Generated password length (16–64). |
enable_postgres_extensions / postgres_extensions | false / [] | Install PostgreSQL extensions (e.g. postgis, unaccent) after provisioning. |
enable_auto_password_rotation | false | Zero-downtime DB password rotation. |
Group 17 — Backup & Maintenance
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
backup_schedule | 0 2 * * * | Automated backup cron (UTC). |
backup_retention_days | 7 | Retention; raise to 90+ for financial/compliance data. |
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_file / backup_format | restore options | Restore a PostgreSQL dump on deploy. |
Group 18 — Custom SQL Scripts
enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path,
custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See
App_GKE.
Group 19 — Custom Domain, Static IP & Networking
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_custom_domain | true | Provision Ingress for custom hostnames + managed certificate. |
application_domains | [] | Hostnames to serve. |
reserve_static_ip | true | Stable external IP across redeploys. |
Group 20 — Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP)
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_iap | false | Require Google sign-in in front of Odoo. Recommended for admin-only ERP deployments. |
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups | [] | Who may access. |
iap_oauth_client_id / iap_oauth_client_secret | "" | Required when IAP is enabled (sensitive). |
iap_support_email | "" | Shown on the OAuth consent screen. |
Group 21 — Cloud Armor
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_cloud_armor | false | Attach a Cloud Armor (WAF) policy to the Ingress backend. Strongly recommended for any internet-facing Odoo deployment. |
admin_ip_ranges | [] | CIDRs allowed privileged access. |
cloud_armor_policy_name | default-waf-policy | Policy name. |
Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enable_vpc_sc | false | Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id). |
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run | [] / true | Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode. |
enable_audit_logging | false | Detailed Cloud Audit Logs. |
5. Outputs
These values are returned on a successful deployment and are the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.
| Output | Description |
|---|---|
service_name | Kubernetes Service name. |
namespace | Namespace the workload runs in. |
service_cluster_ip | In-cluster ClusterIP. |
stage_service_cluster_ips | Map of ClusterIPs for stage-specific services (Cloud Deploy). |
service_external_ip | External LoadBalancer IP (when a static IP is reserved). |
service_url | URL to reach Odoo. |
database_instance_name | Cloud SQL instance name. |
database_name | Application database name. |
database_user | Application database user. |
database_password_secret | Secret Manager secret holding the DB password. |
database_host / database_port | DB endpoint (127.0.0.1 via the Auth Proxy) / port. |
storage_buckets | Created Cloud Storage buckets. |
network_name / network_exists / regions | VPC network, presence, available regions. |
container_image / container_registry | Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo. |
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels | Monitoring status and channels. |
initialization_jobs / db_import_job | Names of the setup and (optional) import jobs. |
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix | Naming identifiers. |
project_id / project_number | Project identifiers. |
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration | CI/CD status and details. |
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id | Registry and build trigger. |
kubernetes_ready | Whether the cluster/workload is ready. |
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode | VPC-SC status. |
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled | Audit logging and CMEK status. |
6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults
Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).
| Setting | Sensible value | Risk | Consequence if wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
database_type | POSTGRES | Critical | Odoo requires PostgreSQL exclusively; MySQL or NONE breaks startup. |
enable_nfs | true | Critical | Without NFS, attachments and session data are isolated to each pod and lost on restart. |
application_database_name / _user | set once | Critical | Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all ERP data. |
container_resources.memory_limit | ≥ 4Gi for production | Critical | Default 512Mi causes immediate Python OOM during module loading. Always raise to at least 2Gi. |
enable_backup_import | false unless restoring | Critical | Enabling without a valid backup_file fails the import job. |
quota_memory_requests / _limits | binary units | Critical | Bare integers are treated as bytes by Kubernetes and block all scheduling. |
explicit_secret_values (ODOO_MASTER_PASS) | strong, unique | Critical | The database manager at /web/database/manager is protected only by this password; a weak value exposes drop-database to anyone who can reach the URL. |
enable_redis | true when max_instance_count > 1 | High | Without Redis and session_affinity = ClientIP, users are logged out when routed to a different pod. |
redis_host | explicit endpoint | High | Required when enable_redis = true; empty causes session backend failures at startup. |
application_version | valid LTS (18.0, 17.0) | High | Invalid version tag fails the Cloud Build step during image build. |
container_image_source | custom | High | Odoo requires a custom image to wire the PostgreSQL socket and filestore paths; an upstream image not configured for Cloud SQL Unix sockets will fail to connect. |
min_instance_count | 1 | High | 0 stops the Odoo background scheduler (cron) and adds 30–60 second cold starts. |
session_affinity | ClientIP | High | Without stickiness and without Redis, multi-replica deployments continuously lose session state. |
backup_retention_days | 90 for production | High | Odoo contains financial records; 7 days is insufficient for most compliance requirements. |
enable_iap / enable_cloud_armor | enable for production | High | The Odoo database manager and admin portal should not be publicly reachable without authentication. |
pdb_min_available vs min_instance_count | leave headroom | Medium | 1/1 can stall node upgrades when the single pod cannot be evicted. |
stateful_pvc_size | 100Gi+ for production | Medium | ERP attachments (invoices, contracts, product images) accumulate quickly. |
For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — IAM and Workload Identity, autoscaling, ingress and certificates, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_GKE. Odoo-specific application configuration shared with the Cloud Run variant is described in Odoo_Common.
Related guides
- Hands-on lab: Odoo on GKE Autopilot — deploy it step by step, with the console screens and commands at each stage.
- Odoo on Cloud Run — the same application on Cloud Run, for when you need the other deployment target.
- Odoo Shared Application Configuration — the configuration shared by both deployment targets.
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