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.

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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 / 512 MiB by default (raise to ≥ 2 vCPU / 4 GiB for production), horizontally autoscaled
Database	Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL	Required — Odoo does not support MySQL or SQL Server
Shared files	Filestore (NFS)	Filestore, sessions, and extra-addons directories shared across all replicas
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 NONE breaks startup.
• NFS is required. Without a shared Filestore 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-init sets up NFS directory ownership and db-init creates 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).

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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. Filestore (NFS) and Cloud Storage

Odoo's filestore (binary attachments, images, compiled assets), session data, and extra-addons directories are written to a Filestore (NFS) share mounted into every pod so all replicas see the same files. A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (odoo-addons) is also provisioned for custom and community addons.

• Console: Filestore → Instances for the NFS share; Cloud Storage → Buckets for the addons bucket.
• CLI:

  gcloud filestore instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$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"

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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-addons with ownership 101:101 (the Odoo process user). Must succeed before Odoo starts.
  • db-init — runs after nfs-init and 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 using explicit_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, and EMAIL_FROM in environment_variables before going live; move SMTP_PASSWORD to secret_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/health every 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 = 1 in production to prevent cron disruption.

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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_deployment_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	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.

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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.

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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.

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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.