Introduction

In this post, I’ll walk you through how I deployed Odoo using the Bitnami Helm chart on my on-premises Kubernetes cluster hosted on Proxmox, while connecting it to an external PostgreSQL database running on a separate Proxmox VM.

Architecture Overview

flowchart LR subgraph Proxmox subgraph K8s_Cluster[Kubernetes Cluster] CP[Control Plane Node
vm-k8s-dev-01-cp-01] WK[Worker Node
vm-k8s-dev-01-wk-01] subgraph Odoo_Deployment[Odoo Deployment (Bitnami Helm)] Odoo1[Odoo Pod 1] Odoo2[Odoo Pod 2] PVC[Persistent Volume
/bitnami/odoo] end end DBVM[PostgreSQL VM
vm-pgsql-dev-01] end Odoo1 --- PVC Odoo2 --- PVC Odoo1 --- DBVM Odoo2 --- DBVM CP --- WK

My Environment

  • Proxmox Cluster:

    • vm-k8s-dev-01-cp-01: Kubernetes control-plane node (Ubuntu 22.04)
    • vm-k8s-dev-01-wk-01: Kubernetes worker node
    • vm-pgsql-dev-01: PostgreSQL VM

  • Kubernetes:

    • Version: 1.30.x
    • Networking: Calico CNI

  • PostgreSQL:

    • Version: 15.x
    • Hosted on dedicated Proxmox VM

  • Helm:

    • Version: v3.15.x

  • Bitnami Odoo Chart:

Step 1 — Preparing PostgreSQL

On my PostgreSQL VM (vm-pgsql-dev-01):

sudo -u postgres psql

Create the Odoo database and user:

CREATE DATABASE odoo_db;
CREATE USER odoo_user WITH PASSWORD 'SuperSecretPassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE odoo_db TO odoo_user;

Allow connections from Kubernetes nodes in pg_hba.conf:

# Example: allow all K8s subnet (adjust CIDR)
host    odoo_db     odoo_user     10.244.0.0/16     md5

In postgresql.conf, listen on all interfaces:

listen_addresses = '*'

Restart PostgreSQL:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql

Test from a Kubernetes node:

psql -h vm-pgsql-dev-01 -U odoo_user -d odoo_db

Step 2 — Creating a Kubernetes Namespace

kubectl create namespace odoo

Step 3 — Adding the Bitnami Helm Repository

helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm repo update

Step 4 — Creating the values.yaml

# values.yaml
image:
  repository: bitnami/odoo
  tag: 17-debian-12
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent

postgresql:
  enabled: false

externalDatabase:
  host: vm-pgsql-dev-01
  port: 5432
  user: odoo_user
  password: SuperSecretPassword
  database: odoo_db

service:
  type: LoadBalancer
  port: 80

persistence:
  enabled: true
  size: 10Gi
  storageClass: nfs-client # adjust for your storage provisioner

ingress:
  enabled: true
  hostname: odoo.local
  ingressClassName: nginx
  annotations:
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/rewrite-target: /
  tls: []

Step 5 — Deploying Odoo

helm install odoo bitnami/odoo -f values.yaml -n odoo

Check:

kubectl get pods -n odoo
kubectl get svc -n odoo

Step 6 — Accessing Odoo

If using LoadBalancer (MetalLB):

kubectl get svc -n odoo

Open the assigned IP in your browser. If using Ingress, make sure DNS or /etc/hosts points odoo.local to your ingress controller.

Step 7 — Persistent Volumes & Backups

The Bitnami chart stores uploaded files and modules in /bitnami/odoo (persistent).

For PostgreSQL backups:

pg_dump -h vm-pgsql-dev-01 -U odoo_user -d odoo_db > odoo_backup.sql

Step 8 — Scaling & Updates

Scale app layer:

kubectl scale deployment odoo -n odoo --replicas=3

Update Odoo:

helm upgrade odoo bitnami/odoo -f values.yaml -n odoo

Conclusion

Separating Odoo and PostgreSQL provides:

  • Independent DB maintenance
  • Easier backups
  • Safer upgrades

Running both on Proxmox keeps full control in your hands while staying on-premises.

References: