Backup & Recovery¶

Backup strategy and disaster recovery procedures for JDX Odoo.

Understanding Odoo Data Storage¶

Odoo stores data in two separate locations:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     PostgreSQL Database                      │
│                                                              │
│  - All users and passwords                                   │
│  - All settings and configurations                           │
│  - Installed modules list                                    │
│  - All business data (invoices, orders, contacts)            │
│  - File references (paths only, not actual files)            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              +
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Filestore                             │
│                                                              │
│  - Attachments (PDFs, images, documents)                     │
│  - Report templates                                          │
│  - Email attachments                                         │
│  - Product images                                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

How Database Links to Filestore¶

The database stores file paths, not actual files. Odoo links them at runtime:

Database (ir_attachment table):
┌─────────┬──────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│ id      │ name             │ store_fname             │
├─────────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ 1       │ invoice.pdf      │ ab/ab123456789...       │
│ 2       │ photo.jpg        │ cd/cd987654321...       │
└─────────┴──────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘
                    ↓
Filestore folder:
/var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/{database_name}/
    ├── ab/
    │   └── ab123456789...  ← actual PDF file
    └── cd/
        └── cd987654321...  ← actual JPG file

Database name must match filestore folder

Odoo looks for files at: {data_dir}/filestore/{DATABASE_NAME}/{store_fname} If names don't match, attachments won't load.

Filestore Locations¶

Installation Type	Filestore Path
Native (package)	`/var/lib/odoo/filestore/`
Native (source)	`/var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/`
Docker	`/var/lib/odoo/filestore/` (inside container)
Custom	Check `data_dir` in `odoo.conf`

Finding Your Filestore¶

# Check odoo.conf for data_dir
sudo cat /etc/odoo/odoo.conf | grep data_dir

# Example output:
# data_dir = /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo

# Filestore is at: {data_dir}/filestore/{database_name}/
sudo ls -la /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/

# Check size
sudo du -sh /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/

odoo.conf Configuration¶

Key settings in /etc/odoo/odoo.conf:

[options]
; Database connection (for RDS)
db_host = your-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com
db_port = 5432
db_user = odoo
db_password = your_password
db_name = production

; Data directory (contains filestore)
data_dir = /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo

; Addons path
addons_path = /opt/odoo/addons,/opt/odoo/custom-addons

Backup Strategy¶

What Gets Backed Up¶

Component	Method	Frequency	Retention
PostgreSQL Database	pg_dump	Daily	30 days
Odoo Filestore	tar archive	Daily	30 days
Configuration	Git	On change	Forever

Backup Schedule¶

Type	Schedule	Retention
Full backup	Daily 2:00 AM	30 days
Database only	Every 6 hours	7 days
S3 lifecycle	Auto-expire	90 days → Glacier

Backup Scripts¶

Full Backup¶

./scripts/backup.sh full

Creates: - odoo_db_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.sql.gz - odoo_filestore_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.tar.gz

Uploads to S3 bucket.

Database Only¶

./scripts/backup.sh db

Filestore Only¶

./scripts/backup.sh files

Manual Backup¶

# Database
docker compose exec db pg_dump -U odoo odoo_test | gzip > backup.sql.gz

# Filestore
docker compose exec odoo tar -czf - -C /var/lib/odoo filestore > filestore.tar.gz

Restore Procedures¶

Full Restore¶

./scripts/restore.sh backup.sql.gz filestore.tar.gz

This will: 1. Stop Odoo service 2. Drop existing database 3. Restore database from backup 4. Restore filestore 5. Restart Odoo

Database Only Restore¶

./scripts/restore.sh backup.sql.gz

Manual Restore¶

# Stop Odoo
docker compose stop odoo

# Drop and recreate database
docker compose exec db psql -U odoo -d postgres -c "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS odoo_test;"
docker compose exec db psql -U odoo -d postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE odoo_test OWNER odoo;"

# Restore
gunzip -c backup.sql.gz | docker compose exec -T db psql -U odoo -d odoo_test

# Start Odoo
docker compose start odoo

Native Odoo Restore (AWS EC2 with RDS)¶

For native Odoo installations using AWS Lightsail/RDS PostgreSQL:

Migration to New Server¶

Since database is on RDS (separate from EC2), you only need to:

Restore filestore files
Point odoo.conf to existing RDS

┌─────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────┐
│   New EC2       │         │  Lightsail RDS  │
│                 │ ──────► │   PostgreSQL    │
│  - Odoo app     │         │                 │
│  - Filestore    │         │  - Database     │
│  (restore here) │         │  (already has   │
│                 │         │   your data)    │
└─────────────────┘         └─────────────────┘

Step-by-Step New Server Setup¶

# 1. Install Odoo (no PostgreSQL needed - using RDS)
sudo apt update
sudo apt install odoo

# 2. Stop Odoo before configuration
sudo systemctl stop odoo

# 3. Configure odoo.conf with RDS connection
sudo nano /etc/odoo/odoo.conf

[options]
; RDS connection
db_host = your-rds-endpoint.lightsail.amazonaws.com
db_port = 5432
db_user = odoo
db_password = your_rds_password
db_name = production

; Data directory
data_dir = /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo

; Addons
addons_path = /opt/odoo/addons,/opt/odoo/custom-addons

# 4. Create filestore directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore

# 5. Restore filestore from backup
sudo tar -xzvf filestore-backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/

# 6. Fix permissions
sudo chown -R odoo:odoo /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo

# 7. Start Odoo
sudo systemctl start odoo

# 8. Verify
sudo systemctl status odoo
sudo tail -f /var/log/odoo/odoo.log

Full Restore (Database + Filestore)¶

If restoring to a completely new RDS as well:

# 1. Install Odoo
sudo apt install odoo

# 2. Stop Odoo
sudo systemctl stop odoo

# 3. Restore database to RDS
# Connect to RDS from EC2
PGPASSWORD=your_password psql -h your-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com -U odoo -d postgres

# Create database (name must match filestore folder)
CREATE DATABASE production OWNER odoo;
\q

# Restore SQL dump
PGPASSWORD=your_password psql -h your-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com -U odoo -d production < backup.sql

# 4. Restore filestore (folder name must match database name)
sudo tar -xzvf filestore-backup.tar.gz -C /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/

# Verify folder name matches
ls /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/
# Should show: production

# 5. Fix permissions
sudo chown -R odoo:odoo /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo

# 6. Configure odoo.conf (see above)

# 7. Start Odoo
sudo systemctl start odoo

Backup Commands for Native Odoo¶

# Backup database from RDS
PGPASSWORD=your_password pg_dump -h your-rds-endpoint.amazonaws.com -U odoo production > backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Backup filestore
sudo tar -czvf filestore-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore production

# Upload to S3
aws s3 cp backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql s3://your-bucket/backups/
aws s3 cp filestore-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz s3://your-bucket/backups/

Sync Filestore to S3 (Incremental)¶

For ongoing filestore backup:

# Sync only changed files (efficient)
aws s3 sync /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/production s3://your-bucket/filestore/

# Add to cron for weekly backup
crontab -e
# Add: 0 3 * * 0 aws s3 sync /var/lib/odoo/.local/share/Odoo/filestore/production s3://your-bucket/filestore/

S3 Backup Configuration¶

Bucket Setup¶

# Create bucket
aws s3 mb s3://jdx-odoo-backups --region us-east-1

# Enable versioning
aws s3api put-bucket-versioning \
  --bucket jdx-odoo-backups \
  --versioning-configuration Status=Enabled

# Enable encryption
aws s3api put-bucket-encryption \
  --bucket jdx-odoo-backups \
  --server-side-encryption-configuration '{
    "Rules": [{"ApplyServerSideEncryptionByDefault": {"SSEAlgorithm": "AES256"}}]
  }'

Lifecycle Policy¶

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "BackupRetention",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": {"Prefix": "backups/"},
      "Transitions": [
        {"Days": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA"},
        {"Days": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER"}
      ],
      "Expiration": {"Days": 365}
    }
  ]
}

S3 Cost Estimation¶

Storage Calculation¶

Based on typical Odoo installation:

Backup Type	Size	Frequency	Retention	Total Storage
Full backup (DB+files)	~900MB	Daily	30 days	27 GB
Database only	~100MB	4x/day	7 days	2.8 GB
Total S3 Standard				~30 GB

AWS S3 Pricing (US East)¶

Storage Class	Price/GB/Month	30GB Monthly Cost
S3 Standard	$0.023	$0.69
S3 Standard-IA	$0.0125	$0.38
S3 Glacier	$0.004	$0.12

Monthly Cost Breakdown¶

Item	Cost
S3 Standard (recent 30 days)	$0.69
S3 Standard-IA (30-90 days old)	$0.38
S3 Glacier (90-365 days old)	$0.12
PUT requests (~150/month)	$0.001
Total Monthly	~$1.20

Annual Cost¶

Period	Storage Mix	Est. Cost
Year 1 (building up)	Mixed tiers	~$15-20
Year 2+ (steady state)	Mostly Glacier	~$12-15

Cost-Effective Backup

Full disaster recovery coverage for approximately $1.20/month makes S3 backup extremely cost-effective compared to alternatives.

Disaster Recovery¶

Recovery Time Objectives¶

Scenario	RTO	RPO
Service restart	5 min	0
Container failure	10 min	0
Database corruption	30 min	6 hours
Complete server failure	2 hours	24 hours
Region failure	4 hours	24 hours

DR Scenarios¶

Scenario 1: Container Failure¶

# Restart failed container
docker compose restart odoo

# Check logs
docker compose logs odoo

Scenario 2: Database Corruption¶

# 1. Stop services
docker compose stop odoo pwa

# 2. Identify latest backup
aws s3 ls s3://jdx-odoo-backups/backups/ --recursive | tail -5

# 3. Download backup
aws s3 cp s3://jdx-odoo-backups/backups/odoo_db_latest.sql.gz .

# 4. Restore
./scripts/restore.sh odoo_db_latest.sql.gz

Scenario 3: Complete Server Failure¶

# 1. Launch new server with same specs
# 2. Install Docker
# 3. Clone repository
git clone git@github.com:yourorg/odoo15-production.git
cd odoo15-production

# 4. Configure environment
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with production settings:
# - Change COMPOSE_FILE to: docker-compose.yml:docker-compose.prod.yml
# - Set RDS connection details
# - Set production passwords

# 5. Download latest backup
aws s3 cp s3://jdx-odoo-backups/backups/odoo_db_latest.sql.gz .
aws s3 cp s3://jdx-odoo-backups/backups/odoo_filestore_latest.tar.gz .

# 6. Start services (COMPOSE_FILE in .env auto-loads both files)
docker compose up -d db
sleep 10

# 7. Restore data
./scripts/restore.sh odoo_db_latest.sql.gz odoo_filestore_latest.tar.gz

# 8. Start remaining services
docker compose up -d

# 9. Update DNS to new server IP

Testing Backups¶

Monthly DR Test¶

Spin up test environment
Download production backup
Restore to test environment
Verify:
Login works
Recent data present
File attachments accessible
Custom modules function
Document results

Test Script¶

#!/bin/bash
# DR Test Script

echo "Starting DR test..."

# Create test environment (COMPOSE_FILE in .env auto-loads both files)
docker compose up -d db
sleep 10

# Restore latest backup
./scripts/restore.sh /tmp/latest-backup.sql.gz

# Run health check
./scripts/health-check.sh

echo "DR test complete. Verify manually at http://localhost:8016"

Backup Verification¶

Daily Checks¶

Backup job completed
Files uploaded to S3
No errors in logs

Weekly Checks¶

Verify backup file sizes are reasonable
Test download speed from S3
Check S3 storage costs

Monthly Checks¶

Full restore test
Verify all data integrity
Update DR documentation