Setting up Odoo as a system service

Odoo should run as a system service so that it is automatically started when the system boots and runs unattended, not requiring a user session.

In Debian/Ubuntu systems, the init system is responsible for starting services. Historically, Debian and its derived operating systems used sysvinit. This has changed, and recent Debian/Ubuntu systems use systemd. This is true for Ubuntu 16.04 and later.

To confirm that systemd is used in your system, try the following command:

$ man init

This command opens the documentation for the current init system in use, so you can check what is being used. At the top of the manual page, you should see SYSTEMD mentioned.

Let's continue with the systemd service configuration.

Creating a systemd service

If the operating system is recent – such as Debian 8 and Ubuntu 16.04 or later – systemd should be the init system being used.

To add a new service to the system, simply create...