Even if you experience no snags when first installing or running OpenERP, it would be wise to peruse the following section to familiar yourself with some of the tricks for dealing with common problems. Many of these guidelines are also useful for managing your system and thwarting potential problems.
As far as ERP installations go, OpenERP is typically very easy to install. Unfortunately, it is possible for an installation to fail for a variety of reasons. In this next section, we will discuss some of the more common installation issues and provide some troubleshooting tips for diagnosing problems with an OpenERP installation.
If you have followed the default installation then your OpenERP installation should be accessing OpenERP at:
http://localhost:8069
Make sure the URL is exactly as shown previously. If you did change the port number during installation, make sure you change the port in the URL.
If you are unable to pull up OpenERP in the browser, it can be good to verify that the OpenERP services are running.
Pull up the task manager and navigate to the Services tab, then look for openerp-server-7.0. The status should be Running.
The preceding screenshot is an example of the openerp-server-7.0 service successfully running under Windows.
Additional OpenERP troubleshooting steps for Windows can be found here:
https://doc.openerp.com/install/windows/server/complementary_install_information/
When managing an OpenERP server, one of the most common tasks you will find yourself performing is starting and stoping the OpenERP services. OpenERP allows you to start and stop the services with a command switch.
To start the services use the following command:
sudo /etc/init.d/openerp-server start
To stop the services use the following command:
sudo /etc/init.d/openerp-server stop
OpenERP writes many messages, warnings, and error messages to a log. Often when troubleshooting problems, this logfile is valuable in determining what action you should take. In a default installation the logfile is located at:
{install directory}/server/server/openerp-server.log
The log is especially valuable to locate problems you may have while installing new modules.
The OpenERP framework allows you to specify a configuration file for your installation. By default, this file is located at:
/etc/openerp/openerp-server.conf
Using this file, you can change many of the attributes of OpenERP.
By default, OpenERP 7 runs on port 8069. For many installations, the default port will work fine. However, there are situations where it can be useful to change this default port. One common scenario would be the need to run more than one version of OpenERP. Multiple installations cannot run on port 8069, so you will need to modify the port. Sometimes there are security reasons behind changing ports as many hackers are aware of the default ports people use.
Fortunately, changing the default port number is easy. Simply specify the following:
Port=[port]
For example, Port=8059 will change the default port for the web client to port 8059.
OpenERP offers database management tools that can be accessed easily through your web browser. This makes it easy to create, backup, and even delete a database, all through a web interface. By default, OpenERP sets the password for these operations to admin. To secure your server, it is necessary to change this password in your configuration file:
Admin_password=[your password]