This guide is for testing and evaluation purposes only and is not intended for production deployments. Please reach out to us at support@openops.com if you’d like to learn how to set up OpenOps in a production environment.
This guide explains how to install the OpenOps Docker Compose release on a newly created GCP Compute Engine VM instance. It assumes you have appropriate permissions on an existing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project.

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Initial deployment

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Create a new VM instance

  1. In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to Compute Engine → VM instances.
  2. Click Create Instance.
  3. Enter a name for your virtual machine.
  4. Under Machine configuration, configure the following:
    • Region and zone: Choose a region and zone close to your users (e.g., us-east1-b).
    • Series: Choose any recommended series (e.g., E2) or another family you prefer.
    • Machine type: Choose a machine size similar to e2-standard-2 or larger. Avoid very small machines, as OpenOps may need additional CPU/RAM for running Docker containers smoothly. Create new instance
  5. Under OS and storage:
    • Click Change.
    • Select Ubuntu as the operating system (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS if available, or a close alternative).
    • Increase the Size to at least 50GB to accommodate Docker images and databases.
    • Click Select. Change boot disk
  6. Under Networking, check Allow HTTP traffic. This will automatically create a firewall rule to open port 80. Allow http traffic
  7. Leave other settings as defaults (or adjust according to your preferences), then click Create to launch the VM.

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Configure firewall for SSH and HTTP

Depending on your project settings, a default firewall rule might already allow SSH access. By checking Allow HTTP traffic while creating the instance, HTTP (port 80) is also open. If you need to adjust or review these rules:
  1. In the VPC network menu, go to Firewall.
  2. Locate or create firewall rules for:
    • SSH (TCP/22) from your IP or a limited source range.
    • HTTP (TCP/80) for public access or your desired source range.

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Connect to the instance

  1. Once your VM is running, go to the VM instances list.
  2. Click SSH next to your instance to open an in-browser terminal. Connect to instance

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Install OpenOps

Run the following command in your terminal to install, update, configure and run OpenOps: 
curl -fsS https://openops.sh/install | sh
Alternatively, you can follow the manual installation steps: You can now access the OpenOps application by navigating to the external IP address of your VM (e.g., http://<YOUR_EXTERNAL_IP>).

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External databases

To use external PostgreSQL or Redis databases, modify the relevant variables in the .env file. You can disable the corresponding containers by adding a profile in the docker-compose.yml file, for example: 
services:
  postgres:
    profiles: ["db"]
If you remove or disable the db profile in .env or in Docker Compose, that container won’t start. After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers: 
sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

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Enabling TLS

For production usage, it’s recommended to enable TLS (HTTPS). In addition to the security aspect, this also ensures that workflow templates load properly in all browsers. The easiest way to enable TLS is to use an OpenOps script that requests and sets up a TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Before running the script, make sure you have a domain name that points to your ‘s external IP address. If you’re configuring DNS right before running the script, you may need to wait for the DNS change to propagate.
  1. Run the following command in your terminal: 
    curl -fsS https://openops.sh/tls | sh
  2. When prompted, enter a domain name that points to the external IP address of your .
  3. When prompted, enter an email address to receive certificate-related notifications from Let’s Encrypt.
The script will use the Certbot library to request a certificate for your domain from Let’s Encrypt. It receives and saves the certificate, updates the OpenOps configuration file accordingly, and restarts OpenOps. By default, the certificate expires in 3 months. See https://certbot.org/renewal-setup if you want to configure auto-renewal.

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Updating OpenOps to a newer version

See Updating OpenOps.

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Support

Feel free to join our Slack community if you have any questions or need help with the installation.