Introduction

Bare Metal Setup

These are the instructions for a manual install instructions on bare metal. At the end you will be almost ready to run InvenTree locally, with some further steps start either a production or development server.

Installer

For a more automated installation method, we recommend using our installer.

Docker Guide

If you want to install using Docker refer to the Docker Setup Guide.

Follow the instructions below to install the required system packages, python modules, and InvenTree source code.

Experienced Users Only

The following instructions assume you are reasonably adept at Linux system administration.

OS Specific Requirements

These instructions have been tested with the following distros and versions:

• Ubuntu 25.10
• Debian FIXME

The instructions may need to be tweaked for other distros and versions.

Root and non-root users

Commands which should be run as "root" (the privileged super user), are prefixed with sudo. Commands not prefixed with sudo should be run as the non-privileged user (see the inventree user created below). In practice you might use ssh to get access to the server as root, then run su -l inventree to switch to the non-privileged user. Or you might have two terminal windows open, one for root, and and one for the non-privileged user. The sudo prefix in these instructions is your cue as to which account should run the command.

Install System Packages

Install required system packages (as root, the super user):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    python3 python3-dev python3-pip \
    git gcc g++ gettext gnupg \
    poppler-utils pango1.0-tools \
    libjpeg-dev webp

User Accounts

Don't Run As Root

The InvenTree server should not be run by the root user. These installation instructions assume that InvenTree is installed and run using a user account called inventree.

Run programs as root more easily

To allow the inventree user to perform privileged actions during this installation via sudo with no root password, run this:

echo 'inventree ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/inventree
sudo chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/inventree

To revoke this:

sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/inventree

Create InvenTree User

To create the user account:

sudo useradd -m -U -s /bin/bash inventree

From here on, most commands should be run by the inventree user, so switch to them now:

sudo su -l inventree

Alternatively, use ssh to login as the inventree user.

Set Up Directories

InvenTree requires a directory for storage of static files, for user uploaded files, and for database backups. We'll store these within a data/ subdirectory.

cd
mkdir -p data/static data/media data/backup

Later, we'll tell InvenTree about the location of these directories via configuration options.

Read More

For more information about static, media and backup files, please see the proxy server documentation.

Download Source Code

Download InvenTree source code into the ~/src directory:

git clone --branch stable https://github.com/inventree/inventree src

Main Branch means Development

These instructions give you the latest stable version of InvenTree. If you'd like to try the development branch, replace stable with master. Please note the development version may have serious bugs, and the install instructions may have changed.

Make A Minimal Configuration

Run these commands to create a minimal configuration file from the template.

ln -sf ../src/backend/InvenTree/config_template.yaml src/config/config.yaml.orig
cp src/config/config.yaml.orig src/config/config.yaml

For a minimally useful configuration, edit src/config/config.yaml and set these options, uncommenting them if necessary:

Option name	Value
debug	False
admin_enabled	True
admin_user	admin
plugins_enabled	True
media_root	/home/inventree/data/media
static_root	/home/inventree/data/static
backup_dir	/home/inventree/data/backup
background » workers	1

Several more options need settings, but these depend on your particular installation. Here is an example configuration for a site running at https://itree.example.com/, using a MariaDB database backend. Choose values suitable for your installation.

Option name	Value	Notes
site_url	https://itree.example.com/	Use http://localhost:8000 for local testing.
database » ENGINE database » NAME database » USER database » PASSWORD	mysql inventree dbuser VeryC0mPLekSP4SS	For configuring other databases, see Database configuration for Django. Database creation is covered below.
admin_url	itree-admin	Moves admin interface to https://itree.example.com/itree-admin/, to reduce scripted attacks.
admin_email	itree-admin@example.com	Who puzzled users should email.
admin_password	^TotalllllyUnge55ible	Password for the admin user.
language	en-US	See this list of language codes.
timezone	Australia/Hobart	See this list of timezone names.
email » sender email » host email » port email » username email » password	itree@example.com mail.unst0ppable-email.com 2525 itree tHE_n4emOfMyCAT	Credentials and connection details for your favorite email sending company. See Django email settings.
global_settings » INVENTREE_DEFAULT_CURRENCY	USD	See this list of currency codes.

Configuration Options

InvenTree configuration can be performed using environment variables, the src/config/config.yaml configuration file, or a combination of both. Refer to the configuration guidelines for more detail.

Create Virtual Environment

Python Version

InvenTree requires a modern Python version. To see the minimum version we support, search for python-version in pyproj.toml for the current minimums. Run python3 --version to check your installed version.

Create a python virtual environment for installing required Python packages and binaries:

python3 -m venv env
source ./env/bin/activate

(env) prefix

The shell prompt should now display the (env) prefix, showing that you are operating within the Python virtual environment.

Install InvenTree Packages

Let's now use pip to install Python packages the InvenTree server needs into the virtual environment.

cd src
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install --upgrade --ignore-installed invoke
invoke install --skip-plugins

--skip-plugins is necessary because without it, invoke tries to access the db, which hasn't been set up yet.

Possible errors

If you run invoke and get a message Can't find any collection named 'tasks'!, then you need to run cd ~/src first, because invoke is sensitive to the directory it runs in.

Create Database

Setting up the database depends on the database program you're using.

PostgreSQL

Install the database system packages:

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib libpq-dev
sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

Then start the postgresql service:

sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql

Create Database and User

We need to create a new database, and a user who will access the database. Start the database client:

sudo -u postgres psql

You should now be in an interactive database shell. Create a new database as follows:

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE inventree;

Create a new user with complete access to the database:

postgres=# CREATE USER myuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'mypass';
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE inventree TO myuser;

Username / Password

You should change the username and password to the ones from your src/config/config.yaml file.

Exit the Postgres shell:

postgres=# EXIT;

Install Python Bindings

Install the python bindings for PostgreSQL into your virtual environment:

pip3 install psycopg pgcli

MySQL / MariaDB

Install the database system packages:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server libmysqlclient-dev
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server libmysqlclient-dev

Then start the MariaDB service:

systemctl enable mariadb
systemctl start mariadb

Create Database and User

We need to create a new database, and a user who will access the database. Start the database client:

sudo mysql -u root

You should now be in an interactive database shell. Create a new database as follows:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE inventree;

Create a new user with complete access to the database:

mysql> CREATE USER 'myuser'@'%' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'mypass';
mysql> GRANT ALL ON inventree.* TO 'myuser'@'%';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Username / Password

You should change the username and password to the ones from your src/config/config.yaml file.

Exit the MySQL/MariaDB shell:

mysql> EXIT;

Install Python Bindings

Install the python bindings for MySQL/Maria into your virtual environment:

pip3 install mysqlclient

Initialising The Database

Run the following command to create the database tables and populate them with initial data:

cd ~/src
invoke update --skip-backup --no-frontend

Create Admin Account

Create a superuser (admin) account for the InvenTree installation:

invoke superuser

Download Front End Files

A front end app runs in the user's browser page. Let's download the files for the app:

mkdir -p ~/src/src/backend/InvenTree/web/static
invoke frontend-download --tag=auto
invoke static

Starting A Server

Almost ready to serve!

The InvenTree database is now fully configured, and ready to go.

Development Server

To do InvenTree evaluation, testing or development, follow the development server instructions for a simple server you can start and stop from the command line.

Production Server

To set InvenTree up for you and others to use on an intranet or on the Internet, follow the production server instructions. These instructions will also ensure InvenTree restarts automatically when the server reboots.

Updating InvenTree

Stay up to date!

InvenTree is under very active development, with frequent fixes and new features.

Quick Update

If you've skipped everything above because you just want to update your existing InvenTree installation, run these commands first, as the inventree user:

cd ~/src
source ~/env/bin/activate

Backing Up Your Data

Update Database

While InvenTree will make a backup before updating your database, you should first make sure you have backups to fall back on if there's a problem. To view the current backups:

invoke listbackups

.dump.gz files are compressed SQL dumps, and .tar.gz files contain user uploaded "media" files. For help backing up and restoring, see the backing up documentation.

Updating Source Code

To update InvenTree to the latest stable version:

git pull origin stable

To update InvenTree to the latest development version:

git pull origin master

Perform Database Migrations

This command performs the following steps:

• Ensures all the packages InvenTree requires are installed and up to date
• Performs schema changes to tables in the database
• Walks you through any steps which require interaction
• Collects any new or updated static files

invoke update

Skip Backup

invoke update will first create a new database backup. To skip this, add the --skip-backup flag

Restart Server

After an update, you'll need to restart the InvenTree server processes. See the development and production server instructions above for how to do this.

Revoke Sudo Access

If you granted the inventree user passwordless sudo access during installation, you should revoke this now:

sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/inventree

All done!

If you've made it this far, congratulations! You now have a working InvenTree installation. If you had problems with the installation, please let us know so we can improve this documentation.