Introduction
It isn't necessary to install PostgreSQL with its GUI frontend. It runs just fine without it and consumes a smaller footprint. If you're comfortable using the command line interface, installing headless is the way to go. In some environments, it may even be necessary. This step-by-step procedure shows you how. This step-by-step installs an older version of PostgreSQL, 8.4.8-1, but is applicable to all. It will install the postgres8_4-x86_64 package group, which contains three packages:- postgresql-libs-8.4.8-1PGDG.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
- postgresql-8.4.8-1PGDG.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
- postgresql-server-8.4.8-1PGDG.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
- /var/log/pgsql
- /var/lib/pgsql
- /usr/share/pgsql
- /usr/lib64/pgsql
- /etc/sysconfig/pgsq
Procedure
1) Open a terminal on the target server.2) Log into the root account.
3) Install the PostgreSQL server package and its dependencies using YUM. Be sure to disable gpg signature checking, in order to avoid annoying warnings:
[root]# yum install postgresql-server --nogpgcheck
4) Initialize the database. Note that database initialization on RHEL (and thus also CentOS) will be somewhat different than other Linux flavors:
[root]# service postgresql initdb –D /var/lib/pgsql/data
Or, you may need to initialize the database using this approach:
[root]# /etc/init.d/postgresql start
5) Now, start the service:
[root]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/postgresql start
6) The default location on RHEL (and thus also CentOS) systems is /var/lib/pgsql. However, applications such as bash will expect the location to be /usr/local/pgsql. This can be fixed via soft symlink:
[root]# ln –s /var/lib/pgsql /usr/local/pgsql
7) Check to make sure that the postgres account owns the pgsql directory and subdirectories:
[root]# ls –l /var/lib
If not, you will need to change ownership. When changing ownership, do so recursively.
8) Test the account by logging into it and then performing stop and start commands:
[root]# su – postgres
-bash-3.2$ pg_ctl –stop
-bash-3.2$ pg_ctrl start
9) Stop the PostgreSQL instance so that you can edit configuration settings files:
[root]# service postgresql stop
10) Save a copy of the original configuration file:
[root]# cp /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf.ORIGINAL
11) Update the PostgreSQL configuration file to enable it to listen in on the server IP address at the default port:
[root]# vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
Uncomment the line “listen_addresses” and set it equal to ‘*’
Uncomment the “port” and leave it set to the default port (5432)
12) Save a copy of the original security access file:
[root]# cp /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.ORIGINAL
13) Update the PostgreSQL security access file to enable client access to this PostgreSQL instance from within the subnet:
[root]# vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
Add this line:
host all all 192.168.0.0/24 md5
Additionally, if you want to be able to use a GUI to interact with this postgresql instance over a VPN, you’ll need to identify the IP address that is received by the PostgreSQL instance and add this to the list of hosts allowed to connect. For example, if your VPN IP address was “10.58.150.8”, then to allow only your “10.0.0.0” IP address to be able to connect you would add the following:
host all all 10.58.150.8/32 md5
14) Startup the postgressql service:
[root]# service postgresql start
15) This completes this PostgreSQL installation procedure.
Troubleshooting the Installation
If you encounter the following error, while trying to perform a YUM install…Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, rhnplugin
Determining fastest mirrors
Could not retrieve mirrorlist http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=5&arch=x86_64&repo=os error was
[Errno 4] IOError: <urlopen error (-3, 'Temporary failure in name resolution')>
Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base"
this likely indicates that YUM on this server was attempting to check an external list using an external repository that your environment is not using. The solution involves deleting all files in your external repository on the target machine. For example, your external repository might be: /etc/yum.repos.d/.
Delete all the files in this repository and then try again.
Changing the Database Server Password
1) Open a terminal on the target server2) Login to root
# sudo su - root
3) Super into the postgres account
[root] # su - postgres
4) Open a postgresql shell to the PostgreSQL service database
[root] # psql -d template1 -U postgres
5) Alter the postgres account’s password
[root] # ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'postgres_password';
The password change take effect immediately.
6) This concludes this procedure.
Creating a New User
1) Open a terminal2) Login to root
3) Login to the postgres account
[root] # su - postgres
4) Create new database user for Jive SBS, assigning the password immediately, then responding to the prompts as shown:
-bash-3.2$ createuser -P sbs
Enter password for new role:
Enter it again:
Shall the new role be a superuser? (y/n) n
Shall the new role be allowed to create databases? (y/n) n
Shall the new role be allowed to create more new roles? (y/n) n
The new user is available immediately.
5) This concludes this procedure
