Installing PostgreSQL on Linux using RPMs

Downloading the RPMs :
As I mentioned in the previous post the RPMs are available on PostgreSQL FTP site and all of its mirrors.

• Select version of Postgres to Install
  
• Select Platform - Linux
• Select rpm / srpm
• Select Linux Flavour (redhat/fedora)
• Download RPMs Listed there
  

Installing and Upgrading PostgreSQL RPMs :

• Installing PGDG RPMs are as easy as installing any RPMs
  rpm -ivh package_name.version.arch.rpm
• Unless specified, on minor release upgrades (i.e., upgrading from 8.1.0 to 8.1.1 or 8.1.3, etc1), you may use usual RPM upgrade process :
  rpm -Uvh package_name.version.arch.rpm
• Please note that on every new major version upgrade, youhave to follow dump/reload sequence.

Sequence of RPMs to Install :

1. rpm -ivh postgresql-libs-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm
2. rpm -ivh postgresql-debuginfo-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm
3. rpm -ivh postgresql-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm
4. rpm -ivh postgresql-devel-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm
5. rpm -ivh postgresql-docs-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm
6. rpm -ivh postgresql-server-8.3.7-1PGDG.rhel5.i386.rpm

Creating the Cluster using initdb :

1. Open Terminal
2. su - postgres (changes your identity from root user to postgreSQL super user)
   
3. Move to /opt/PostgresPlus/8.3/bin using "cd /opt/PostgresPlus/8.3/bin"
4. execute "initdb -D data" (creates the Cluster, a new directory named 'data')

To work in with your Database :

1. Start Cluster using "pg_ctl -D start"
2. To Chech the status use "pg_ctl status"
   
3. Login inside the Cluster using "psql" command (continue your work in DataBase)
   
4. reload : to reload the server configurations
5. restart : to restart (stop/start) Server
   
6. To stop the Cluster use "initdb -D stop"

Advance Settings :
Now every time you need to go to /opt/PostGresPlus/8.3/bin folder to execute the commands like psql, pg_ctl, etc., instead of doing this activity every time we can set the environment variables like PATH, PGDATA, PGPORT in .bash_profile file of User (postgres User)

Steps to follow :

1. open Terminal
2. Login as postgres User
3. open .bash_profile file using "vi .bash_profile"
4. insert the Lines PATH= PGDATA= PGPORT= and save the file
5. now you can run all postgres commands from any location from terminal as postgres user

we'll see these things in detail in the next post....