How To Install PostgreSQL on AlmaLinux 8

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PostgreSQL on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, PostgreSQL is a free-opensource object-relational database management system with over 30 years of active development that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, feature robustness, and performance.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of PostgreSQL databases on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for Rocky Linux.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: AlmaLinux 8, CentOS, and Rocky Linux 8.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install PostgreSQL on AlmaLinux 8

Step 1. First, let’s start by ensuring your system is up-to-date.

sudo dnf update
sudo dnf install epel-release

Step 2. Installing PostgreSQL on AlmaLinux 8.

Now we enable the PostgreSQL module of version by using the following command:

sudo dnf module enable postgresql:12

Output:

[root@idroot.us ~]# sudo dnf module enable postgresql:12
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:19 ago on Sat 17 May 2021 01:46:36 PM EST.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package           Architecture     Version             Repository         Size
================================================================================
Enabling module streams:
 postgresql                         12

Transaction Summary
================================================================================

Is this ok [y/N]: y
Complete!

Once the repository module has been enabled, now install PostgreSQL using the following command:

sudo dnf install postgresql-server

Next, initialize a database storage area on disk by using the following command:

postgresql-setup --initdb

Start PostgreSQL and optionally enable it to start after reboot:

sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql

Step 3. Accessing the PostgreSQL command prompt.

Once installing the PostgreSQL database server, by default, it creates a user ‘postgres’ with role ‘postgres’. It also creates a system account with the same name ‘postgres’. So to connect to the Postgres server, log in to your system as a user of Postgres and connect database:

sudo -i -u postgres

you can access a PostgreSQL prompt using the psql utility:

psql

Now you are logged in to the PostgreSQL database server. To check login info use the following command from the database command prompt:

postgres-# \conninfo

To disconnect from the PostgreSQL database command prompt just type the below command and press enter. It will return you back to the AlmaLinux command prompt:

postgres-# \q

Create a Database by using the following command:

### For example, let us create a new user called “meilana” with password “maria”, and database called “rantydb”. ###
sudo -u postgres createuser -D -A -P meilana
sudo -u postgres createdb -O meilana mariadb

Congratulations! You have successfully installed PostgreSQL. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing PostgreSQL on your AlmaLinux 8 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official PostgreSQL website.