How To Install PostgreSQL on Debian 8

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configuration of PostgreSQL on your Debian 8 server. For those of you who didn’t know, PostgreSQL, often referred to as Postgres, is a powerful, open-source object-relational database system. Known for its robustness, extensibility, and standards compliance, PostgreSQL is a popular choice for developers and database administrators. Debian 8, also known as “Jessie,” is a stable and reliable Linux distribution, making it an excellent platform for running PostgreSQL.

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 on a Debian 8 (Jessie) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 8 (Jessie).
• 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 Debian 8 Jessie

Step 1. Before we install any software, it’s important to make sure your system is up to date by running the following apt-get commands in the terminal:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Step 2. Installing the PostgreSQL server.

PostgreSQL is available in the default repositories. Now, Install PostgreSQL packages using apt-get:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-12 postgresql-client-12

Now we can confirm the installation using some commands. They are given below:

ps -ef | grep postgre

You should see something like this on the terminal:

postgres 32164     1  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/postgresql/12/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/ postgresql/9.4/main -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/9.4/main/postgresql.conf
postgres 32166 32164  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 postgres: checkpointer process
postgres 32167 32164  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 postgres: writer process
postgres 32168 32164  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 postgres: wal writer process
postgres 32169 32164  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 postgres: autovacuum launcher process
postgres 32170 32164  0 21:58 ?        00:00:00 postgres: stats collector process

Step 3. Access the PostgreSQL command prompt.

After 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 postgres server, login to your system as a user postgres and connect database:

su - postgres
psql

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

postgres-# \q

Create a new user and database:

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

Congratulations! You have successfully installed the PostgreSQL Server. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing PostgreSQL in Debian 8 Jessie systems. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official PostgreSQL website.

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