In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, PostgreSQL is a relational database management system that provides an implementation of the SQL querying language. It’s standards-compliant and has many advanced features like reliable transactions and concurrency without reading locks.
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 through the step by step installation PostgreSQL on a Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) server. You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian based distribution like Linux Mint.
Install PostgreSQL on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running these following apt commands in the terminal.
1 2 | sudoaptupdate sudoaptupgrade |
Install the PostgreSQL package using the apt command:
1 | sudoaptinstallpostgresqlpostgresql-client |
By default, the PostgreSQL service is started automatically after the installation. You can confirm if it is running with the command:
1 | systemctlstatuspostgresql.service |
We need to configure PostgreSQL to listen on all adaptors or system IP address to allow applications hosted on external machines to connect to the database:
1 | sudonano/etc/postgresql/12/main/postgresql.conf |
Then, set the listen_addresses to * or (Ip_Address):
1 | listen_addresses='*' |
Restart the PostgreSQL service:
1 | sudosystemctlrestartpostgresql |
Once installing PostgreSQL database server, by default it creates a user ‘postgres’ with role ‘postgres’. It also creates a system account with same name ‘postgres’. So to connect to postgres server, login to your system as user postgres and connect database:
1 2 | su-postgres psql |
Now you are logged in to PostgreSQL database server. To check login info use following command from the database command prompt:
1 | postgres-# \conninfo |
To disconnect from PostgreSQL database command prompt just type below command and press enter. It will return you back to Ubuntu command prompt:
1 | postgres-# \q |
Create a new user and database:
1 2 3 | ### For example, let us create a new user called “meilana” with password “maria”, and database called “meilanadb”. ### sudo-upostgrescreateuser-D-A-Pmeilana sudo-upostgrescreatedb-Omeilanameilanadb |
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the PostgreSQL Server. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing PostgreSQL in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) systems. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official PostgreSQL website.
