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Creating a PostgreSQL installation for local testing

Creating a PostgreSQL Installation for Local Testing

Section titled “Creating a PostgreSQL Installation for Local Testing”

This guide explains how to install PostgreSQL locally in a virtual machine for testing and development purposes.

Important

Section titled “Important”

The following steps assume you have a virtual machine running AlmaLinux on your local computer. For instructions on setting up a virtual machine, see the relevant guide.

Installing PostgreSQL

Section titled “Installing PostgreSQL”
  1. Start the virtual machine if it is not already running.
  2. Log in as the root user.

  3. Install PostgreSQL

    Section titled “Install PostgreSQL”
yum install postgresql-server postgresql-contrib

At the prompt, type y and press Enter to proceed with the installation.

  1. Initialize the PostgreSQL database

    Section titled “Initialize the PostgreSQL database”
postgresql-setup initdb

  1. Enable password authentication

    Section titled “Enable password authentication”

Edit the pg_hba.conf file:

vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

Locate the following lines:

## IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            ident
## IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all::1/128                 ident

Replace ident with md5 so the lines look like this:

## IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
## IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all::1/128                 md5

Save and exit the editor by typing :wq.

  1. Start PostgreSQL

    Section titled “Start PostgreSQL”
systemctl start postgresql

  1. Verify that PostgreSQL is running

    Section titled “Verify that PostgreSQL is running”
systemctl status postgresql

You should see Active: active (running) in the output.

  1. Enable PostgreSQL to start on system boot

    Section titled “Enable PostgreSQL to start on system boot”
systemctl enable postgresql

  1. Switch to the postgres user

    Section titled “Switch to the postgres user”
su - postgres

  1. Access the PostgreSQL command-line interface

    Section titled “Access the PostgreSQL command-line interface”
psql

You should see the postgres=# prompt.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”

Once PostgreSQL is installed, you can configure it, create databases and users, and perform other administrative tasks.