Re: postgres under Suse linux

Antonios Katsikadamos wrote:
> Hi all I am a new linux and postgres user and i don't
> know how i canconfigure the postgres on suse linux in
> order to make it run.
>
> I would be thankful for any tip.

1. Take your time - don't rush.
In particular, if you're not used to Linux, allow time to get used to
that too.

2. Use the Suse package manager and make sure you've installed
postgresql-client and server packages.
If you provide a password for user "postgres", write it down.
You might want perl/php/ruby/etc libraries too. They might be under
"php" rather than "postgresql".

3. You might also want the "pgadmin" package if it's included on Suse.
There's also a phpPgAdmin package available.

4. Find your postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf and make sure you have
access from the local machine (see the manuals for details). Read the
section in postgresql.conf on logging and make sure you know where your
logs will be and what will be logged (perhaps turn up logging detail to
start with).

5. Restart/start the server with a command something like:
/etc/init.d/postgresql restart
Check your logs to see if there are any error messages. You can confirm
it is running with a command like:
ps auxw | grep post
6. If it is running, try the command-line client:
psql -U postgres -l
That should list databases. If you find you can't get access use "su" to
switch to the postgres user and try again. If that doesn't work, re-edit
your pg_hba.conf to allow free access from the local machine.
7. Set up users and databases, explore.
8. Make sure you know how pg_dump/pg_restore work. Read up on VACUUM and
ANALYSE and how autovacuum works.

You'll want to read the manual section on locales too - you might need
to re-run initdb once you've done that, so read it fairly early on.

Since you are new to Linux and PostgreSQL I'd allow at least a week of
exploring before starting any real work. Oh, and keep lots of backups.

HTH
--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd