17.1. InstallingPostgres Pro Enterprise on Linux
For Linux-based operating systems,Postgres Pro Enterprise is shipped as binary packages. EachPostgres Pro binary distribution consists of several packages. The package structure differs from vanillaPostgreSQL and offers the following installation modes:
Quick installation and setup. The
postgrespro-ent-11
package installs and configures all the components required for a viable ready-to-use configuration of both server and client components. Choose this option if you are going to install a singlePostgres Pro instance only, and you are not worried about possible conflicts with otherPostgreSQL-based products.Important
Installing the
postgrespro-ent-11
package can delete existing installations ofPostgres Pro andPostgreSQL-based products. Similarly, thisPostgres Pro installation may be automatically removed if you later install anotherPostgreSQL-based product. Do not use this package for upgrades or migrations, or if you are going to maintain several installations on the same system.Custom installation. You can select any packages required for your purposes, including development packages. This option needs manual configuration, so a good grasp of Linux and understanding ofPostgreSQL architecture are required. This is the only option to choose if you are going to usePostgres Pro in one of the following scenarios:
Install severalPostgres Pro versions side by side, or together with other PostgreSQL-based products.
Perform an upgrade from a previous version, or migrate from a differentPostgreSQL-based product.
ControlPostgres Pro server execution using high availability software, such aspacemaker, instead of the standard system service management facility.
The minimum hardware required to installPostgres Pro, create a database cluster and start the database server are as follows:
1-GHz
processor1 GB
of RAM1 GB
of disk space
Additional disk space is required for data or supporting components.
17.1.1. Supported Linux Distributions
Postgres Pro binary packages are available for the following Linux-based systems:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems and its derivatives: CentOS 7/8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7/8, Oracle Linux 7/8, Rosa Enterprise Linux Server 7, ROSA COBALT (server edition) based on Rosa platform 7, Red OS Murom 7.2, AlterOS 7.5
Debian-based systems: Debian 10/11, Ubuntu 20.04, Astra Linux Smolensk 1.6/1.7, Astra Linux Orel 2.12
ALT 8/9/10, ALT Linux SPT 7.0, ALT SP 8/8.2 and higher
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12/15
Note
Postgres Pro binary packages rely on thetzdata library provided by the operating system, so you must ensure that the latest available version is installed. Iftzdata is outdated, the time in your database may be incorrect.
17.1.2. Quick Installation and Setup
If you only need to install a singlePostgres Pro instance and are not going to use any otherPostgreSQL-based products on your system, you can use the quick installation mode. The typical process is as follows:
Add the package repository required for your operating system. You can get the exact repositories and commands for supported Linux distributions from thePostgres Pro Enterprise support team.
Install the
postgrespro-ent-11
package. It will bring all the required components via dependencies, create the default database, start the database server, as well as enable server autostart at system boot and make all the provided programs available inPATH
.
Note
By default, the database configuration is set for thePostgres Pro product being installed. If you need your database configured for a different product, choosecustom installation and use thetune
argument of thepg-setup initdb
command.
Once the installation completes, you can launchpsql on behalf of thepostgres
user and connect to the newly created database, which is located in the/var/lib/pgpro/ent-11/data
directory.
Since the default database is created using thepg-setup script, the path to its data directory is stored in the/etc/default/postgrespro-ent-11
file. All the subsequentpg-setup commands, as well as any commands that managePostgres Pro service, affect this database only. In this file, you can also change the value ofPG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE
for postmaster child processes (seeSection 18.4.4 for details).
17.1.3. Custom Installation
Splitting the distribution into multiple packages enables customizing the installation for different purposes: database servers, client systems, or development workstations. Custom installations need to be configured manually, but give you more flexibility in using the product. You can install severalPostgres Pro versions side by side, as well as together with otherPostgreSQL-based products. In particular, this may be required when performing upgrades, or migrating from a differentPostgreSQL-based product.
To perform a custom installation, complete the following steps:
Add the package repository required for your operating system. You can get the exact repositories and commands for supported Linux distributions from thePostgres Pro Enterprise support team.
ChoosePostgres Pro packages required for your purposes and install them using the standard installation commands for your Linux distribution. The available packages are listed inTable 17.1.
As a result, all files get installed into the
/opt/pgpro/ent-11
directory.Runpg-wrapper as root to make the installed client and server programs available via
PATH
and addSQL man pages to the man page configuration file. This utility is provided in thepostgrespro-ent-11-client
package./opt/pgpro/ent-11/bin/pg-wrapper links update
For details on how to handle possible conflicts, seepg-wrapper description.
If you chose to install the
postgrespro-ent-11-server
package, make sure to complete the following server setup:Create the default database by running the helper scriptpg-setup as root with the
initdb
option:/opt/pgpro/ent-11/bin/pg-setup initdb [--tune=
conf
] [initdb_options
]where:
the
tune
command-line argument sets the database configuration.initdb_options
are regularinitdb options.
Note
By default,pg-setup initializes the database cluster with checksums enabled. If this is not what you expect, specify the
--no-data-checksums
.The
pg-setup
script performs database administration operations as userpostgres
. If you do not specify anyinitdb options, the default database is created in the/var/lib/pgpro/ent-11/data
directory, using localization settings specified in theLANG
environment variable for the current session. All theLC_*
environment variables are ignored.Since the default database is created using thepg-setup script, the path to its data directory is stored in the
/etc/default/postgrespro-ent-11
file. All the subsequentpg-setup commands, as well as any commands that managePostgres Pro service, affect this database only. In this file, you can also change the value ofPG_OOM_ADJUST_VALUE
for postmaster child processes (seeSection 18.4.4 for details).Start the server by running
pg-setup
as root, as follows:/opt/pgpro/ent-11/bin/pg-setup service start
Like vanillaPostgreSQL,Postgres Pro server runs on behalf of the
postgres
user.Note
By default, automatic server startup is disabled, so you can manually control the database recovery after a system reboot. Optionally, you can configure thePostgres Pro server to start automatically. For details, seeSection 17.1.3.2.
17.1.3.1. Choosing the Packages to Install
The table below lists all the availablePostgres Pro Enterprise packages.
Table 17.1. Postgres Pro Enterprise Packages
Package | Description |
---|---|
| Top-level package that installs and configuresPostgres Pro for server and client systems. Do not use this package for upgrades or migrations. Important Installing the |
| Standard client applications, such aspsql orpg_dump. |
| Shared libraries required to deploy client applications, includinglibpq; runtime libraries for ECPG processor. |
| Postgres Pro server and PL/pgSQL server-side programming language. |
| Additional extensions and programs deployable on database servers. |
| Header files and libraries for developing client applications and server extensions. On Debian-based systems, this package is called |
| Server-side programming language based on Perl (seeChapter 46). |
| Server-side programming language based on Python (seeChapter 47). |
| Server-side programming language based on Python 3 (seeChapter 47). |
| Server-side programming language based on Tcl (seeChapter 45). |
| Documentation (English). |
| Documentation (Russian). |
| Test scripts for the server. This package is only available on RHEL-based and SUSE systems. |
| This package provides support for Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation. This package is only available for the supported Debian and Ubuntu systems, Astra Linux Smolensk 1.6/1.7, Astra Linux Orel 2.12, ALT 8/9/10, ALT SP 8/8.2 and higher, CentOS 7/8, Oracle Linux 7/8, SLES 15, and RHEL 7/8. To learn more about enabling and using JIT, seeChapter 32. |
| mamonsu — a monitoring agent for collecting Postgres Pro and system metrics. |
| An extension to modify Postgres Pro cursors. |
| pg_probackup utility. |
| pgpro_controldata application to display control information of aPostgreSQL/Postgres Pro database cluster and compatibility information for a cluster and/or server. |
Besides, there are separate packages providing several external modules that have been pre-built for compatibility with Postgres Pro Enterprise:
Table 17.2. Third-party Packages Built forPostgres Pro Enterprise
Package | Description |
---|---|
| A library for fast lossless data compression. |
| APostgres Pro extension that provides a foreign data wrapper to accessOracle databases. This package is available for the supported Debian, Ubuntu and SUSE systems, Astra Linux Orel, CentOS 7/8, Oracle Linux 7/8, and RHEL 7/8. This package is only available for the supported RHEL, Ubuntu and SLES systems, Debian 10/11, and Astra Linux Orel 2.12. |
| This package implements in Postgres Pro some of the functions from the Oracle database that are missing (or behaving differently). |
| pg_filedump utility to format Postgres Pro heap/index/control files into a human-readable form. |
| pg_hint_plan module that controls the execution plan by providing hints to the planner. |
| pg_repack extension and utility for reorganizing tables. |
| pgbouncer — a connection pooler for Postgres Pro. |
| pgbadger — Postgres Pro log analyzer that provides detailed reports and graphs. |
| A set of shared libraries that implement an API for debugging PL/pgSQL functions in Postgres Pro. |
| The shared library PLV8 that provides a Postgres Pro procedural language powered by V8 Javascript Engine. This package is available for the supported Debian and Ubuntu systems, ALT 8/9/10, SLES 15, Rosa Enterprise Linux, and RHEL 7/8. |
| Command-line utility for the |
Additionally,Postgres Pro provides separate packages with debug information for some operating systems:
On Debian-based systems, see the
postgrespro-ent-11-dbg
package.On RHEL-based systems, see the
postgrespro-ent-11-debuginfo
package.On ALT Linux systems, all packages containing binary files have the corresponding
-debuginfo
packages.
Server installations require at least the following packages:
postgrespro-ent-11-server
postgrespro-ent-11-client
postgrespro-ent-11-libs
To use additionalPostgres Pro extensions, you must also install thepostgrespro-ent-11-contrib
package. On Debian-based systems,postgrespro-ent-11-server
package depends onpostgrespro-ent-11-contrib
package, so the latter must always be installed together with the server.
For client installations, it is usually enough to install thepostgrespro-ent-11-client
andpostgrespro-ent-11-libs
packages. If you use custom applications and do not need standard client utilities such aspsql, you can install thepostgrespro-ent-11-libs
package only.
Development workstations require at least the following packages:
postgrespro-ent-11-libs
postgrespro-ent-11-devel
/postgrespro-ent-11-dev
You may also want to install and configure the server with a test database on development systems. For details on additional configuration that may be required,Section 17.1.4.
17.1.3.2. Enabling Automatic Server Startup
If you are running a custom installation, automatic server startup is disabled by default. Once the default database is created, you can configure the server to start automatically upon system boot using service management solutions available in your operating system or third-party high-availability software. To facilitate this task,postgrespro-ent-11-server
package provides thepg-setup script, which is installed in the/opt/pgpro/ent-11/bin
directory.
To enable server autostart, run thepg-setup script with the following options:
pg-setup service enable
If required, you can disable server autostart using the same script:
pg-setup service disable
Alternatively, you can use system service management solutions directly by running the autostart scripts for SysV-styleinit.d andsystemd provided in thepostgrespro-ent-11-server
package. Depending on your Linux distribution,Postgres Pro supports different service management solutions:
Linux Distribution | Provided Scripts |
---|---|
RHEL 7/8 and compatible distributions, SLES 12/15 | systemd unit file |
Debian, Ubuntu, ALT 8/9/10 | Bothsystemd unit file and SysV-styleinit.d script |
To usesystemd for automatic server startup, run the following command:
systemctl enable postgrespro-ent-11
To use SysV-styleinit.d script:
On ALT Linux systems, run the following command:
systemctl enable postgrespro-ent-11
On Debian systems, use
update-rc.d
. See the correspondingman page for details.
17.1.4. Setting up Development Workstations
While installingpostgrespro-ent-11-libs
andpostgrespro-ent-11-devel
/postgrespro-ent-11-dev
packages may be enough, it is usually convenient to have the server set up on the development system. For quick setup, you can installpostgrespro-ent-11
package, which automatically configures the provided client and server programs and creates the default database. However, if you are going to use severalPostgreSQL-based products simultaneously, follow the custom installation instructions inSection 17.1.3.
To compile programs withPostgres Pro libraries using thepg_config utility shipped withPostgres Pro, make sure it appears before the path to otherpg_config versions, if any. Note that on RHEL-based systemspg_config is not added toPATH
automatically. If you do not have any otherpg_config versions on your system, you can usepg-wrapper provided in thepostgrespro-ent-11-client
package to create a symbolic link topg_config in the standard binary directory.
To compile programs usingpkg-config command, add the/opt/pgpro/ent-11/lib/pkgconfig/
path to thePKG_CONFIG_PATH
environment variable.
If you would like to compilePostgres Pro extensions that supportJIT inlining, make sure to meet the following additional requirements:
Install LLVM development package and Clang compiler. You must choose the packages of the same version that was used for the
postgrespro-ent-11-jit
to be installed on the server. To determine the required version for the currentPostgres Pro release, check theCLANG
value in the/opt/pgpro/ent-11/lib/pgxs/src/Makefile.global
file.When running
make
ormake install
commands, specify thewith-llvm=yes
option to compile and install bitcode files for your extension. By default, bitcode compilation is disabled as it depends on Clang compiler availability.
17.1.4.1. Using Third-Party Programs withPostgres Pro
To usePostgres Pro server with a client program provided with a third-party product, you can install the version ofPostgreSQL libraries that was used to compile this program. For example, if this program is provided with vanillaPostgreSQL, you may need to install thelibpq
orpostgresql-libs
packages available for your Linux distribution. In this case, the program may not be able to use some new features ofPostgres Pro server, but it is probably not designed to use them anyway.
If you prefer to usePostgres Pro libraries with a third-party program, or would like to enable support for a new feature that does not require client application change, such asSCRAM authentication, you can recompile your program withPostgres Pro libraries. If the program is compiled with one version oflibpq but used with another, its stable work cannot be guaranteed. If you are creating Add Specify Thus, you can ensure that your package build process calls the right version ofpg_config whenever the source package is rebuilt.Important
.rpm
or.deb
packages for your program, it is recommended to do the following:/opt/pgpro/ent-11/bin
toPATH
inside your build scripts (.spec
files ordebian/rules
).postgrespro-ent-11-dev
in theBuildDepends
orBuildRequires
tags for your program.
17.1.5. Configuring MultiplePostgres Pro Instances
To set up severalPostgres Pro server instances with different data directories on Linux, do the following:
Install and configurePostgres Pro as explained inSection 17.1.2 orSection 17.1.3.
Once the first default database is created, runinitdb specifying the path to a different data directory and any other parameters required to initialize another server instance.
Specify different ports for your server instances in the corresponding
postgresql.conf
files to avoid conflicts.If required, configure automatic server startup, as follows:
Create a copy of
/etc/init.d/postgrespro-ent-11
or/lib/systemd/system/postgrespro-ent-11.service
with a different name, specifying the path to the data directory.Enable automatic server startup using the provided autostart scripts for your system service management facility instead of
pg-setup
, as described inSection 17.1.3.2. Make sure to use the renamed copies of the scripts you created in step 1.
17.1.6. Antivirus Considerations
It is strongly recommended to avoid using antivirus software on systems wherePostgres Pro is running because it may cause additional load on your environment and result in unexpected database behavior that would lead to performance and reliability issues. If you need to use antivirus software, make sure to exclude the following directories from virus scanning as they do not contain any executable files:
PGDATA
directory that stores main cluster data, usually located in/var/lib/pgpro/ent-11/data
unless you specified another directory ininitdb optionsPaths to createdtablespaces