Installing PostgreSQL on Solaris

SPARC / x86
version 1.0
Written by
Robert Lor, Sun Microsystems, robert.lor@sun.com
Rob Stephens, Sun Microsystems, rob.stephens@sun.com
Last updated: Thu January 22, 2005

This documentation provides informal discussion and details for installing and getting
started with the PostgreSQL Database Server on Solaris SPARC/x86. The Solaris
packages are ready-to-install binary files for Solaris distributions. Please note that this
article is written for 8.1 and above.

The format and some of its content was derived from the PostgreSQL Linux installation guide by Devrim
GUNDUZ and Lamar Owen, available at http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pgsqlrpms.

General Information

The packages referenced in the following documentation are provided by Sun

Microsystems Inc. and provide support for the following platforms:

• Solaris 10 or later on SPARC, x86, and x64

Further information on these packages can be found at

http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages

The following email aliases are being provided for discussions, updates and anything
related to this project and its distribution. These aliases are open to all and we
encourage your feedback.

• Project Announcements
• solarispackages-announce@pgfoundry.org
• Project Discussions and Feedback
• solarispackages-general@pgfoundry.org
• solarispackages-hackers@pgfoundry.org
Obtaining the Packages
The packages provided in this release are currently in Beta. We encourage your
feedback and any comments you may have. The beta packages can be downloaded
from.
http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages/

The official package release will be available from the PostgreSQL FTP site and all of its
mirrors once the project is out of Beta. For your convenience, you may try using the
PostgreSQL's FTP site web interface. There it will suggest a suitable download. The URL
is:
http://www.postgresql.org/ftp

The official release will also be made available via a bittorrent client. For details, please
visit
http://www.postgresql.org/download/bittorrent

Which Solaris packages for what purpose?

Sun Microsystems ships the following Solaris packages:

SUNWpostgr-libs The SUNWpostgr-libs package provides the essential shared libraries for any
PostgreSQL client program or interface. You will need to install this package to
use any other PostgreSQL package or any clients that need to connect to a
PostgreSQL server.
SUNWpostgr If you want to manipulate a PostgreSQL database on a local or remote
PostgreSQL server, you need this package. You also need to install this
package if you're installing the SUNWpostgr-server package.
SUNWpostgr- The SUNWpostgr-contrib package contains contributed packages that are
contrib included in the PostgreSQL distribution.
SUNWpostgr- The SUNWpostgr-devel package contains the header files and libraries needed
devel to compile C or C++ applications which will directly interact with a
PostgreSQL database management server and the ecpg Embedded C Postgres
preprocessor. You need to install this package if you want to develop
applications which will interact with a PostgreSQL server.
SUNWpostgr-docs The SUNWpostgr-docs package includes the SGML source for the
documentation as well as the documentation in PDF format and some extra
documentation. Install this package if you want to help with the PostgreSQL
documentation project, or if you want to generate printed documentation.
SUNWpostgr- The SUNWpostgr-server package includes the programs needed to create and
server run a PostgreSQL server, which will in turn allow you to create and maintain
PostgreSQL databases. You should install SUNWpostgr-server if you want to
create and maintain your own PostgreSQL databases and/or your own
PostgreSQL server. You also need to install the SUNWpostgr package and its
requirements.
SUNWpostgr- The SUNWpostgr-server-data package creates the default data directories and
server-data may contain demo database.

SUNWpostgr-tcl The SUNWpostgr-tcl package contains the Pgtcl client library and its
documentation.
SUNWpostgr-jdbc The SUNWpostgrjdbc package includes the .jar files needed for Java programs
to access a PostgreSQL database.
SUNWpostgr-pl The SUNWpostgr-pl package contains the the PL/Perl, and PL/Python
procedural languages for the backend. PL/Pgsql is part of the core server
package.

Which Packages Should I Use?

To quickly get PostgreSQL up and running, you can install a subset of the packages
available. See the table above for further information. Here are a couple of scenarios:
• If you only want to run a Postgres server, install SUNWpostgr-libs, SUNWpostgr,
SUNWpostgr-server-data, and SUNWpostgr-server.
• If you only want to run the Postgres client, install SUNWpostgr-libs and
SUNWpostgr.

If a package depends on other package(s), you will need to install these dependencies
first. You will be notified of these dependencies during install.

These Solaris packages do not support any sort of upgrading process other than that
documented in the regular documentation. That is, you must dump, upgrade, initdb,
and restore your data. You must remove the old server package, install the new
package and restore the data from dump.

Package File Locations

To be in compliance with Solaris OS, the PostgreSQL Solaris packages install files in
various locations which are different than the default locations found in PostgreSQL
documentation. According to the standard PostgreSQL documentation, PostgreSQL is
installed under the directory /usr/local/pgsql, with executables, source, and data
existing in various subdirectories.
Different distributions have different recommended file locations. In particular, the
documentation directory can be /usr/doc, /usr/doc/packages, /usr/share/doc,
/usr/share/doc/packages, or some other similar path. The Solaris locations are listed
below:

Executables /usr/bin
Libraries /usr/lib
Documentation /usr/share/doc/pgsqlx.y.z
/usr/share/doc/pgsqlx.y.z/contrib
Contrib /usr/share/pgsql/contrib
Data /var/lib/pgsql/data
Backup area /var/lib/pgsql/backup
Templates /usr/share/pgsql
Procedural Languages /usr/lib/pgsql
Development
/usr/include/pgsql
Headers
Other shared data /usr/share/pgsql

The above list references the Solaris OS file system structure. These locations may
change for other distributions. It is recommended that you follow these guidelines to
ensure the system functions properly.

Installing and Upgrading PostgreSQL

Solaris Packages
Solaris packages are installed using the pkgadd command. This command transfers
the contents of a software package from the distribution medium or directory and
installs it onto a system.
This section provides basic installation instructions for installing your package in order
to verify that it installs correctly.

1. Download packages, unzip and untar them.

2. Add the software package to the system.
# pkgadd -d device- name [pkg- abbrev...]

device- name Specifies the location of the package. Note that device- name can be a full 

directory path name or the identifiers for a tape, floppy disk, or removable disk.
pkg- abbrev Is the name of one or more packages (separated by spaces) to be added. 
 If omitted, pkgadd installs all available packages.

For example, the following command will install SUNWpostgr-libs package from the
current directory.

# pkgadd -d . SUNWpostgr-libs

Installing Solaris Patches

Installations on Solaris 10 Update 1 or earlier, will require that you install Python patch
121606-01 before using PL/Python procedural language.

Patch Installation Instructions:

Refer to the man pages for instructions on using 'patchadd' and 'patchrm' scripts
provided with Solaris. Any other special or non-generic installation instructions should
be described below as special instructions. The following example installs a patch to a
standalone machine:

example# patchadd /var/spool/patch/104945-02

The following example removes a patch from a standalone system:

example# patchrm 104945-02

For additional examples please see the appropriate man pages.

Special Install Instructions:

NOTE 1: If you encounter patchadd or patchrm problems (refer

Bugid 6224767), such as "wordlist too large" messages
while installing this patch, you may need to install
the following patch:

119254-02 (or newer) Install and Patch Utilities Patch

The Python patch can be downloaded from

http://pgfoundry.org/projects/solarispackages.

To install the patch follow the following steps:

1. Download the patch, unzip and untar it into any directory (e.g. /var/tmp).
2. Add the patch to the system. You must have root privileges to add a patch.
# patchadd /var/tmp/121606-01

The above command will take a few minutes, so be patience.

After the patch is installed successfully, you can proceed to install PL/Python.

Removing Solaris Packages

It is recommended that you execute a full database dump (and possibly a filesystem
level backup) before removing Solaris packages. Because the pkgrm command updates
information in the software products database, it is important when you remove a
package to use the pkgrm command, even though you might be tempted to use the rm
command instead. For example, you could use the rm command to remove a binary
executable file, but that is not the same as using pkgrm to remove the software
package that includes that binary executable. Using the rm command to remove a
package’s files will corrupt the software products database. (If you really only want to
remove one file, you can use the removef command, which will update the software
product database correctly.
1. Log in to the system as superuser.
2. Remove an installed package.
# pkgrm pkg-list ...
 pkg- list Is the name of one or more packages (separated by spaces). If omitted, pkgrm removes all 
available packages.

3. Verify that the package has successfully been removed, use the
pkginfo command.
# pkginfo | egrep pkg-abbrev

If pkg- abbrev is installed, the pkginfo command returns a line of information about it. 

Otherwise, pkginfo returns the system prompt.

NOTE: You should stop all server processes before removing packages.

Starting PostgreSQL for the First Time

Once you have successfully installed the packages, there are a few steps that you will
need to perform before you can start the database.
1. Create a Solaris OS user that will be used to administer PostgreSQL. If you
choose to use an existing user, skip this step on proceed with Step 2. (you
cannot run PostgreSQL as “root” user)

For example, to create a user called “postgres”, execute the following

command (you must have root privileges):

# useradd -c 'PostgreSQL user' -d /export/home/postgres -m -s /bin/bash

postgres

2. The next step is to ensure that the user administering the database has write
permissions to the PostgreSQL data directory. The default location for this
directory is /var/lib/pgsql/data. This can be accomplished in several ways. It is
recommended that you set the ownership of the PostgreSQL data directory to
the user you have determined will administer the database and set it with read,
write, and execute permissions.

For example, to set ownership and permissions for a user called “postgres”,
execute the following commands:

# chown postgres /var/lib/pgsql/data

# chmod +rwx /var/lib/pgsql/data

3. You are now ready to create the database cluster. Login as the user you have
just created or have previously determined will administer the database and
execute the following command.

For example, to create a database cluster in /var/lib/pgsql/data (default data

directory):

$ initdb -D /var/lib/pgsql/data/mydata

Note: If you need to create multiple database clusters in /var/lib/pgsql/data, you

can put the database clusters in different directories under /var/lib/pgsql/data
similar to the example above.

4. PostgreSQL is now ready to be started.

 For example:

$ pg_ctl -D /var/lib/pgsql/data -l logfile start

Further information on creating and administering PostgresSQL can be found at

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/ .

How Do I Perform a Major Upgrade?

Currently, PostgreSQL Solaris package does not provide a data upgrade feature among
major releases (or clearly, upgrades that require an initdb.) This work in under
progress. In order to upgrade to a major version, you should follow the following steps:
• Take a full dump using pg_dumpall.
• Check the backups. Do it again, if needed.
• Now, stop the database server
• Test the backup on another server. This is good for catching any possible
errors.
• You might want to take a file system-level backup also. We strongly
recommend it.
• Remove all PostgreSQL packages
• Remove database cluster
• Install new Solaris packages
• Start the database server
• Edit config files, if needed.
• Reload the data to the new server

You're done!

Rebuilding from Source Package

Instructions for rebuilding Solaris packages from source may be provided in the future.

Contrib Files
The contents of the contrib tree are packaged into the SUNWpostgr-contrib package
and are processed with make and make install. There is documentation in
/usr/share/doc/postgresql-contrib-VERSION for these modules. Most of the modules are
in /usr/lib/pgsql for loadable modules, and binaries are in /usr/bin. In the future these
files may be split out, depending upon function and dependencies.

More Information
You can get more information at http://www.postgresql.org
Please help make this packaging better --let us know if you find problems, or better
ways of doing things. You can reach us by e-mail at solarispackages-
hackers@pgfoundry.org.