The preferred way to set up a PostgreSQL server should be the installation of the version provided by your OS distribution; however, version 8.3 or later is required.

Install the PostgreSQL server, client and JDBC support with the tools of the operating system.

Initialize the database directory (for PostgreSQL version 9.2 this is /var/lib/pgsql/9.2/data/) , start the database server, and make sure that it is started at system start-up.

[root] # service postgresql-9.2 initdb
Initializing database:                                     [  OK  ]
[root] # service postgresql-9.2 start
Starting postgresql-9.2 service:                           [  OK  ]
[root] # chkconfig postgresql-9.2 on