title: Installing postgres on EC2 (Amazon Linux)
body: <p>Trying to install postgreSQL, and looks liked I have messed something up. I first delete postgres using commands below.</p>
  
  <pre><code>[ec2-user@ip-10-183-130-45 /]$ rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql/data
  [ec2-user@ip-10-183-130-45 /]$ sudo rm -rf /var/pgsql
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>then try initdb, which for some reason fails, </p>
  
  <pre><code>[ec2-user@ip-10-183-130-45 /]$ sudo service postgresql initdb
  Initializing database:                                     [FAILED]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but when I check though, the initdb does create pgsql folder,</p>
  
  <pre><code>[ec2-user@ip-10-183-130-45 var]$ ls -l
  total 80
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 May  9  2013 account
  drwxr-xr-x  9 root     root     4096 Sep 18 09:54 cache
  drwxr-xr-x  3 root     root     4096 May  9  2013 db
  drwxr-xr-x  3 root     root     4096 May  9  2013 empty
  drwxr-xr-x  3 root     root     4096 Nov  8 06:34 ftp
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 games
  drwxr-xr-x 20 root     root     4096 Oct 14 07:34 lib
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 local
  drwxrwxr-x  5 root     lock     4096 Jan 21 04:36 lock
  drwxr-xr-x  7 root     root     4096 Jan 21 09:31 log
  lrwxrwxrwx  1 root     root       10 May  9  2013 mail -&gt; spool/mail
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 nis
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 opt
  **drwx------  3 postgres postgres 4096 Jan 21 13:26 pgsql**
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 preserve
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Mar 14  2013 racoon
  drwxr-xr-x 16 root     root     4096 Jan 21 13:23 run
  drwxr-xr-x  9 root     root     4096 May  9  2013 spool
  drwxrwxrwt  3 root     root     4096 Jan 20 06:00 tmp
  drwxrwsr-x  7 root     www      4096 Nov 17 14:38 www
  drwxr-xr-x  2 root     root     4096 Jan  6  2012 yp
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so I try to start the postgresql, which fails too</p>
  
  <pre><code>[ec2-user@ip-10-183-130-45 var]$ sudo service postgresql start
  
  /var/pgsql is missing. Use "service postgresql initdb" to initialize
  the cluster first.
                                                             [FAILED]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can someone help, ID what I am doing wrong? Using postgresql-9.2-1.19. </p>