How To Install pgAdmin 4 On Ubuntu 20.04

PGAdmin is a web-based GUI tool used to interact with the Postgres database sessions, both locally and remote servers as well. It is an open-source, powerful, and feature-rich graphical user interface (GUI) administration and management tool for the PostgreSQL database. It provides a powerful user interface that enables you to easily create, manage, maintain and use database objects, by both beginners and experienced Postgres users alike.

pgAdmin 4 supports PostgreSQL 9.2 or later, and runs on Unix and its variants such as Linux, Mac OS X as well as Windows operating systems.

In this article, we will learn how to install pgadmin 4 on Ubuntu 20.04 server. This guide assumes that you already have Postgres 9.2 installed and set up. If not checkout How to Install and Configure Postgres 14 Ubuntu 20.04

Table of Content

Ensuring that the server is up to date
Setting up pgadmin 4 repo
Installing pgadmin 4
Accessing the pgAdmin 4 web interface

1. Ensuring that the server is up to date

Before proceeding, let us ensure that our server has updated packages. Use this command to achieve that:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Setting up pgadmin 4 repo

The pgadmin 4 package is not found in the default Ubuntu repositories. Let us set up pgadmin repo that will allow us to install and keep track of updates for future pgadmin releases.

Install the public key for the repository

sudo curl https://www.pgadmin.org/static/packages_pgadmin_org.pub | sudo apt-key add

Create the repository configuration file and updating the repos:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/apt/$(lsb_release -cs) pgadmin4 main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgadmin4.list && apt update'

3. Installing pgadmin 4

We can finally install pgadmin. pgadmin is available in both desktop and web mode. If you are running postgres on a local Ubuntu desktop system, the desktop mode is recommended, otherwise the web mode will work just fine. In my case I will be installing the web mode.

To Install for both desktop and web modes:

sudo apt install pgadmin4

To Install for desktop mode only

sudo apt install pgadmin4-desktop

To Install for web mode only:

sudo apt install pgadmin4-web

Once you have the web mode installed, you need to configure it before using. The installation will help set up an initial user and a web server to serve the content. Use this command to configure

sudo /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh

This is the output on my system:

$ sudo /usr/pgadmin4/bin/setup-web.sh
Setting up pgAdmin 4 in web mode on a Debian based platform...
Creating configuration database...
NOTE: Configuring authentication for SERVER mode.

Enter the email address and password to use for the initial pgAdmin user account:

Email address: admin@citizix.com
Password:
Retype password:
pgAdmin 4 - Application Initialisation
======================================

Creating storage and log directories...
We can now configure the Apache Web server for you. This involves enabling the wsgi module and configuring the pgAdmin 4 application to mount at /pgadmin4. Do you wish to continue (y/n)? y
The Apache web server is running and must be restarted for the pgAdmin 4 installation to complete. Continue (y/n)? y
Apache successfully restarted. You can now start using pgAdmin 4 in web mode at http://127.0.0.1/pgadmin4

4. Accessing the pgAdmin 4 web interface

Now you can access the pgAdmin 4 web interface. Open a web browser and point it to the address

http://127.0.0.1/pgadmin4 or http://SERVER_IP/pgadmin4 and click Enter.

The pgadmin 4 login page will load prompting you for the email address and password that you set earlier. Click login after entering it.

After a successful login, you will land at the pgAdmin4 web interface default dashboard.

Citizix - pgadmin 4 dashboard — Citizix – pgadmin 4 dashboard

To connect to a database server, click on Add New Server. Then add the new server connection name and a comment. Click on the Connection Tab to provide the connection details I.e hostname, database name, database username, and password as shown in the following screenshot. Once you are done, click Save.

Citizix - pgadmin add server — Citizix – pgadmin add server

Citizix - pgadmin add server conn details — Citizix – pgadmin add server conn details

Under the Browser, click on the Servers to expand. You should have the server you added. It will show the databases, roles, and table space. Expand the Database link to view the server performance overview under the Dashboard.

Citizix - pgadmin 4 server stats — Citizix – pgadmin 4 server stats

Wrapping up

We did manage to install pgadmin 4 on Ubuntu 20.04 and add server connection in this guide.