Install self-hosted TimescaleDB on Debian-based systems

You can host TimescaleDB yourself, on your Debian or Ubuntu system. These instructions use the apt package manager on these distributions:

Debian 9 Stretch
Debian 10 Buster
Debian 11 Bullseye
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
Ubuntu 21.04 Hirsute Hippo
Ubuntu 21.10 Impish Indri
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish

warning

If you have already installed PostgreSQL using a method other than the apt package manager, you could encounter errors following these instructions. It is safest to remove any existing PostgreSQL installations before you begin. If you want to keep your current PostgreSQL installation, do not install TimescaleDB using this method. Install from source instead.

Installing self-hosted TimescaleDB on Debian-based systems

At the command prompt, as root, add the PostgreSQL third party repository to get the latest PostgreSQL packages:
```
apt install gnupg postgresql-common apt-transport-https lsb-release wget
```

Run the PostgreSQL repository setup script:

/usr/share/postgresql-common/pgdg/apt.postgresql.org.sh

Add the TimescaleDB third party repository:

Install Timescale GPG key

wget --quiet -O - https://packagecloud.io/timescale/timescaledb/gpgkey | apt-key add -

Update your local repository list:
```
apt update
```
Install TimescaleDB:
```
apt install timescaledb-2-postgresql-14
```
note
If you want to install a specific version of TimescaleDB, instead of the most recent, you can specify the version like this: apt-get install timescaledb-2-2.6.0-postgresql-12

You can see the full list of TimescaleDB releases by visiting our releases page

When you have completed the installation, you need to configure your database so that you can use it. The easiest way to do this is to run the timescaledb-tune script, which is included with the timescaledb-tools package. For more information, see the configuration section.

Set up the TimescaleDB extension

When you have PostgreSQL and TimescaleDB installed, you can connect to it from your local system using the psql command-line utility. This is the same tool you might have used to connect to PostgreSQL before, but if you haven't installed it yet, check out our installing psql section.

Setting up the TimescaleDB extension

Restart the service after enabling TimescaleDB with timescaledb-tune:
```
systemctl restart postgresql
```
On your local system, at the command prompt, connect to the PostgreSQL instance as the postgres superuser:
```
su postgres -c psql
```
If your connection is successful, you'll see a message like this, followed by the psql prompt:
```
psql (13.3, server 12.8 (Ubuntu 12.8-1.pgdg21.04+1))
SSL connection (protocol: TLSv1.3, cipher: TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, bits: 256, compression: off)
Type "help" for help.
tsdb=>
```
At the psql prompt, create an empty database. Our database is called example:
```
CREATE database example;
```
Connect to the database you created:
```
\c example
```

Add the TimescaleDB extension:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS timescaledb;

You can now connect to your database using this command:
```
su postgres -c 'psql -d example'
```

You can check that the TimescaleDB extension is installed by using the \dx command at the psql prompt. It looks like this:

tsdb=> \dx
List of installed extensions
-[ RECORD 1 ]------------------------------------------------------------------
Name        | plpgsql
Version     | 1.0
Schema      | pg_catalog
Description | PL/pgSQL procedural language
-[ RECORD 2 ]------------------------------------------------------------------
Name        | timescaledb
Version     | 2.6.1
Schema      | public
Description | Enables scalable inserts and complex queries for time-series data

tsdb=>

Where to next

Now that you have your first TimescaleDB database up and running, you can check out the TimescaleDB section in our documentation, and find out what you can do with it.

If you want to work through some tutorials to help you get up and running with TimescaleDB and time-series data, check out our tutorials section.

You can always contact us if you need help working something out, or if you want to have a chat.

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Keywords

TimescaleDB install self-hosted Debian TimescaleDB extension

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