Change your directory to /etc/init.d you can do that by running below command: > cd /etc/init.d then run below command for checking postgresql service > ls Note: this command will list the objects in the init.d directory and this is not specific to postgres. check if the postgresql is present in the result returned by ls cmd. If it's not present then your postgres is not installed properly and try installing again. If the postgresql is present then run below cmd : > postgresql status this will ask you for postgres possword enter the password. this will return something like this : pg_ctl: server is running (PID: 6171) /usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres "-D" "/usr/local/pgsql/data" [ Note : The status above indicates the server is up and running] If the server is not returning then it will be like : pg_ctl: no server running