# Easily Launch Your Local PostgreSQL Database and pgAdmin with Docker

Hey everyone 👋, Couple of days ago I started building an web application using **postgreSQL** as the database. I found out that it is little bit tidious task to setup up a connection for **postgreSQL** (Since I am a linux user). So I thought why not use **docker** to pull up the image of **postgreSQL** and **pgAdmin** and then run it in the docker container itself.

So in this blog, I am going to give a step by step procedure to run **postgreSQL** and **pgAdmin** in the docker container. And in the next blog I will make a **TODO** app using postgreSQL.

## Prerequisites

There is only one prerequisite to setup **postgreSQL** on your local machine.

* Basic **Docker** commands
    

Before proceeding, you should have **Docker** installed on your system.

## PostgreSQL & pgAdmin

Well before going into the steps to run postgreSQL, let's first understand what is **postgreSQL**.

**PostgreSQL** is an advanced, open-source, enterprise-level relational database that supports both **SQL** (relational) and **JSON** (non-relational) querying.

On the other hand, **pgAdmin** is an open source management tool for postgreSQL. It provides an powerful graphical interface that simplifies the creation, maintenance, and use of the database objects. You can write SQL queries directly from the query tool provided by pgAdmin.

So basically, PostgreSQL is the main database and pgAdmin is for managing your PostgreSQL databases.

## PostgreSQL setup

### Pulling docker images

Now let's setup our **postgreSQL** database using **Docker**.

So, first of all, we have to pull the images of the **postgreSQL** and **pgAdmin** from the docker registry using the below commands.

```bash
docker pull postgres
```

*The above command will pull the* ***postgreSQL*** *database image from docker registry.*

```bash
docker pull dpage/pgadmin4
```

*The above command will pull the* ***pgAdmin4*** *image from docker registry.*

To see all the pulled docker images. You can run the below command:

```bash
docker images
```

### Spinning up the docker containers

Since we successfully pulled the two docker images, now we can move to the next step.

In this step, we will start the **postgreSQL** database and **pgAdmin** in the docker containers and also map the **host port** to the **container port** so that we can communicate to the container from our machine.

Now run the below command to start the **postgreSQL** database container. After running the command, you will see bunch of lines printed on the terminal and it is running.

```bash
docker run -p 5432:5432 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD='YOUR-PASSWORD' postgres
```

Here is the breakdown of the above command :

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710327340239/cc050c44-0865-42a4-a908-c7defb763a3c.png align="center")

Now open a different tab in the terminal and also run the below command to start the **pgAdmin** container in that tab. Here also you will see bunch of lines printed on the terminal and it is running.

```bash
docker run -p 8080:80  -e PGADMIN_DEFAULT_EMAIL='YOUR-EMAIL' -e PGADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD='YOUR-pgAdmin-PASSWORD' dpage/pgadmin4
```

This command's breakdown is also same as above, just it has two environment variables.

Wow!!! Your database and **pgAdmin** containers are now up and running.

To list out which containers are running, you can open up another tab in the terminal and run the below command.

```bash
docker ps
```

And to stop a container, you can run the below command.

```bash
docker stop <CONTAINER-ID>
```

### Connect postgreSQL to pgAdmin

Go to any browser on your desktop/laptop and open **http://localhost:8080** . This will open up the **pgAdmin4** on the web.

<div data-node-type="callout">
<div data-node-type="callout-emoji">❌</div>
<div data-node-type="callout-text">If the<strong> http://localhost:8080</strong> does not opens up then there is a problem in the previous steps. To resolve this, you can stop the containers and again do previous steps correctly.</div>
</div>

You will see the below login page of **pgAdmin4**. Just fill out the login page with the Email and Password which you have given while starting the **pgAdmin** container.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710308458213/3bf550df-a587-4b21-b16c-d2398a252142.png align="center")

Now if the login credentials are correct then you will see a page like below.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710308908728/68817760-9d1e-451d-a940-d1c32f27eb7e.png align="center")

Now click on the **Add New Server** button inside the quick links section. Then a dialog box will open up like below, which will ask you to setup the database server name and other credentials of the **postgreSQL** database.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710324701399/16b29972-1b02-44c0-a8d4-ee34b46a1644.png align="center")

Now give a name to the server. For now I am giving the name as **todo**. Then go to the connection section of the dialog box, there you will see bunch of fields like below.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710324898656/b717b9ee-fae1-4c52-836c-f418c5374b1f.png align="center")

Here you have to fill three input fields.

* **Host name/address:** In this field you have to give the host name i.e. my machine name. For example:
    
    ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710325439855/f4b73cbb-2796-470b-8921-8ddc8743b15d.png align="center")
    
* **Username:** By default, the username is **postgres**.
    
* **Password:** Give the password which you have given while starting the **postgres** container.
    

Now click the save button and if everything is correct then it will create a server for you and below page will be displayed otherwise an error message will be shown.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710325658519/ac65bfd0-089e-4538-9d18-0c65d7946b9e.png align="center")

Now you can see, In the left size there is all the options. For writing queries in the database, you can simply right click on the **postgres** option under the **Databases** and then select the **query tool** option. Then a new query page will open up like below.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1710325907935/daa52b4c-2313-4b28-8c1b-c7db6a8d7d9e.png align="center")

Now you can simply run queries over here and click on the run button to see the output.

Congratulations 🥳 !!! You successfully setup **postgreSQL** database and **pgAdmin** using Docker.

In the next blog, I will make an **TODO** web application using **postgreSQL** as the database.

Stay tuned for more blogs like this and subscribe to my newsletter.

Bye 👋