How to install postgresql on a server?
Except in Windows-land there's no difference between a "Server" and a "PC" other than typical hardware choices and installed software.

PostgreSQL follows that, and doesn't care in the slightest what you're installing it on. Install it on Win2k8 the same way you would on any Windows desktop OS.

The only possible wrinkle is Group Policy and Active Directory domain membership, but those are also factors in domain-member PCs. So long as your group policies don't restrict the NETWORKSERVICE, and so long as you install PostgreSQL to use the NETWORKSERVICE (default in 9.2 and later) you'll have no issues, it'll be just like any other local machine install.

If you want to run PostgreSQL under an Active Directory user account, or an account with more restrictive group policies, then you might have to set up the service yourself, but you'll have a capable sysadmin to do that if you're in the kind of environment where it might be necessary.

Client configuration depends on what you're connecting with. You may want the ODBC driver psqlODBC, you may want PgJDBC, you might want the Python driver psycopg2, etc etc. The general idea is: install desired driver, use application. The only one that takes more setup is ODBC if used with a predefined DSN, and that's the same for PostgreSQL as any other ODBC app.

To configure the server to accept connections from clients you must:


Ensure the server's firewall allows inbound connections to postgres.exe and/or port 5432 (default)
Set up pg_hba.conf to allow PostgreSQL to accept remote connections (see the documentation)
Create PostgreSQL user accounts for the users