How Install Microsoft SQL Server on Ubuntu/RHEL/Centos/Docker

So that day have come now, MSFT has to port their software to Linux in order to stay relevant. MS SQL Server preview have come out and it is supported on Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL  and Docker container. In this article, we are going to walk through how to install Microsoft SQL Server on linux platforms versions (CentOS / RHEL 7 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). The installation of the software is straightforward so let's start.

Installing MS SQL Server on CentOS or RHEL

As root, issue this command to add Microsoft repository

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/mssql-server.repo > /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo

After the repository have been added, log in as non-root user with sudo rights. I will do it like this, you change for your username:

su miki

Next we will install the MS SQL Server

sudo yum install mssql-server

After the yum have finished installing the package, we need to run the script which is similar to mysql_secure_install script.

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr-setup

Complete the prompt like this:

If firewalld is not installed and enabled by default (in minimal install sometimes isn't) lets enable it:

sudo yum install firewalld

Enable it to start at boot

sudo systemctl enable firewalld

Start it for this session

sudo systemctl start firewalld

And add rules so SQL server can work

sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Check if SQL server is running

systemctl status mssql-server

Installing on Ubuntu

If you are using Ubuntu, here is how to install it. First lets enter superuser mode

sudo su

Lets add the key for the repository

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -

Then add repository

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/mssql-server.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-server.list

And update sources list

apt update

After this we can switch to non-root user either with su username or by exiting

exit

Next we install the MS SQL server by following command

miki@ubuntu-1:~$ sudo apt-get install -y mssql-server

Same as on centos, we need to run the script

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr-setup

And check if it is running

systemctl status mssql-server

Docker image

A third way to use Microsoft SQL Server is with docker image. If you have working docker installation, you can run this on any Linux distribution. For instruction how to install docker on your distribution, you can visit official docker site.

When you have docker installed we can proceed to pulling the docker image

sudo docker pull microsoft/mssql-server-linux

We will need directory for persistent volume for the database

mkdir ~/mssql

This command will start the docker container with this image and with /home/miki/mssql as data dir. You change this path for your data dir

sudo docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -p 1433:1433 -v /home/miki/mssql:/var/opt/mssql -d microsoft/mssql-server-linux

Connecting to the MS SQL Server

In order to connect to the server, you need mssql tools which are not part of mssql server install. Here is how to install them

On Ubuntu

As super user add key for new repository (yes, it is another repo, not same as mssql)

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -

Add repository

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/msprod.list

Update sources list

sudo apt-get update

Log in as non-root

su miki

Install the tools

sudo apt-get install mssql-tools

On CentOS

As root run run this command to add repo:

sudo curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/prod.repo > /etc/yum.repos.d/msprod.repo

Switch to normal user

su miki

Install the tools

sudo yum install mssql-tools

On both CentOS and Ubuntu, you would need to accept EULA while install is in the process.

To connect the DB server, you run following command

sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P 'YourPassword'

Where YourPassword is the password you entered when you ran sqlservr-setup script. This should give you the mssql prompt

Working with SQL server

Now that we done with the install and have accessed the server, lets use it. For example, this commands will create database linoxide and change usage to it.

1> CREATE DATABASE linoxide;
2> GO
1> USE linoxide;
2> GO
Changed database context to 'linoxide'.
1>

In order to execute the command, after command you need to type GO as next line.  Showing all databases is done with following command

SELECT Name from sys.Databases;

Conclusion

We have successfully installed Microsoft SQL server on Ubuntu 16.04, RHEL and CentOS 7 and Docker container. In my opinion, MariaDB and PostgreSQL are still a better choices for Linux server, but if you just have to use MSFT software, now it is possible on Linux too. Thank you for reading, this is all for today.