Installation guidance for SQL Server on Linux

Prerequisites

You must have an RHEL 7.3-7.8 or 8.0-8.3 computer with a minimum of 2 GB of memory.

Go to https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/evaluation to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on your own computer. You can also build RHEL virtual machines in Azure. See Build and manage Linux VMs with Azure CLI, and use—image RHEL in the call to create az VM.

If you've got previously installed a SQL Server CTP or RC release, you want to first uninstall the old repository before these steps are followed. For more detail, see Configure SQL Server 2017 and 2019 Linux repositories.

Install SQL Server

Note :

This command points to the RHEL 8 repository for SQL Server 2019. RHEL 8 does not come with python2, which is needed by SQL Server, preinstalled. Execute the command and verify that python2 is selected as the interpreter before you begin the SQL Server installation steps:

sudo alternatives --config python

# If not configured, install python2 and openssl10 using the subsequent commands:

sudo yum install python2

sudo yum install compat-openssl10

# Configure python2 because the default interpreter using this command:

sudo alternatives --config python

 

See the following blog about how to install python2 and configure it as the default interpreter for more detail on these steps: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/install-microsoft-sql-server-red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-beta.
Adjust the path below to /rhel/7 instead of /rhel/8 if you are using RHEL 7.

To configure SQL Server on RHEL, run the subsequent commands during a terminal to put in the mssql-server package:

1.   Download the Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Red Hat repository configuration file:

    sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/mssql-server-2019.repo

 2   Run the subsequent commands to put in SQL Server:

    sudo yum install -y mssql-server

3.   After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup and follow the prompts to line the SA password and choose your edition.

    sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

 4.   Once the configuration is done, verify that the service is running:

    systemctl status mssql-server

 5.   Open the SQL Server port on the firewall on RHEL to enable remote connections. TCP 1433 is the default SQL Server port. You can use the following commands if you are using Firewall for your firewall:

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

sudo firewall-cmd –reload

At now , SQL Server 2019 is running on your RHEL machine and is prepared to use!

Install the SQL Server command-line tools

You need to connect to a tool that can run Transact-SQL statements on SQL Server to build a database. SQL Server command-line utilities are configured in the following steps: sqlcmd and bcp.

1. Download the Microsoft Red Hat repository configuration file.

sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/msprod.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/prod.repo

     2. If you had a previous version of mssql-tools installed, remove any older unixODBC packages.

sudo yum remove unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel

     3. Run the subsequent commands to put in mssql-tools with the unixODBC developer package.

sudo yum install -y mssql-tools unixODBC-devel

     4. Connect /opt/mssql-tools/bin/ to your PATH Environment Variable for ease. This allows you to run the tools without the full path being defined. To change PATH for both login sessions and interactive/non-login sessions, run the following commands:

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

 

Connect locally

 Using sqlcmd in the following steps to connect to your new instance of SQL Server locally.

     1.   Run sqlcmd with your SQL Server name (-S), user name (-U), and password parameters (-P). You are linked locally in this tutorial, so the name of the server is localhost. The user name is SA and during setup, the password is the one you given for the SA account.

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

     2.   If successful, you should get to a sqlcmd command prompt: 1>.

     3.   If you get a connection failure, first plan to diagnose the matter from the error message. Then review the connection troubleshooting recommendations.

 

Create and query data

The following sections will guide you through the use of sqlcmd to create a new database, add data and run a simple query.

Create a new database

The following steps will create a new database called TestDB.

1. To create a test database, paste the following Transact-SQL command from the sqlcmd command prompt:

CREATE DATABASE TestDB

     2. On subsequent line, write a question to return the name of all of the databases on your server:

SELECT Name from sys.Databases

     3. The previous two commands were not immediately executed. To execute the previous commands, you must type GO on a new line:

GO

 

Insert data

Next, create a new table, Inventory, and add two new rows.

1.   Switch context from the sqlcmd command prompt to the new TestDB database:

USE TestDB

     2.   Create new table named Inventory:

CREATE TABLE Inventory (id INT, name NVARCHAR(50), quantity INT)

     3.   Insert data into the new table:

INSERT INTO Inventory VALUES (1, 'banana', 150); INSERT INTO Inventory VALUES (2, 'orange', 154);

     4.   Type GO to execute the previous commands:

GO

 

Select data

1. Now, run a query to get the data back from the Inventory table.

1.       Within the sqlcmd prompt, enter a question that returns rows from the Inventory table where the number is quite 152:

SELECT * FROM Inventory WHERE quantity > 152;

     2. Execute the command:

GO

 

Exit the sqlcmd command prompt

To end your sqlcmd session, type QUIT:

QUIT