Installing and Connecting to SQL 2017 on Ubuntu (Linux)

SQL Server 2017 is available as a CTP for testing (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2017) and is able to be installed on a system running Linux. Because I have done all of my professional work on Windows systems, the leap to a Linux system was a bit of a stretch. I learned that while Linux is the OS kernel, Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu and Docker Engine are all flavors of Linux. A rough analogy might be that something like Ubuntu is sort of like a version of Windows. Regardless of how you think of it, it is a truly interesting experience to get SQL 2017 installed.

The first thing to do is get your friendly System Admin to stand up a Linux server. We used Ubuntu 16.04 but there are other flavors of Linux that can also be installed as listed below. Your Admin should provide you with a login and password that is an administrator so that you can get SQL running.

Since everything I have ever done on a computer has had a GUI, I decided to install Gnome to try to shorten my learning curve on Ubuntu. (https://ubuntugnome.org/download/ ) Truthfully, navigating in Gnome was not super intuitive to me but I was able to bumble around and get things done. When following the install instructions from Microsoft, there are places where commands are used to get things done that are labeled “bash”. It took me a bit to figure out that bash is a Unix shell or command prompt that is used to execute commands. I found a bash guide if anyone is interested. (http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-Guide/html/Bash-Beginners-Guide.html) Apparently you can use bash on Windows….I learn something new every day. (https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/03/30/run-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windows/#igsmYPLj6ovEWf7Y.97)

In Gnome, I had to search for terminal to get the command prompt (bash) window. To get SQL installed, I followed the instructions from Microsoft and have taken screenshots of what it looks like after running commands. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-setup-ubuntu)

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

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

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y mssql-server

During the setup completion step, you should be ready to provide the SA password when prompted for the SQL Server system administrator password.

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

systemctl status mssql-server

Now install SQLCMD and BCP tools. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-setup-tools#ubuntu)  I only installed SQLCMD but the BCP commands are similar.

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

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mssql-tools unixodbc-dev

You have to answer licensing questions here so be ready.

I also installed the SQL Server Agent. The commands are very similar to previous commands so I did not take any extra screen shots of those. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-setup-sql-agent

Once the tools are installed, you must use SQLCMD to query. You cannot use SSMS on Ubuntu.

Since I am a creature of the Microsoft world and really want to use SSMS to do things, I need to be able to connect to SQL on Ubuntu using SSMS. So that you can connect remotely, I made sure to open SQL ports in Ubuntu. First you have to enable the firewall:

Then open ports 1433 & 1434:

To connect and query from a Windows machine….install SQL 2017 SSMS. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms)

Connect to SQL as normal. I tried many times to get connected using my Ubuntu hostname but did not have luck. I was able to connect using the IP address however.

The Ubuntu hostname appears in the terminal connection. Use ifconfig to get the IP address. (http://www.aboutlinux.info/2006/11/ifconfig-dissected-and-demystified.html)

Once connected you can do most things as usual in SSMS.

As of this writing, I found several places where Microsoft employees warned that some things will likely break and that they are working on bugs. So, if you run into anything that you can’t find a way around, let them know. So far Microsoft seems to be very open to information and suggestions which makes me very hopeful that SQL 2017 will be released soon and will be much faster than previous versions.

For a taste of some of the new things in SQL 2017 see: https://blog.sqlrx.com/2017/05/19/sql-2017-is-on-the-way/

For more information about blog posts, concepts and definitions, further explanations, or questions you may have…please contact us at SQLRx@sqlrx.com. We will be happy to help! Leave a comment and feel free to track back to us. Visit us at www.sqlrx.com!