What is SQL Server on Linux?
Applies to: 
SQL Server - Linux
Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), SQL Server runs on Linux. It's the same SQL Server Database Engine, with many similar features and services regardless of your operating system.
Tip
SQL Server 2019 is available! To find out what's new for Linux in the latest release, see What's new in SQL Server 2019 for Linux.
SQL Server 2019 (15.x) runs on Linux. It's the same SQL Server Database Engine, with many similar features and services regardless of your operating system. To find out more about this release, see What's new for SQL Server 2019 on Linux.
Tip
SQL Server 2022 is available! To find out what's new for Linux in the latest release, see What's new in SQL Server 2022.
SQL Server 2022 (16.x) runs on Linux. It's the same SQL Server Database Engine, with many similar features and services regardless of your operating system. To find out more about this release, see What's new in SQL Server 2022.
Install
To get started, install SQL Server on Linux using one of the following quickstarts:
- Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat
- Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Ubuntu
- Quickstart: Run SQL Server Linux container images with Docker
- Provision a SQL VM in Azure
Container images
The SQL Server container images are published and available on the Microsoft Container Registry (MCR), and also cataloged at the following locations, based on the operating system image that was used when creating the container image:
- For both RHEL and Ubuntu based SQL Server container images, see SQL Server on the Microsoft Artifact Registry.
- For RHEL-based SQL Server container images, see SQL Server Red Hat containers.
Note
Containers will only be published to MCR for the most recent Linux distributions. If you create your own custom SQL Server container image for an older supported distribution, it will still be supported. For more information, see Upcoming updates to SQL Server container images on Microsoft Artifact Registry aka (MCR).
Connect
After installation, connect to the SQL Server instance on your Linux machine. You can connect locally or remotely and with various tools and drivers. The quickstarts demonstrate how to use the sqlcmd command-line tool. Other tools include the following:
| Tool | Tutorial |
|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code (VS Code) | SQL Server extension for Visual Studio Code |
| SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) | Use SQL Server Management Studio on Windows to manage SQL Server on Linux |
| SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) | Use Visual Studio to create databases for SQL Server on Linux |
Explore
Starting with SQL Server 2017 (14.x), SQL Server has the same underlying Database Engine on all supported platforms, including Linux and containers. Therefore, many existing features and capabilities operate the same way. This area of the documentation exposes some of these features from a Linux perspective. It also calls out areas that have unique requirements on Linux.
If you're already familiar with SQL Server on Linux, review the release notes for general guidelines and known issues for this release:
- Release notes for SQL Server 2017 on Linux
- Release notes for SQL Server 2019 on Linux
- Release notes for SQL Server 2022 on Linux
Then look at what's new:
- What's new for SQL Server 2017 on Linux
- What's new for SQL Server 2019 on Linux
- What's new in SQL Server 2022
Tip
For answers to frequently asked questions, see the SQL Server on Linux FAQ.
Get help
- Ideas for SQL: Have suggestions for improving SQL Server?
- Microsoft Q & A (SQL Server)
- DBA Stack Exchange (tag sql-server): Ask SQL Server questions
- Stack Overflow (tag sql-server): Answers to SQL development questions
- Reddit: General discussion about SQL Server
- Microsoft SQL Server License Terms and Information
- Support options for business users
- Additional SQL Server help and feedback
Contribute to SQL documentation
Did you know that you can edit SQL content yourself? If you do so, not only do you help improve our documentation, but you also get credited as a contributor to the page.
For more information, see How to contribute to SQL Server documentation