Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat

Article
10/24/2023

Applies to: SQL Server - Linux

In this quickstart, you install SQL Server 2017 (14.x) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.x. Then you can connect with sqlcmd to create your first database and run queries.

For more information on supported platforms, see Release notes for SQL Server 2017 on Linux.

In this quickstart, you install SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.x. Then you can connect with sqlcmd to create your first database and run queries.

For more information on supported platforms, see Release notes for SQL Server 2019 on Linux.

In this quickstart, you install SQL Server 2022 (16.x) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.x or 9.x. Then you can connect with sqlcmd to create your first database and run queries.

For more information on supported platforms, see Release notes for SQL Server 2022 (16.x) on Linux.

Tip

This tutorial requires user input and an internet connection. If you're interested in the unattended or offline installation procedures, see Installation guidance for SQL Server on Linux. If you choose to have a pre-installed SQL Server VM on RHEL ready to run your production-based workload, then please follow the best practices for creating the SQL Server VM.

Azure Marketplace images

You can create your VM based on the following Azure Marketplace image:

RHEL 8.x

When you use the above marketplace image, you avoid the installation step, and can directly configure the instance by providing the SKU and the sa password needed to get started with SQL Server. SQL Server Azure VMs deployed on RHEL using the above Marketplace images, are fully supported by both Microsoft and Red Hat.

You can configure SQL Server on Linux with mssql-conf, using the following command:

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

Prerequisites

You must have a RHEL 8.x machine with at least 2 GB of memory.

To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on your own machine, go to https://access.redhat.com/products/red-hat-enterprise-linux/evaluation. You can also create RHEL virtual machines in Azure. See Create and Manage Linux VMs with the Azure CLI, and use --image RHEL in the call to az vm create.

If you've previously installed a Community Technology Preview (CTP) or Release Candidate (RC) of SQL Server, you must first remove the old repository before following these steps. For more information, see Configure repositories for installing and upgrading SQL Server on Linux.

For other system requirements, see System requirements for SQL Server on Linux.

Install SQL Server

The following commands for installing SQL Server point to the RHEL 8 repository. RHEL 8 doesn't come preinstalled with python2, which is required by SQL Server. Before you begin the SQL Server install steps, execute the command and verify that python2 is selected as the interpreter:

sudo alternatives --config python
# If not configured, install python2 and openssl10 using the following commands:
sudo yum install python2
sudo yum install compat-openssl10
# Configure python2 as the default interpreter using this command:
sudo alternatives --config python

For more information, see the following blog on installing python2 and configuring it as the default interpreter: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/installing-microsoft-sql-server-red-hat-enterprise-linux-8-beta.

To configure SQL Server on RHEL, run the following commands in a terminal to install the mssql-server package:

Download the SQL Server 2017 (14.x) Red Hat repository configuration file:
```
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/mssql-server-2017.repo
```
Tip

If you want to install a different version of SQL Server, see the SQL Server 2019 (15.x) or SQL Server 2022 (16.x) versions of this article.
Run the following command to install SQL Server:
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server
```
After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup using its full path, and follow the prompts to set the SA password and choose your edition. As a reminder, the following SQL Server editions are freely licensed: Evaluation, Developer, and Express.
```
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
```
Remember to specify a strong password for the SA account. You need a minimum length 8 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.
Once the configuration is done, verify that the service is running:
```
systemctl status mssql-server
```
To allow remote connections, open the SQL Server port on the RHEL firewall. The default SQL Server port is TCP 1433. If you're using FirewallD for your firewall, you can use the following commands:
```
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```

At this point, SQL Server is running on your RHEL machine and is ready to use!

sudo alternatives --config python
# If not configured, install python2 and openssl10 using the following commands:
sudo yum install python2
sudo yum install compat-openssl10
# Configure python2 as the default interpreter using this command:
sudo alternatives --config python

To configure SQL Server on RHEL, run the following commands in a terminal to install the mssql-server package:

Download the SQL Server 2019 (15.x) 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
```
Tip

If you want to install a different version of SQL Server, see the SQL Server 2017 (14.x) or SQL Server 2022 (16.x) versions of this article.
Run the following command to install SQL Server:
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server
```
After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup using its full path, and follow the prompts to set the SA password and choose your edition. As a reminder, the following SQL Server editions are freely licensed: Evaluation, Developer, and Express.
```
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
```
Remember to specify a strong password for the SA account. You need a minimum length 8 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.
Once the configuration is done, verify that the service is running:
```
systemctl status mssql-server
```
To allow remote connections, open the SQL Server port on the RHEL firewall. The default SQL Server port is TCP 1433. If you're using FirewallD for your firewall, you can use the following commands:
```
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```

At this point, SQL Server is running on your RHEL machine and is ready to use!

Red Hat 8
Red Hat 9

The following commands for installing SQL Server point to the RHEL 8 repository.

To configure SQL Server on RHEL, run the following commands in a terminal to install the mssql-server package:

Download the SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Red Hat 8 repository configuration file:
```
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/mssql-server-2022.repo
```
Tip

If you want to install a different version of SQL Server, see the SQL Server 2017 (14.x) or SQL Server 2019 (15.x) versions of this article.
Run the following command to install SQL Server:
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server
```
After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup using its full path, and follow the prompts to set the SA password and choose your edition. As a reminder, the following SQL Server editions are freely licensed: Evaluation, Developer, and Express.
```
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
```
Remember to specify a strong password for the SA account. You need a minimum length 8 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.
Once the configuration is done, verify that the service is running:
```
systemctl status mssql-server
```
To allow remote connections, open the SQL Server port on the RHEL firewall. The default SQL Server port is TCP 1433. If you're using FirewallD for your firewall, you can use the following commands:
```
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```

At this point, SQL Server is running on your RHEL machine and is ready to use!

Starting with RHEL 9, you can run SQL Server as a confined application with SELinux enabled. For more information about confined and unconfined applications with SELinux, see Getting started with SELinux.

To run SQL Server as a confined application, follow these steps:

Ensure that SELinux is enabled and in enforcing mode.
Install the mssql-server package using the steps mentioned later in this section.
Install the new mssql-server-selinux package.
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server-selinux
```

Note

You can still install and run SQL Server as an unconfined application like in previous versions of RHEL.

To configure SQL Server on RHEL 9, run the following commands in a terminal to install the mssql-server package:

Download the SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Red Hat 9 repository configuration file:
```
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/9/mssql-server-2022.repo
```
Tip

If you want to install a different version of SQL Server, see the SQL Server 2017 (14.x) or SQL Server 2019 (15.x) versions of this article.
Run the following command to install SQL Server:
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server
```
Optionally, if you want to run SQL Server as a confined application, install the mssql-server-selinux package, which enables custom policies.
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-server-selinux
```
After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup using its full path, and follow the prompts to set the SA password and choose your edition. As a reminder, the following SQL Server editions are freely licensed: Evaluation, Developer, and Express.
```
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
```
Remember to specify a strong password for the SA account. You need a minimum length 8 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.
Once the configuration is done, verify that the service is running:
```
systemctl status mssql-server
```
To allow remote connections, open the SQL Server port on the RHEL firewall. The default SQL Server port is TCP 1433. If you're using FirewallD for your firewall, you can use the following commands:
```
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
```

At this point, SQL Server is running on your RHEL machine and is ready to use!

Disable the `sa` account as a best practice

When you connect to your SQL Server instance using the sa account for the first time after installation, it's important for you to follow these steps, and then immediately disable the sa login as a security best practice.

Create a new login, and make it a member of the sysadmin server role.
- Depending on whether you have a container or non-container deployment, enable Windows authentication, and create a new Windows-based login and add it to the sysadmin server role.
  - Tutorial: Use adutil to configure Active Directory authentication with SQL Server on Linux
  - Tutorial: Configure Active Directory authentication with SQL Server on Linux containers
- Otherwise, create a login using SQL Server authentication, and add it to the sysadmin server role.
Connect to the SQL Server instance using the new login you created.
Disable the sa account, as recommended for security best practice.

Install the SQL Server command-line tools

To create a database, you need to connect with a tool that can run Transact-SQL statements on SQL Server. The following steps install the SQL Server command-line tools: sqlcmd utility and bcp utility.

Use the following steps to install the mssql-tools18 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Download the Microsoft Red Hat repository configuration file.

For Red Hat 9, use the following command:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/9/prod.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo

For Red Hat 8, use the following command:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/prod.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo

For Red Hat 7, use the following command:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/prod.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo

If you had a previous version of mssql-tools installed, remove any older unixODBC packages.
```
sudo yum remove mssql-tools unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel
```
Run the following commands to install mssql-tools18 with the unixODBC developer package.
```
sudo yum install -y mssql-tools18 unixODBC-devel
```
To update to the latest version of mssql-tools, run the following commands:
```
sudo yum check-update
sudo yum update mssql-tools18
```
Optional: Add /opt/mssql-tools18/bin/ to your PATH environment variable in a bash shell.

To make sqlcmd and bcp accessible from the bash shell for login sessions, modify your PATH in the ~/.bash_profile file with the following command:
```
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools18/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
```
To make sqlcmd and bcp accessible from the bash shell for interactive/non-login sessions, modify the PATH in the ~/.bashrc file with the following command:
```
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools18/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
```

Connect locally

The following steps use sqlcmd to locally connect to your new SQL Server instance.

Run sqlcmd with parameters for your SQL Server name (-S), the user name (-U), and the password (-P). In this tutorial, you are connecting locally, so the server name is localhost. The user name is sa and the password is the one you provided for the SA account during setup.
```
sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P '<YourPassword>'
```
Note

Newer versions of sqlcmd are secure by default. For more information about connection encryption, see sqlcmd utility for Windows, and Connecting with sqlcmd for Linux and macOS. If the connection doesn't succeed, you can add the -No option to sqlcmd to specify that encryption is optional, not mandatory.

You can omit the password on the command line to be prompted to enter it.

If you later decide to connect remotely, specify the machine name or IP address for the -S parameter, and make sure port 1433 is open on your firewall.
If successful, you should get to a sqlcmd command prompt: 1>.
If you get a connection failure, first attempt to diagnose the problem from the error message. Then review the connection troubleshooting recommendations.

Create and query data

The following sections walk you through using sqlcmd to create a new database, add data, and run a simple query.

For more information about writing Transact-SQL statements and queries, see Tutorial: Writing Transact-SQL Statements.

Create a new database

The following steps create a new database named TestDB.

From the sqlcmd command prompt, paste the following Transact-SQL command to create a test database:
```
CREATE DATABASE TestDB;
```
On the next line, write a query to return the name of all of the databases on your server:
```
SELECT Name from sys.databases;
```
The previous two commands were not executed immediately. You must type GO on a new line to execute the previous commands:
```
GO
```

Insert data

Next create a new table, dbo.Inventory, and insert two new rows.

From the sqlcmd command prompt, switch context to the new TestDB database:
```
USE TestDB;
```

Create new table named dbo.Inventory:

CREATE TABLE dbo.Inventory (
    id INT,
    name NVARCHAR(50),
    quantity INT,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

Insert data into the new table:

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

Type GO to execute the previous commands:
```
GO
```

Select data

Now, run a query to return data from the dbo.Inventory table.

From the sqlcmd command prompt, enter a query that returns rows from the dbo.Inventory table where the quantity is greater than 152:
```
SELECT * FROM dbo.Inventory
WHERE quantity > 152;
```
Execute the command:
```
GO
```

Exit the sqlcmd command prompt

To end your sqlcmd session, type QUIT:

QUIT

Performance best practices

After installing SQL Server on Linux, review the best practices for configuring Linux and SQL Server to improve performance for production scenarios. For more information, see Performance best practices and configuration guidelines for SQL Server on Linux.

Cross-platform data tools

In addition to sqlcmd, you can use the following cross-platform tools to manage SQL Server:

Tool	Description
Azure Data Studio	A cross-platform GUI database management utility.
Visual Studio Code	A cross-platform GUI code editor that run Transact-SQL statements with the mssql extension.
PowerShell Core	A cross-platform automation and configuration tool based on cmdlets.
mssql-cli	A cross-platform command-line interface for running Transact-SQL commands.

Connect from Windows

SQL Server tools on Windows connect to SQL Server instances on Linux in the same way they would connect to any remote SQL Server instance.

If you have a Windows machine that can connect to your Linux machine, try the same steps in this topic from a Windows command-prompt running sqlcmd. You must use the target Linux machine name or IP address rather than localhost, and make sure that TCP port 1433 is open on the SQL Server machine. If you have any problems connecting from Windows, see connection troubleshooting recommendations.

For other tools that run on Windows but connect to SQL Server on Linux, see:

Other deployment scenarios

For other installation scenarios, see the following resources:

Upgrade: Learn how to upgrade an existing installation of SQL Server on Linux
Uninstall: Uninstall SQL Server on Linux
Unattended install: Learn how to script the installation without prompts
Offline install: Learn how to manually download the packages for offline installation

For answers to frequently asked questions, see the SQL Server on Linux FAQ.

Explore the tutorials for SQL Server on Linux

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

Share via

Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat

Azure Marketplace images

Prerequisites

Install SQL Server

Disable the `sa` account as a best practice

Install the SQL Server command-line tools

Connect locally

Create and query data

Create a new database

Insert data

Select data

Exit the sqlcmd command prompt

Performance best practices

Cross-platform data tools

Connect from Windows

Other deployment scenarios

Contribute to SQL documentation

Feedback

Additional resources

Share via

Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat

Azure Marketplace images

Prerequisites

Install SQL Server

Disable the sa account as a best practice

Install the SQL Server command-line tools

Connect locally

Create and query data

Create a new database

Insert data

Select data

Exit the sqlcmd command prompt

Performance best practices

Cross-platform data tools

Connect from Windows

Other deployment scenarios

Related content

Contribute to SQL documentation

Feedback

Additional resources

Disable the `sa` account as a best practice