SQL Server 2017 on Linux System Requirements & Software Prerequisites

If you have a mixed environment of Windows and Linux, you would be happy to know that Microsoft has now released SQL Server 2017 to work on Linux Operating systems, in addition to Windows. All the editions and features are available on both the platforms. It gives system integrators more flexibility to integrate SQL Server products. In case if you are interested in implementing SQL on Linux, you would need to know the Linux System Requirements first.

This blog post is precisely about that. In this post, we would be checking into the SQL Server 2017 on Linux System Requirements. So, let’s go ahead and check them out in more detail. But, before we get into the details, here are some value-adds for running SQL on Linux!

Windows-based SQL Server management tools— like SSMS, SSDT, and Profiler—work when connected to SQL Server on Linux
All existing drivers and frameworks are supported on Linux
Third-party tools continue to work over connection endpoints
Native command-line tools are supported: sqlcmd, bcp
Visual Studio Code mssql extension is supported
New command line tool: mssql-cli
New cross-platform management tool: SQL Operations Studio (SOS)

Related Reading: SQL Server 2017 Editions

Table of Contents

SQL Server 2017 on Linux System Requirements

Since there are a wide variety of Linux distros available on the market, it is difficult to point out the exact system requirements. Microsoft has provided guidance on which ones to use, and we are going to list only those.

Here is the list of Linux Operating systems that are currently supported.

RedHat Enterprise Linux (7.3 & 7.4)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (v12-SP2)
Ubuntu (16.04 & 16.10)
Docker Engine (1.8 or higher)

Currently, SQL Server 2017 only supports XFS and ext4 file systems. Microsoft might release support for more file systems in the future.

On a high-level, here are the minimum Linux System Requirements as shown below:

Feature-Type	Minimum Linux System Requirements
Memory	3.25 GB
File System	XFS or EXT4 (other file systems, such as BTRFS, are unsupported)
Disk space	Minimum of 6 GB
Processor speed	Clockspeed of 2 GHz or more
Processor Cores	2 cores (Virtual or Physical)
Processor type	64 bit x64-compatible CPU only

For NFS (Network File Share), you will need to use 4.2 or higher. Just the /var/opt/mssql can be mounted on the NFS mount-point. NFS clients need to use the ‘no-lock‘ option to install on NFS shares.

Operational features

Support for Redhat RHEL, Ubuntu, SLES, Docker
Package-based installs
Support for OpenShift, Docker Swarm
Failover clustering via Pacemaker
Backup & Restore
SSMS on Windows connected to Linux – Cross Platform
Command-line tools: sqlcmd, bcp
Transparent Data Encryption (TDS)
Backup Encryption
SCOM Management Pack
Dynamic management views (DMVs)
Table partitioning
SQL Server Agent for Jobs
Full-Text Search
Integration Services
Active Directory integrated authentication
TLS for encrypted connections

Programming features

All major language driver compatibility
In-Memory OLTP
Columnstore indexes (CCI & NCCIs)
Query Store
Data Compression (Page & Row Levels)
Always Encrypted
Row-Level Security & Dynamic data masking
Auditing
Service Broker

SQL Server on Linux – Limitations on Features not currently supported

Transactional replication
Merge replication
Stretch DB
PolyBase
Distributed query with third-party connections
System extended stored procedures (XP_CMDSHELL, etc.)
Filetable, FILESTREAM
CLR assemblies with the EXTERNAL_ACCESS or UNSAFE permission set
Buffer Pool Extension
Database Mirroring
Extensible Key Management
Subsystems: CmdExec, PowerShell, Queue Reader, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS
Alerts
Log Reader Agent
Change Data Capture
Managed Backup
SQL Server Browser
SQL Server R Services
StreamInsight
Analysis Services
Reporting Services
Data Quality Services
Master Data Services

Conclusion

The Linux System Requirements discussed here are subject to change by Microsoft. To know in detail, please refer to the official documentation available on the Microsoft public site. See below:

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