Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Ubuntu

• 07/15/2020
• 8 minutes to read
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Applies to: SQL Server (all supported versions) - Linux

Prerequisites

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 the SQL Server. The following steps install the SQL Server command-line tools: sqlcmd and bcp.

Use the following steps to install the mssql-tools on Ubuntu.

1. Import the public repository GPG keys.

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

2. Register the Microsoft Ubuntu repository.

   curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/prod.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/msprod.list
   

3. Update the sources list and run the installation command with the unixODBC developer package. For more information, see Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux).

   sudo apt-get update 
   sudo apt-get install mssql-tools unixodbc-dev
   

   Note

   To update to the latest version of mssql-tools run the following commands:

   sudo apt-get update 
   sudo apt-get install mssql-tools 
   

4. Optional: Add /opt/mssql-tools/bin/ to your PATH environment variable in a bash shell.

   To make sqlcmd/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-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
   

   To make sqlcmd/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-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

Connect locally

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

1. 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>'
   

   Tip

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

   Tip

   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.

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

3. 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.

Create a new database

The following steps create a new database named TestDB.

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

   CREATE DATABASE TestDB
   

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

   SELECT Name from sys.Databases
   

3. 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, Inventory, and insert two new rows.

1. From the sqlcmd command prompt, switch context 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

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

1. From the sqlcmd command prompt, enter a query that returns rows from the Inventory table where the quantity is greater than 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

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:

Connecting 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. Just verify that you use the target Linux machine name or IP address rather than localhost, and make sure that TCP port 1433 is open. 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:

• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• Windows PowerShell
• SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)

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

Next steps