Few days ago, my teammate would like to learn how to use MS SQL Server. However, he only has a Macbook and MS SQL Server doesn’t run on macOS. Hence, I decided to write him a quick setup guide on how to do that with the help of container.
Starting from March 2016, besides Windows, SQL Sever 2019 also runs on Linux. So, we can easily spin up a Linux container and host SQL Server on it.
Docker
We need to run Docker on our Mac machine. Since my teammate is new to Docker, he can simply choose a rather straight-forward path for this, which is to use Docker Desktop on Mac. Kindly take note of the system requirement before proceed to install it.
Once the Docker is up and running, we can proceed to pull the image of SQL Server 2019 from the Docker Hub.
SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition
We can run the following command in Terminal window to start the database server. Here we are using 1501 as the port. Take note that, we need to replace the password with our password which meets the following guideline:
- at least 8 characters;
- including uppercase, lowercase letters, base-10 digits and/or non-alphanumeric symbols.
$ docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=yourStrong(!)Password' -p 1501:1433 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest
In the command above, there are two environment variables.
Firstly, it is the environment variable “ACCEPT_EULA”. Setting it to Y means that we accept the End-User Licensing Agreement of the product. So far I still couldn’t find the EULA of the Microsoft SQL Server 2019. If you know, please drop me a message in the comment section. Thanks!
Secondly, it is the “SA_PASSWORD” which is used to set the password that we will later use to connect to the SQL server later as the database admin (userid = “sa”).
Actually, there is another environment variable which is not set here. It is the MSSQL_PID, i.e. the product ID of the SQL Server. By default, it is the Developer edition. If we would like to use Express or Enterprise edition, we can specify it here.
The reason we chose the Developer edition is because it is the edition that it is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. In addition, despite being Developer edition, it includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition. Hence, SQL Server Developer is an ideal choice for developers like us to build and test applications.
There are more information about the MS SQL Server image on the Docker Hub page. Hence I will not repeat them here.
Azure Data Studio
To visualise and manage our data in the databases, we need to use tools such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). However, SSMS is only for Windows (AMD or Intel). So, on macOS, we have to choose another cross-platform alternative, which is Azure Data Studio. Azure Data Studio is usable on Windows and Linux too.
Interestingly, Azure Data Studio was previously called SQL Operations Studio. Hence, please only use the latest one, which is the Azure Data Studio.
Now we can connect to the SQL Server from Azure Data Studio as shown below. Take note that the Server is “localhost,1501” and it is using comma, not dot, between the word localhost and the port number.
If the connection is successful, we shall be able to see the Server Dashboard as shown below.
That’s all. Now we can have MS SQL Server running on our Mac machine for local testing and development.
References
- SQL Server 2019 on Linux;
- Microsoft Now Has SQL Server for Linux, But Should You Use It?;
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019 (15.x);
- Official images for Microsoft SQL Server on Linux for Docker Engine – Docker Hub;
- What is Azure Data Studio;
- Azure Data Studio is now available.
KOSD, or Kopi-O Siew Dai, is a type of Singapore coffee that I enjoy. It is basically a cup of coffee with a little bit of sugar. This series is meant to blog about technical knowledge that I gained while having a small cup of Kopi-O Siew Dai.
cuteprogramming 