How to install SQL Server on Ubuntu

The first step in the installation is to add the Microsoft repository. To do this, run:

# curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-prod.gpg
# curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(lsb_release -rs)/mssql-server-2022.list | sed 's|\[arch=[^]]*|[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-prod.gpg|' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-server-2022.list
# apt update

Now that we have added the repository, we can proceed to install SQL Server with the following command:

# apt-get install -y mssql-server

SQL Server is now installed, and all that remains is to run the initial setup.

SQL Server configuration

Once SQL Server is installed, you need to run "mssql-conf setup" to set the access password and choose the SQL Server edition you need. To do this, run the following command:

# /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

Next, you will be asked to choose the desired version. For this example, we choose the "Standard" version, so we enter "5" and continue with the process.

# root@sql-server:~# /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
usermod: no changes
Choose an edition of SQL Server:
  1) Evaluation (free, no production use rights, 180-day limit)
  2) Developer (free, no production use rights)
  3) Express (free)
  4) Web (PAID)
  5) Standard (PAID)
  6) Enterprise (PAID) - CPU Core utilization restricted to 20 physical/40 hyperthreaded
  7) Enterprise Core (PAID) - CPU Core utilization up to Operating System Maximum
  8) I bought a license through a retail sales channel and have a product key to enter.

Details about editions can be found at
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=2109348&clcid=0x409
Use of PAID editions of this software requires separate licensing through a
Microsoft Volume Licensing program.
By choosing a PAID edition, you are verifying that you have the appropriate
number of licenses in place to install and run this software.

Enter your edition(1-8): 

Accept the terms.

The license terms for this product can be found in
/usr/share/doc/mssql-server or downloaded from:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=2104294&clcid=0x409

The privacy statement can be viewed at:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=853010&clcid=0x409

Do you accept the license terms? [Yes/No]:

Set the access password to finish the initial setup:

Enter the SQL Server system administrator password: 

Confirm the SQL Server system administrator password: 

Configuring SQL Server...

The licensing PID was successfully processed. The new edition is [Standard Edition].

ForceFlush is enabled for this instance. 

ForceFlush feature is enabled for log durability.

Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mssql-server.service → /lib/systemd/system/mssql-server.service.

Setup has completed successfully. SQL Server is now starting.

Use the following command to verify that SQL Server is running:

# root@sql-server:~# systemctl status mssql-server --no-pager
● mssql-server.service - Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mssql-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-06-07 14:01:41 CEST; 1min 1s ago
      Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux
   Main PID: 52196 (sqlservr)
      Tasks: 122
     Memory: 563.7M
     CGroup: /system.slice/mssql-server.service
             ├─52196 /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr
             └─52243 /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr

Installing mssql-tools

To manage SQL Server from the command line, you need to install "mssql-tools". To do this, run:

# curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(lsb_release -rs)/prod.list | sed 's|\[arch=[^]]*|[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-prod.gpg|' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-server-prod.list
# apt update
# apt-get install mssql-tools unixodbc-dev

Finally, we need to add "mssql-tools" to the system PATH. To do this, run:

# echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
# echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
# source ~/.bashrc

SQL Server 2022 is now installed and configured on Ubuntu 22.04.

Connecting locally to SQL Server and creating a test database

To connect locally to SQL Server, run:

# sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P contraseña

To create a database, run:

# 1> CREATE DATABASE Test;
# 1> GO

To list the databases, run:

# 1> SELECT Name from sys.Databases;
# 1> GO

This will return the following:

Name                                                                                                                          
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
master                                                                                                                          
tempdb                                                                                                                          
model                                                                                                                           
msdb                                                                                                                            
Test                                                                                                                           
(5 rows affected)