Install Microsoft Sql Server On Mac

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I previously explained how to install SQL Server on a Mac via a Docker container. When I wrote that, SQL Server 2017 was the latest version of SQL Server, and it had just been made available for Linux and Docker (which means that you can also install it on MacOS systems).

In late 2018, Microsoft announced SQL Server 2019 Preview, and subsequently announced general release in late 2019. The installation process for SQL Server 2019 is exactly the same as for SQL Server 2017. The only difference is that you need to use the container image for SQL Server 2019 instead of the 2017 image. Here I show you how to do that.

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Also, if you already have SQL Server 2017 installed, and you want to install SQL Server 2019 without removing the 2017 version, you’ll need to allocate a different port number on your host. I show you how to do that too.

Docker

The first step is to install Docker. If you already have Docker installed you can skip this step (and jump straight to SQL Server).

Docker is a platform that enables software to run in its own isolated environment. Therefore, SQL Server 2019 can be run on Docker in its own isolated container.

  1. Install Docker

    To download, visit the Docker CE for Mac download page and click Get Docker.

    To install, double-click on the .dmg file and then drag the Docker.app icon to your Application folder.

    Docker installation on a Mac.

  2. Launch Docker

    Launch Docker the same way you’d launch any other application (eg, via the Applications folder, the Launchpad, etc).

    When you open Docker, you might be prompted for your password so that Docker can install its networking components and links to the Docker apps. Go ahead and provide your password, as Docker needs this to run.

  3. Increase the Memory

    By default, Docker will have 2GB of memory allocated to it. I’d suggest increasing it to 4GB if you can.

    To do this:

    1. Select Preferences from the little Docker icon in the top menu
    2. Slide the memory slider up to at least 4GB
    3. Click Apply & Restart

    Selecting the preferences.

SQL Server

Now that Docker has been installed and configured, we can download and install SQL Server 2019.

  1. Download SQL Server 2019

    Open a Terminal window and run the following command.

    This downloads the latest SQL Server for Linux Docker image to your computer.

    You can also check for the various container image options on the Docker website if you wish.

    Note that, at the time I wrote this article, I used the following image:

    Therefore, all examples below reflect that version.

  2. Launch the Docker Image

    Run the following command to launch an instance of the Docker image you just downloaded:

    Just change Bart to a name of your choosing, and reallyStrongPwd#123 to a password of your choosing.

    If you get a “port already allocated” error, see below.

    Here’s an explanation of the parameters:

    -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y'
    The Y shows that you agree with the EULA (End User Licence Agreement). This is required.
    -e 'SA_PASSWORD=reallyStrongPwd#123'
    Required parameter that sets the sa database password.
    -p 1433:1433
    This maps the local port 1433 to port 1433 on the container. The first value is the TCP port on the host environment. The second value is the TCP port in the container.
    --name Bart
    Another optional parameter. This parameter allows you to name the container. This can be handy when stopping and starting your container from the Terminal. You might prefer to give it a more descriptive name like sql_server_2019 or similar.
    -d
    This optional parameter launches the Docker container in daemon mode. This means that it runs in the background and doesn’t need its own Terminal window open. You can omit this parameter to have the container run in its own Terminal window.
    mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-CTP3.2-ubuntu
    This tells Docker which image to use.

    Password Strength

    You need to use a strong password. Microsoft says this about the password:

    The password should follow the SQL Server default password policy, otherwise the container can not setup SQL server and will stop working. By default, the password must be at least 8 characters long and contain characters from three of the following four sets: Uppercase letters, Lowercase letters, Base 10 digits, and Symbols.

    Error – “Port already allocated”?

    If you get an error that says something about “port is already allocated”, then perhaps you already have SQL Server installed on another container that uses that port. In this case, you’ll need to map to a different port on the host.

    Therefore, you could change the above command to something like this:

    In this case I simply changed -p 1433:1433 to -p 1400:1433. Everything else remains the same.

    You may now get an error saying that you need to remove the existing container first. To do that, run the following (but swap Bart with the name of your own container):

    Once removed, you can try running the previous command again.

    Note that if you change the port like I’ve done here, you will probably need to include the port number when connecting to SQL Server from any database tools from your desktop. For example, when connecting via the Azure Data Studio (mentioned below), you can connect by using Localhost,1400 instead of just Localhost. Same with mssql-cli, which is a command line SQL tool.

Check Everything

Now that we’ve done that, we should be good to go. Let’s go through and run a few checks.

  1. Check the Docker container (optional)

    You can type the following command to check that the Docker container is running.

    In my case I get this:

    This tells me that I have two docker containers up and running: one called Bart and the other called Homer.

  2. Connect to SQL Server

    Here we use the SQL Server command line tool called “sqlcmd” inside the container to connect to SQL Server.

    Enter your password if prompted.

    Now that you’re inside the container, connect locally with sqlcmd:

    This should bring you to the sqlcmd prompt 1>.

  3. Run a Quick Test

    Run a quick test to check that SQL Server is up and running. For example, check the SQL Server version by entering this:

    This will bring you to a command prompt 2> on the next line. To execute the query, enter:

    Result:

    If you see a message like this, congratulations — SQL Server is now up and running on your Mac!

    If you prefer to use a GUI to manage SQL Server, read on.

Azure Data Studio

The Azure Data Studio dashboard.

Azure Data Studio is a free GUI management tool that you can use to manage SQL Server on your Mac. You can use it to create and manage databases, write queries, backup and restore databases, and more.

Azure Data Studio is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Here are some articles/tutorials I’ve written for Azure Data Studio:

Another Free SQL Server GUI – DBeaver

Another SQL Server GUI tool that you can use on your Mac (and Windows/Linux/Solaris) is DBeaver.

DBeaver is a free, open source database management tool that can be used on most database management systems (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, Microsoft Access, Teradata, Firebird, Derby, and more).

I wrote a little introduction to DBeaver, or you can go straight to the DBeaver download page and try it out with your new SQL Server installation.

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The following instructions assume a clean environment and show how to install PHP 7.x, the Microsoft ODBC driver, the Apache web server, and the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server on Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and 19.10, RedHat 7 and 8, Debian 8, 9, and 10, Suse 12 and 15, Alpine 3.11 (experimental), and macOS 10.13, 10.14, and 10.15. These instructions advise installing the drivers using PECL, but you can also download the prebuilt binaries from the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server GitHub project page and install them following the instructions in Loading the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server. For an explanation of extension loading and why we do not add the extensions to php.ini, see the section on loading the drivers.

These instructions install PHP 7.4 by default. Note that some supported Linux distros default to PHP 7.1 or earlier, which is not supported for the latest version of the PHP drivers for SQL Server -- please see the notes at the beginning of each section to install PHP 7.2 or 7.3 instead.

Also included are instructions for installing the PHP FastCGI Process Manager, PHP-FPM, on Ubuntu. This is needed if using the nginx web server instead of Apache.

Contents of this page:

Installing the drivers on Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and 19.10

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace 7.4 with 7.2 or 7.3 in the following commands.

Step 1. Install PHP

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv.

Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers with PHP-FPM on Ubuntu

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace 7.4 with 7.2 or 7.3 in the following commands.

Step 1. Install PHP

Verify the status of the PHP-FPM service by running

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv.

Verify that sqlsrv.ini and pdo_sqlsrv.ini are located in /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/:

Restart the PHP-FPM service:

Step 4. Install and configure nginx

To configure nginx, you must edit the /etc/nginx/sites-available/default file. Add index.php to the list below the section that says # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP:

Next, modify the section following # pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server as follows:

Step 5. Restart nginx and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers on Red Hat 7 and 8

Step 1. Install PHP

To install PHP on Red Hat 7, run the following:

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace remi-php74 with remi-php72 or remi-php73 respectively in the following commands.

To install PHP on Red Hat 8, run the following:

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace remi-7.4 with remi-7.2 or remi-7.3 respectively in the following commands.

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for Red Hat 7 or 8 by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

You can alternatively install from the Remi repo:

Step 4. Install Apache

SELinux is installed by default and runs in Enforcing mode. To allow Apache to connect to databases through SELinux, run the following command:

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers on Debian 8, 9, and 10

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace 7.4 in the following commands with 7.2 or 7.3.

Step 1. Install PHP

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for Debian by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

You may also need to generate the correct locale to get PHP output to display correctly in a browser. For example, for the en_US UTF-8 locale, run the following commands:

You may need to add /usr/sbin to your $PATH, as the locale-gen executable is located there.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv. As with locale-gen, phpenmod is located in /usr/sbin so you may need to add this directory to your $PATH.

Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers on Suse 12 and 15

Microsoft Sql Server Download

Note

In the following instructions, replace <SuseVersion> with your version of Suse - if you are using Suse Enterprise Linux 15, it will be SLE_15 or SLE_15_SP1. For Suse 12, use SLE_12_SP4 (or above if applicable). Not all versions of PHP are available for all versions of Suse Linux - please refer to http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php to see which versions of Suse have the default version PHP available, or to http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php:/ to see which other versions of PHP are available for which versions of Suse.

Note

Packages for PHP 7.4 are not available for Suse 12.To install PHP 7.2, replace the repository URL below with the following URL:https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php:/php72/<SuseVersion>/devel:languages:php:php72.repo.To install PHP 7.3, replace the repository URL below with the following URL:https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php:/php73/<SuseVersion>/devel:languages:php:php73.repo.

Step 1. Install PHP

Can I Install Microsoft Sql Server On Mac

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for Suse by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

Note

If you get an error message saying Connection to 'pecl.php.net:443' failed: Unable to find the socket transport 'ssl', edit the pecl script at /usr/bin/pecl and remove the -n switch in the last line. This switch prevents PECL from loading ini files when PHP is called, which prevents the OpenSSL extension from loading.

Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers on Alpine 3.11

Note

The default version of PHP is 7.3. Alternate versions of PHP are not available from other repositories for Alpine 3.11. You can instead compile PHP from source.

Step 1. Install PHP

PHP packages for Alpine are found in the edge/community repository. Add the following line to /etc/apt/repositories, replacing <mirror> with the URL of an Alpine repository mirror:

Install Microsoft Sql Server On Mac

Then run:

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Microsoft Sql Server Tutorial

Install the ODBC driver for Alpine by following the instructions on the Linux installation article.

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

You may need to define a locale:

Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Installing the drivers on macOS High Sierra, Mojave, and Catalina

If you do not already have it, install brew as follows:

Note

To install PHP 7.2 or 7.3, replace php@7.4 with php@7.2 or php@7.3 respectively in the following commands.

Step 1. Install PHP

PHP should now be in your path -- run php -v to verify that you are running the correct version of PHP. If PHP is not in your path or it is not the correct version, run the following:

Step 2. Install prerequisites

Install the ODBC driver for macOS by following the instructions on the macOS installation article.

In addition, you may need to install the GNU make tools:

Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server

Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading

To find the Apache configuration file, httpd.conf, for your Apache installation, run

The following commands append the required configuration to httpd.conf. Be sure to substitute the path returned by the preceding command in place of /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf:

Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script

To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.

Testing Your Installation

Microsoft Sql Server On Mac

To test this sample script, create a file called testsql.php in your system's document root. This is /var/www/html/ on Ubuntu, Debian, and Redhat, /srv/www/htdocs on SUSE, /var/www/localhost/htdocs on Alpine, or /usr/local/var/www on macOS. Copy the following script to it, replacing the server, database, username, and password as appropriate. On Alpine 3.11, you may also need to specify the CharacterSet as 'UTF-8' in the $connectionOptions array.

Point your browser to https://localhost/testsql.php (https://localhost:8080/testsql.php on macOS). You should now be able to connect to your SQL Server/Azure SQL database.

See Also