Microsoft announced its SQL Server on Linux public preview yesterday. I’m really excited to check it out. Here are some interesting things I found during my testing. I’ll write more as I play with it further.

• If you want to play it on Ubuntu, it needs to be 16.04 or above. I didn’t pay attention to that initially, and started installing on Ubuntu 14. Below is a typical message you would get:

  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
   mssql-server : Depends: openssl (>= 1.0.2) but 1.0.1f-1ubuntu2.21 is to be installed
  E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
  

  Running sudo apt-get dist-upgrade brought my Ubuntu to 16.04. The install was smooth afterwards.

• Instruction for Red Hat Enterprise Linux also works for Fedora. I tested it on Fedora 23. I think it should also work on CentOS, although I didn’t test it myself.
• The machine needs to have at least 3.25 GB of memory. On Ubuntu, install won’t continue if that condition is not satisfied:

  Preparing to unpack .../mssql-server_14.0.1.246-6_amd64.deb ...
  ERROR: This machine must have at least 3.25 gigabytes of memory to install Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R).
  dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mssql-server_14.0.1.246-6_amd64.deb (--unpack):
   subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.21-0ubuntu4.3) ...
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   /var/cache/apt/archives/mssql-server_14.0.1.246-6_amd64.deb
  E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
  

  On Fedora, installation finishes, but you won’t be able to start the service:

  [hji@localhost ~]$ sudo /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr-setup 
  Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R) Setup
  
  You can abort setup at anytime by pressing Ctrl-C. Start this program
  with the --help option for information about running it in unattended
  mode.
  
  The license terms for this product can be downloaded from
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=746388 and found
  in /usr/share/doc/mssql-server/LICENSE.TXT.
  
  Do you accept the license terms? If so, please type "YES": YES
  
  Please enter a password for the system administrator (SA) account: 
  Please confirm the password for the system administrator (SA) account: 
  
  Setting system administrator (SA) account password...
  sqlservr: This program requires a machine with at least 3250 megabytes of memory.
  Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R) setup failed with error code 1. 
  Please check the setup log in /var/opt/mssql/log/setup-20161117-122619.log
  for more information.
  

• Some simple testing From the output below, we learn that: 1)in sys.sysfiles, full file name is presented like “C:\var\opt\mssql\data\TestDb.mdf”; 2) Database name, at least inside sqlcmd, is not case-sensitive. By the way, login is also case-insensitive: SA is sA.

  1> create database TestDb;
  2> go
  
  Network packet size (bytes): 4096
  1 xact[s]:
  Clock Time (ms.): total       447  avg   447.0 (2.2 xacts per sec.)
  1> use testdb;
  2> go
  Changed database context to 'TestDb'.
  
  Network packet size (bytes): 4096
  1 xact[s]:
  Clock Time (ms.): total         3  avg   3.0 (333.3 xacts per sec.)
  1> select filename from sys.sysfiles
  2> go
  filename                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  C:\var\opt\mssql\data\TestDb.mdf                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  C:\var\opt\mssql\data\TestDb_log.ldf                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  

• I then did a quick testing of advanced feature, like Clustered Columnstore Index (CCI). Yes, it’s available in SQL Server for Linux!

  1> create table Person (PersonID int, LastName nvarchar(255), FirstName nvarchar(255))
  2> go
  
  Network packet size (bytes): 4096
  1 xact[s]:
  Clock Time (ms.): total        28  avg   28.0 (35.7 xacts per sec.)
  1> create clustered columnstore index Person_CCI on Person;
  2> go
  
  Network packet size (bytes): 4096
  1 xact[s]:
  Clock Time (ms.): total        25  avg   25.0 (40.0 xacts per sec.)
  1> 
  
  Network packet size (bytes): 4096
  1 xact[s]:
  Clock Time (ms.): total         1  avg   1.0 (1000.0 xacts per sec.)
  
  

Overall, it looks pretty nice! I’ve got to say, I’m really impressed with Microsoft’s embrace of Linux. By the way, if you use Windows 10, I recommend Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. It’s in beta, but it works for me pretty well so far.

Stay tuned for more. I’ll definitely write more as I play with this new toy!