1. Introduction to SQL Server 2017 on Linux
Andrzej Kukuła
Introduction to SQL Server 2017 on Linux

2. Sponsors

3. About Me
20+ years of professional experience in IT Trainer, Consultant Architect of HA/DR Solutions, BI Solutions, Data Platform Solutions, Cloud Solutions Building proficiency in AI/ML and Data Science MCSE, MCITP, MCTS Certified Polish Data Community (former PLSSUG) – PASS Chapter Leader Conference and user group

4. Agenda
Multi-platform SQL Server Linux offerings Licensing Supported platforms Client tools Features System architecture Installation from package – demos Docker – demos Random notes

5. Platform is your preference
SQL Server 2017 is going to be available for Windows, Linux and Docker GA is expected in CY 2017

6. Multi-platform SQL Server
SQL Server is just a part of Data Platform offering
It’s about giving business a choice
OS platform
Data diversity
Development environment
Cloud/on prem/hybrid
{ }
T-SQL
Java
C/C++
C#/VB.NET
PHP
Node.js
Python
Ruby

7. Linux offerings
NEW
SQL Server on Linux HDInsight on Linux R Server on Linux Linux in Azure SQL Server drivers and connectivity Visual Studio Code extension for SQL Server .NET Core (2.0 now) PowerShell
Python, Ruby, …

8. Same license, new choice
A license can be used on Windows or Linux
Same editions on Linux:
Express (free)
Standard
Web
Enterprise
Developer (free)
Evaluation (free)
Preview is free to download and use (non-production)

9. Supported platforms
RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.3 SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES) v12 SP2 Ubuntu 16.04, (runs on other Linux distributions) Docker: Windows & Linux containers Windows Server / Windows 10
Linux
Containers
Windows
Windows Server

10. SQL Tools for SQL Server on Linux

11. What’s already working?
Programming Features
Support for RHEL, Ubuntu, Docker
Package based installs, Docker image
Support for Open Shift, Docker Swarm
Failover Clustering through Pacemaker
Backup/Restore
SSMS on Windows connected to Linux
Command line tools: sqlcmd, bcp, sqlpackage
SQL Agent
Replication
Log Shipping
Transparent Data Encryption
SCOM Management Pack
DMVs
Full Text Search
Operations Features
All major language driver compatibility
In memory OLTP and ColumnStore
Compression
Always Encrypted, Row Level Security, and Data Masking
Service Broker
Change Data Capture
Partitioning
Auditing
CLR
JSON, XML
Third party tools
…and more!

12. What’s coming – HA/DR Simple HADR VM Failure Backup/Restore
Resilience against guest & OS level failures
Planned & unplanned events
Minimum downtime for patching and upgrades
Minutes RTO
Simple HADR
VM Failure
Protection against accidental or malicious data corruption
DR protection
Minutes to hours RTO
Backup/Restore
Instance level protection
Automatic failure detection & failover
Seconds to minutes RTO
Resilience against OS and SQL Server failures
Standard HADR
Failover Cluster
AG with 2 replicas
Basic Availability Groups*
Warm standbys for DR
Log Shipping
Database level protection
Seconds RTO
No data loss
Recover from unplanned outage
No downtime for planned maintenance
Offload read/backup workload to active secondaries
Failover to geographically distributed secondary site
Availability Groups*
Mission-Critical HADR
*In progress

13. SQL Server 2017 Failover Cluster on Linux

14. Integration Services
IS for Linux is available since CTP dtexec tool for package execution

15. SQL Platform Abstraction Layer
All resources managed by SQL PAL
Benefit for SQL Server on Windows and on Linux
Abstraction for high-level dependencies
Reduce kernel ABI surface from > 1200 calls to < 50 calls
Everything in user mode
Improved performance
SOS + LibOS = SQLPAL
SOS will be removed from SQL Server and merged with SQLPAL
Linux Host Extensions convert ABI calls, stack layout, results

16. System Architecture System Resource & Latency Sensitive Code Paths
Everything else
RDBMS IS AS RS
SQL Platform Abstraction Layer
(SQLPAL)
SQL OS API
Win32-like APIs
SQL Platform Abstraction Layer
(SQLPAL)
SQL OS v2
Windows
Host Ext.
Linux Host Extension
Windows
Linux
Host Extension mapping to OS system calls
(IO, Memory, CPU scheduling)

17. Installation demo
Minimum RAM requirement (for CTP): 3.5 GB Installation from packages

18. Installation layout Instant File Initialization is always enabled
Binaries - /opt/mssql
Data, transaction logs, error logs, default trace - /var/opt/mssql
Command line tools:
sqlservr – core executable – not used directly
mssql-conf – configure (setup, change collation, sa password, …)
bcp – bulk import/export tool
sqlcmd – command line query execution tool
mssql-scripter – easily create scripts of your databases (installed separately)
dbfs – view DMVs from the file system (installed separately)

19. Instances and Docker
SQL Server instance is a non-trivial thing on Windows Long set up process „Magic” happening to fs, registry and who knows what during installation Often requires reboot of Windows host system Docker containers change that dramatically Instances are easy to set up and remove Few seconds to spin a new SQL Server No reboot necessary in between The process is always reproducible Almost complete independence from host system

20. A few words about Docker
A platform that allows to package and run an app in isolated environment
Single OS, multiple containers
Sort of „leaner” virtualization (one kernel)
Much lower overhead compared to full virtualization
Container has everything needed to run an app
Will run the same way no matter what changes happen at the host level (libraries, packages)
Building blocks
Docker packaging format (docker file)
Docker Hub - distribution platform (container repository)
Docker tools

21. SQL Server Instances and Docker
Helpful in many scenarios
SP & CU installations
Upgrades
Temporary instances
Test SP & CU
Test restores
Test configuration changes
Dev instances
Database unit testing made easier
CI/CD
Let’s see this in action – demo!

22. SQL Server on Linux - monitoring
collectd, InfluxDB, Grafana

23. Migration options
backup/restore BACPAC SQL Server Migration Assistant bcp SSIS

24. Surprises for Windows admins
Some knowledge of Linux platform will be required
File names are case sensitive in Linux
/var/opt/mssql/data/TestDB.MDF != /var/opt/mssql/data/testdb.mdf
Pay attention when doing ALTER DATABASE … MODIFY FILE
Files/directories can be deleted while in use
They’re not protected from deletion in the sense we know from Windows
Only the name is removed, file data (inode) remains available until closed (can be recovered)
You can also rename/move them (within one filesystem) while in use
DON’T WORK AS ROOT – EVER
use su / sudo to do admin stuff
Beware of accidental spaces in rm –rf ./* vs rm –rf . / *
Normal (non-admin) user cannot damage the system

25. File and directory permissions basics
rwx rwx rwx rwx r-x --x rwx --x rwx
First part: user owner, second part: the group owner, third part: every other user
Files:
Read – read data from a file, Write – write data to a file
Execute – execute a file (native executables, scripts in various languages)
Directories:
Read – list contents of directory
Write – make changes to directory (create and delete files and directories within it)
Execute – traverse directory (ability to „cd” to it, or specify it as part of longer path)
--x will work properly in many cases
r-- will not do what you want
DO NOT EVER USE 777 (rwx rwx rwx) !!!
Try to have as little bits set as possible
SQL Server has good defaults – and it doesn’t run as root

26. What’s new in SQL Server 2017 in general?
SQL Server 2017 Machine Learning Services – support for Python language Automatic database tuning Graph database capabilities New T-SQL functions: CONCAT_WS, TRIM, TRANSLATE, STRING_AGG(…) WITHIN GROUP (…) Direct import of CSV data Clusterless availability groups SELECT INTO a specific filegroup Resumable online index rebuild

27. Q & A
Thank you!
@AndrzejKukula

28. Sponsors