1. Andrew Pruski - @dbafromthecold SQL Server & Containers
An introduction to
SQL Server & Containers

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3. Friendly meetup for data professionals in Bristol​

4. Andrew Pruski @DBAFromTheCold dbafromthecold@gmail.com
SQL Server DBA for 6 years
Working with RDBMS for ~10 years
Working with containers for ~2 years
Originally from Wales, now living in Dublin

5. Session Aim
To give you a base of knowledge to be able to start to experimenting with containers

6. Agenda
Container theory Setup of Windows Server 2016 for containers Building your first container Creating a custom container image Exporting a custom image Pushing custom image to the Docker Hub Implementing containers – case study

7. Container Definition
Containers wrap a piece of software in a complete filesystem that contains everything needed to run: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries – anything that can be installed on a server. This guarantees that the software will always run the same, regardless of its environment.

8. Container fundamentals
Container Host Container Engine Container Registry Container Images

9. Container Types Windows Server Containers Hyper-V containers
Isolation provided through namespace, resource & process isolation
Share kernel with host and other containers
Hyper-V containers
Expand on isolation from windows server containers
Run inside of a specialised virtual machine
Does not share a kernel with host
Specified at runtime with --isolation=hyperv switch

10. Virtual Machines vs Containers

11. Container Networking

12. Pros Simple and fast setup New containers can be spun up in seconds
Relatively low footprint compared to VMs
Ability to customise images
Access to Docker repository (hundreds of images available)
Portability, images can be saved to the Docker Hub

13. Cons Only the database engine is supported No windows authentication
Only supported on Windows Server 2016 / Windows 10 Anniversary Edition
Official SQL Server images for 2016 & 2017 only
SQL images aren't the smallest (~13GB)
Suitability for production?

14. Getting started

15. Installing the Docker engine
Install-Module -Name DockerMsftProvider –Force
Install-Package -Name docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider
Restart-Computer -Force

16. Containers server feature enabled

17. Docker Engine Service
Get-Service docker
docker version

18. Azure
Custom image available with container role enabled and docker engine installed

19. Windows 10
Download .msi

20. Linux - Ubuntu
using-the-repository
git clone 
cd InstallDockerOnUbuntu
chmod +x installdocker.sh
./installdocker.sh

21. Demo

22. Creating your first container

23. Search the Docker repository
docker search microsoft/mssql

24. Pull an image
docker pull microsoft/mssql-server-windows

25. Verify the image
docker images

26. Create container from image
docker run –d –p 15789:1433 ` --env ACCEPT_EULA=Y --env ` --name MyFirstContainer microsoft/mssql-server-windows

27. Verify container is running
docker ps [-a]

28. Connecting to your container - locally
docker inspect MyFirstContainer

29. Connecting to your container - remotely

30. Demo

31. Using DockerFiles

32. DockerFiles
A file on the docker host that contains commands that create a custom image

33. Dockerfile code
FROM microsoft/mssql-server-windows RUN mkdir C:\\SQLServer COPY DatabaseA.mdf C:\\SQLServer COPY DatabaseA_log.ldf C:\\SQLServer ENV ENV ACCEPT_EULA=Y ENV attach_dbs="[{'dbName':'DatabaseA','dbFiles':['C:\\SQLServer\\DatabaseA.mdf','C:\\SQLServer\\DatabaseA_log.ldf']}]"

34. Building image from a Dockerfile
docker build –t myfirstimage .

35. Verify new custom image
docker images

36. Creating container from custom image
docker run –d –p 15777: name MyCustomContainer myfirstimage

37. Database within custom container

38. Demo

39. Sharing images

40. Sharing images locally
docker save –o myexportedimage.tar myfirstimage

41. Importing images
docker load -i myexportedimage.tar

42. The Docker Hub

43. Creating your repository

44. Tagging an image
docker tag myfirstimage dbafromthecold/testsqlrepository:v1

45. Log in to Docker hub
docker login

46. Pushing to the Docker Hub
docker push dbafromthecold/testsqlrepository:v1

47. Viewing pushed image in Docker Hub

48. Demo

49. Data Persistence

50. Mounted volumes docker run -d -p 15789:1433 `
-v C:\SQLServer:C:\SQLServer `
--env ACCEPT_EULA=Y --env `
--name testcontainer microsoft/mssql-server-windows

51. Named volumes docker create volume sqlserver
docker run -d -p 16789:1433 `
--env ACCEPT_EULA=Y --env `
-v sqlserver:C:\sqlserver `
--name testcontainer microsoft/mssql-server-windows

52. Data volume containers
docker create -v C:\SQLServer --name datastore microsoft/windowsservercore
docker run -d -p 16789:1433 `
--env ACCEPT_EULA=Y --env `
--volumes-from datastore `
--name testcontainer microsoft/mssql-server-windows

53. Demo

54. Case Study

55. Problem QA/Dev departments repeatedly creating new VMs
All VMs require a local instance of SQL Server
SQL installed from chocolately
30+ databases then restored from baselines via PoSH scripts
SQL install taking ~40 minutes from start to finish

56. Solution
Containers!
Implement containers running SQL Server for new VMs
SQL containers built from custom image
No longer need to install SQL
No longer need to restore databases
Resources freed up on VMs

57. WinDocks www.windocks.com
A port of the open source project from Docker Inc.
Software supports the creation of containers running earlier versions of SQL Server (2008+) on Windows Server 2012
Free Community Edition available

58. Architecture

59. Benefits New VMs deployed in a fraction of the previous time
No longer need to run PoSH scripts to restore databases
Base image can be used to keep containers at production SQL instance’s patch level
More VMs can be provisioned on host due to each VM requiring less resources

60. Issues Apps using DNS entries to reference local SQL instance
Update to existing test applications
Trial and error to integrate with Octopus deploy
New ways of thinking

61. Other Resources

62. Other SQL Images https://github.com/dbafromthecold/ On the Docker Hub
docker pull dbafromthecold/sqlserver2012dev:sp3
docker pull dbafromthecold/sqlserver2014dev:sp2
docker pull dbafromthecold/sqlserverlinuxagent:2017-GA
Code on GitHub

63. Further Information Summary of Container Series
Case Study on SQLServerCentral.com
Podcast with SQL Data Partners
Docker on Windows Server Core

64. Questions?

65. SQLRelay.co.uk/feedback
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