Microsoft hasn’t stated the full system requirements to install SQL Server on Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE and Docker engine, the only thing they noted is that it requires more than 3.25GB of RAM.

Nevertheless, it is a huge step for Microsoft, and one that many DBAs have looked forward to. At the moment, as stated by Microsoft in their release notes for SQL Server on Linux, even in the latest Community Tech Preview 2.0 (CTP 2.0), there are still a lot of features which aren’t supported, so there is still work to be done in that field. Microsoft stated that the preview version of SQL Server on Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE and Docker engine will support the basic capabilities such as the core database engine components that support transactional processing and data warehousing. SQL Server on Linux is still very new, so inconsistent behaviour and partially supported features can be apparent when using it. Microsoft has stated that they want to deliver a SQL Server on Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE that feels, looks and performs just like the Windows version of the SQL Server, where users should not be able to see the differences between those, at least from the front-end perspective. Microsoft has started to make inroads outside of Windows environments with different products, such as Office 365 apps for various mobile phone operating systems, such as iOS and Android as well as their own Windows Phone OS.

With an increasing number of new servers running on Linux, and even a third of Microsoft’s Azure virtual machines running Linux, they have made a choice to bring SQL Server to Linux in order to increase their market share and attract new customers.

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