Have you heard the news? SQL Server is coming to Linux! What? That can't be right... or can it? With the release of SQL Server 2017, Microsoft really is bringing SQL Server to the Linux platform. They've also added support for running SQL Server in Docker containers. How does it work? And how well does it work? In this session, we'll answer these questions (and more!), and we'll talk about how this enables some interesting new possibilities for DevOps.

1. SQL SERVER:
NOW IT’S EVERYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE
Ed Leighton-Dick

2. ABOUT ME
Email: ed@leightondick.com
Blog: edleightondick.com
Twitter: @eleightondick

3. SESSION GOALS
• Show SQL Server on Linux and Docker
• Discuss how it works… and what needs work
• Talk about why this is important

4. SQL SERVER ON LINUX…
WHAAAA?

5. SERIOUSLY? WHY??
• Competition
• Massive (and growing) Linux installation base…
especially in the cloud
• Containers!

6. OK, FINE…
BUT DOES IT WORK?
Demos

7. HOW DOES IT WORK?

8. TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO
PLATFORM SHIFTING
• Rebuild:
Rewrite everything!
• Traditional VMs:
Emulate everything!
• WINE project:
Translate everything!
• None of these would have worked well

9. HOW MICROSOFT DID IT
• Compared Win32, et al
to Linux
• Most commands had direct
correlation => TRANSLATE
• Small subset required
specialized code =>
EMULATE
Image source: Young Frankenstein

10. PIECES ALREADY EXISTED…
Image source: Microsoft Technet, SQL Server Blog

11. THE SOLUTION:
PLATFORM ABSTRACTION LAYER
(PAL)
Image source: Microsoft Technet, SQL Server Blog

12. THE SOLUTION:
PLATFORM ABSTRACTION LAYER
(PAL)
Image source: Microsoft Technet, SQL Server Blog

13. THE SOLUTION:
PLATFORM ABSTRACTION LAYER
(PAL)
• Runs in user mode, not kernel mode
• Used for both Linux and Windows
• Benefits to both platforms
• All resources are managed by SQLPAL
• Uses a fraction of the disk space of a VM
• SQL Server can be identical on all platforms!

14. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows
• RAM: 1GB/4GB
• CPU: 1.4GHz/2GHz
• Disk: 1.5GB-8GB
• File System:
NTFS
Docker
• RAM: 4GB
• CPU: N/A
• Disk: 4GB
• File System:
N/A
• Docker 1.8+
Any Linux or
Docker for Mac/Win
• RAM: 3.25GB
• CPU: 2GHz
• Disk: 6GB
• File System:
EXT4, XFS
• RHEL 7.3,
SUSE v12 SP2,
Ubuntu 16.04LTS
Linux

15. WHAT’S THE SAME?
• Everything unless explicitly listed
• It’s the same code!

16. WHAT’S DIFFERENT
• Configuration utilities
• A few capabilities aren’t supported
• They rely on Windows-specific functionality, or
• Demand isn’t projected to be high enough, or
• It’s complicated, and they haven’t gotten it finished yet

17. WHAT DOESN’T WORK (RC2)
Replication – Transactional AGENT – Subsystems (partial) SQL Server Browser
Replication – Merge AGENT – Alerts R Services
Stretch DB AGENT – Log Reader Agent StreamInsight
Polybase AGENT – CDC Analysis Services
Distributed query (partial) AGENT – Managed Backup Reporting Services
Extended stored procedures Data Quality Services
FILETABLE Database Mirroring Master Data Services
CLR assemblies (except SAFE) Encryption Key Management (EKM)
Buffer Pool Extension

18. SIGNIFICANT KNOWN ISSUES (RC2)
• Server name length limited to 15 characters
• One instance per server
• Distributed transactions requiring MSDTC not supported
(SQL-to-SQL works)
• Some TLS algorithms unsupported
• SQL 2014 In-Memory OLTP must be upgraded before restoring to Linux
• Some FTS filters unsupported
• SSIS – Catalog, Windows authentication, Third-party components, Scale out
• Maintenance plans unsupported

19. PERFORMANCE
• SQL Server’s code is identical
• Your code is identical
• 85-100% of performance on Windows… or better!

20. WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

21. THIS ENABLES SOME VERY
INTERESTING POSSIBILITIES!
Image source: Pixabay. CC0 license.

22. CLOUD
• Allows more widespread use of SQL Server
• Enables use with cloud platforms
• Enables use with orchestration (Swarm, Kubernetes)

23. CONTAINERS
• Higher density on servers
• Up-to-date images of databases for development
• DevOps integration

24. DEVOPS
• Quick to spin up, smaller footprint
• Maintain a library of images for development and testing
• Single-use containers for unit tests

25. WRAP-UP

26. SESSION GOALS
Show SQL Server on Linux and Docker
Discuss how it works… and what needs work
Talk about why this is important

27. CONCLUSIONS
• Valuable addition to the toolbox
• Especially useful for containers and DevOps
• Sign of positive changes within Microsoft

28. FOR MORE INFORMATION
• Microsoft Docs
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux
• SQL Server Blog
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/
• SQL on Linux Engineering Town Halls
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2017-linux

29. QUESTIONS?
Email: ed@leightondick.com
Blog: edleightondick.com
Twitter: @eleightondick

30. THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!
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