SQL Configuration step issue in Ubuntu Instance

Question

While configuring SQL Server for the first time on Ubuntu_22.04-x86_64-SQL_2022_Standard-2025.08.28, I encountered an error that occurs frequently. I need to retry the setup 2–3 times before it works properly. Any Solution to fix this part?

++ bash -c '/opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf -n setup'

Broadcast message from root@ip-172-****(Thu 2025-12-04 05:03:42 UTC):

The system is going down for reboot at Thu 2025-12-04 05:04:42 UTC!

Broadcast message from root@ip-172-* (Thu 2025-12-04 05:04:43 UTC):

The system is going down for reboot NOW!

Session terminated, killing shell... Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py

Function: _try_wait

Line number: 1917

Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py

Function: _wait

Line number: 1959

  Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py

  Function: wait

  Line number: 1209
``` ...killed.

Terminated

Failed to start mssql-server.service: Transaction for mssql-server.service/start is destructive (sysinit.target has 'stop' job queued, but 'start' is included in transaction).

Answer 1

Hi Pratik ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

You can follow below troubleshooting steps-
1.Check if SQL Server Installed Correctly-
dpkg -l | grep mssql-server

2.Check Service Status
systemctl status mssql-server
If its not running :
sudo systemctl start mssql-server
sudo systemctl enable mssql-server

3.Connect to SQL Server
Install the SQL command-line tools:
sudo apt install -y mssql-tools unixodbc-dev

Then connect:
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P 'YourPassword'
If the configuration step fails repeatedly, you can reset and re-run:
sudo systemctl stop mssql-server sudo rm -rf /var/opt/mssql/* sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup.

You can also refer troubleshooting guides-
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-troubleshooting-guide?view=sql-server-ver17#connection
https://www.sqlshack.com/sql-server-installation-troubleshooting-on-ubuntu/

I hope this helps!
Let me know how did that go for you.
Thank You