Linux and macOS Installation Tutorial for the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
The following instructions assume a clean environment and show how to install PHP 8.1, the Microsoft ODBC driver, the Apache web server, and the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server on Ubuntu, Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, Alpine, and macOS. These instructions advise installing the drivers using PECL, but you can also download the prebuilt binaries from the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server GitHub project page and install them following the instructions in Loading the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server. For an explanation of extension loading and why we do not add the extensions to php.ini, see the section on loading the drivers.
The following instructions install PHP 8.1 by default using pecl install, if the PHP 8.1 packages are available. You may need to run pecl channel-update pecl.php.net first. Some supported Linux distros default to PHP 7.1 or earlier, which is not supported for the latest version of the PHP drivers for SQL Server. See the notes at the beginning of each section to install PHP 8.2 or 8.3 instead.
Also included are instructions for installing the PHP FastCGI Process Manager, PHP-FPM, on Ubuntu. PHP-FPM is needed if you're using the nginx web server instead of Apache.
While these instructions contain commands to install both SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV drivers, the drivers can be installed and function independently. Users comfortable with customizing their configuration can adjust these instructions to be specific to SQLSRV or PDO_SQLSRV. Both drivers have the same dependencies except where noted below.
Please refer to Support Matrix for the latest supported operating systems version.
Note
Make sure you have installed the latest ODBC driver version to ensure optimal performance and security. For installation instructions, see Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux) or Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (macOS).
Installing on Ubuntu
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace 8.1 with 8.2 or 8.3 in the following commands.
Step 1. Install PHP (Ubuntu)
sudo su
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
apt-get update
apt-get install php8.1 php8.1-dev php8.1-xml -y --allow-unauthenticated
Step 2. Install prerequisites (Ubuntu)
Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package. It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (Ubuntu)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
printf "; priority=20\nextension=sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/sqlsrv.ini
printf "; priority=30\nextension=pdo_sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/pdo_sqlsrv.ini
exit
sudo phpenmod -v 8.1 sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv
If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv.
Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading (Ubuntu)
sudo su
apt-get install libapache2-mod-php8.1 apache2
a2dismod mpm_event
a2enmod mpm_prefork
a2enmod php8.1
exit
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (Ubuntu)
sudo service apache2 restart
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on Ubuntu with PHP-FPM
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace 8.1 with 8.2 or 8.3 in the following commands.
Step 1. Install PHP (Ubuntu with PHP-FPM)
sudo su
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php -y
apt-get update
apt-get install php8.1 php8.1-dev php8.1-fpm php8.1-xml -y --allow-unauthenticated
Verify the status of the PHP-FPM service by running:
systemctl status php8.1-fpm
Step 2. Install prerequisites (Ubuntu with PHP-FPM)
Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package. It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (Ubuntu with PHP-FPM)
sudo pecl config-set php_ini /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
printf "; priority=20\nextension=sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/sqlsrv.ini
printf "; priority=30\nextension=pdo_sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/pdo_sqlsrv.ini
exit
sudo phpenmod -v 8.1 sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv
If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv.
Verify that sqlsrv.ini and pdo_sqlsrv.ini are located in /etc/php/8.1/fpm/conf.d/:
ls /etc/php/8.1/fpm/conf.d/*sqlsrv.ini
Restart the PHP-FPM service:
sudo systemctl restart php8.1-fpm
Step 4. Install and configure nginx (Ubuntu with PHP-FPM)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx
To configure nginx, you must edit the /etc/nginx/sites-available/default file. Add index.php to the list below the section that says # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP:
# Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html index.php;
Next, uncomment and modify the section following # pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server as follows:
# pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server
#
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
}
Step 5. Restart nginx and test the sample script (Ubuntu with PHP-FPM)
sudo systemctl restart nginx.service
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on Red Hat
Step 1. Install PHP (Red Hat)
To install PHP on Red Hat 7, run the following commands:
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace remi-php81 with remi-php82 or remi-php83 respectively in the following commands.
sudo su
yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
yum install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
yum install yum-utils
yum-config-manager --enable remi-php81
yum update
# Note: The php-pdo package is required only for the PDO_SQLSRV driver
yum install php php-pdo php-pear php-devel
To install PHP on Red Hat 8, run the following commands:
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace remi-8.1 with remi-8.2 or remi-8.3 respectively in the following commands.
sudo su
dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm
dnf install yum-utils
dnf module reset php
dnf module install php:remi-8.1
subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
dnf update
# Note: The php-pdo package is required only for the PDO_SQLSRV driver
dnf install php-pdo php-pear php-devel
Step 2. Install prerequisites (Red Hat)
Install the ODBC driver for Red Hat 7 or 8 by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package. It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (Red Hat)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
echo extension=pdo_sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/30-pdo_sqlsrv.ini
echo extension=sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/20-sqlsrv.ini
exit
You can alternatively install from the Remi repo:
sudo yum install php-sqlsrv
Step 4. Install Apache (Red Hat)
sudo yum install httpd
SELinux is installed by default and runs in Enforcing mode. To allow Apache to connect to databases through SELinux, run the following command:
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect_db 1
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (Red Hat)
sudo apachectl restart
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on Debian
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace 8.1 in the following commands with 8.2 or 8.3.
Step 1. Install PHP (Debian)
sudo su
apt-get install curl apt-transport-https
wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg
echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list
apt-get update
apt-get install -y php8.1 php8.1-dev php8.1-xml php8.1-intl
Step 2. Install prerequisites (Debian)
Install the ODBC driver for Debian by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package. It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
You may also need to generate the correct locale to get PHP output to display correctly in a browser. For example, for the en_US UTF-8 locale, run the following commands:
sudo su
sed -i 's/# en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
You may need to add /usr/sbin to your $PATH, as the locale-gen executable is located there.
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (Debian)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
printf "; priority=20\nextension=sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/sqlsrv.ini
printf "; priority=30\nextension=pdo_sqlsrv.so\n" > /etc/php/8.1/mods-available/pdo_sqlsrv.ini
exit
sudo phpenmod -v 8.1 sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv
If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv. As with locale-gen, phpenmod is located in /usr/sbin so you may need to add this directory to your $PATH.
Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading (Debian)
sudo su
apt-get install libapache2-mod-php8.1 apache2
a2dismod mpm_event
a2enmod mpm_prefork
a2enmod php8.1
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (Debian)
sudo service apache2 restart
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on SUSE
Note
In the following instructions, replace <SuseVersion> with your version of SUSE - if you are using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15, it will be SLE_15_SP3 or SLE_15_SP4 (or above). For SUSE 12, use SLE_12_SP5 (or above). Not all versions of PHP are available for all versions of SUSE Linux - please refer to http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php to see which versions of SUSE have the default version PHP available, or check http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php:/ to see which other versions of PHP are available for which versions of SUSE.
Note
Packages for PHP 7.4 or above are not available for SUSE 12, as of today.
Step 1. Install PHP (SUSE)
sudo su
zypper -n ar -f https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:languages:php/<SuseVersion>/devel:languages:php.repo
zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys refresh
zypper -n install php8 php8-pdo php8-devel php8-openssl
Step 2. Install prerequisites (SUSE)
Install the ODBC driver for SUSE by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package. It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (SUSE)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
echo extension=pdo_sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/pdo_sqlsrv.ini
echo extension=sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/sqlsrv.ini
exit
Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading (SUSE)
sudo su
zypper install apache2 apache2-mod_php8
a2enmod php8
echo "extension=sqlsrv.so" >> /etc/php8/apache2/php.ini
echo "extension=pdo_sqlsrv.so" >> /etc/php8/apache2/php.ini
exit
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (SUSE)
sudo systemctl restart apache2
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on Alpine
Note
PHP 8.1 or above may be available from testing or edge repositories for Alpine. You can instead compile PHP from source.
Step 1. Install PHP (Alpine)
PHP packages for Alpine can be found in the edge/community repository. Check Enable Community Repository on their WIKI page. Add the following line to /etc/apk/repositories, replacing <mirror> with the URL of an Alpine repository mirror:
http://<mirror>/alpine/edge/community
Then run:
sudo su
apk update
# Note: The php*-pdo package is required only for the PDO_SQLSRV driver
# For PHP 7.*
apk add php7 php7-dev php7-pear php7-pdo php7-openssl autoconf make g++
# For PHP 8.*
apk add php8 php8-dev php8-pear php8-pdo php8-openssl autoconf make g++
# The following symbolic links are optional but useful
ln -s /usr/bin/php8 /usr/bin/php
ln -s /usr/bin/phpize8 /usr/bin/phpize
ln -s /usr/bin/pecl8 /usr/bin/pecl
ln -s /usr/bin/php-config8 /usr/bin/php-config
Step 2. Install prerequisites (Alpine)
Install the ODBC driver for Alpine by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux). Make sure to also install the unixodbc-dev package (sudo apk add unixodbc-dev). It's used by the pecl command to install the PHP drivers.
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (Alpine)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
sudo su
echo extension=pdo_sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/10_pdo_sqlsrv.ini
echo extension=sqlsrv.so >> `php --ini | grep "Scan for additional .ini files" | sed -e "s|.*:\s*||"`/20_sqlsrv.ini
Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading (Alpine)
# For PHP 7.*
sudo apk add php7-apache2 apache2
# For PHP 8.*
sudo apk add php8-apache2 apache2
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (Alpine)
sudo rc-service apache2 restart
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Installing on macOS
If you do not already have it, install brew as follows:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Note
To install PHP 8.2 or 8.3, replace php@8.1 with php@8.2 or php@8.3 respectively in the following commands.
Step 1. Install PHP (macOS)
brew tap
brew tap homebrew/core
brew install php@8.1
PHP should now be in your path. Run php -v to verify that you are running the correct version of PHP. If PHP is not in your path or it is not the correct version, run the following commands:
brew link --force --overwrite php@8.1
If using Apple M1 ARM64, you might need to set the path:
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
Step 2. Install prerequisites (macOS)
Install the ODBC driver for macOS by following the instructions on the Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (macOS).
Note
If using Apple M1 ARM64 hardware, please install Microsoft ODBC driver 17.8+ directly without using the emulator Rosetta 2.
In addition, you may need to install the GNU make tools:
brew install autoconf automake libtool
Step 3. Install the PHP drivers for Microsoft SQL Server (macOS)
sudo pecl install sqlsrv
sudo pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
If using Apple M1 ARM64, do the following instead:
sudo CXXFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc/include/" LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/lib/" pecl install sqlsrv
sudo CXXFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/unixodbc/include/" LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/lib/" pecl install pdo_sqlsrv
Step 4. Install Apache and configure driver loading (macOS)
Note
The latest macOS 11.0 Big Sur comes with Apache 2.4 pre-installed, but Apple has also removed some required scripts. The solution is to install Apache 2.4 via Homebrew and then configure it, but this is out of scope for this installation guide, so please check Apache or Homebrew for detailed instructions.
brew install apache2
To find the Apache configuration file, httpd.conf, for your Apache installation, run:
/usr/local/bin/apachectl -V | grep SERVER_CONFIG_FILE
The following commands append the required configuration to httpd.conf. Be sure to substitute the path returned by the preceding command in place of /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf:
echo "LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/opt/php@8.1/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so" >> /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
(echo "<FilesMatch .php$>"; echo "SetHandler application/x-httpd-php"; echo "</FilesMatch>";) >> /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
Step 5. Restart Apache and test the sample script (macOS)
sudo apachectl restart
To test your installation, see Testing your installation at the end of this document.
Testing Your Installation
To test this sample script, create a file called testsql.php in your system's document root. This path is /var/www/html/ on Ubuntu, Debian, and Red Hat, /srv/www/htdocs on SUSE, /var/www/localhost/htdocs on Alpine, or /usr/local/var/www on macOS. Copy the following script to it, replacing the server, database, username, and password as appropriate.
SQLSRV example
<?php
$serverName = "yourServername";
$connectionOptions = array(
"database" => "yourDatabase",
"uid" => "yourUsername",
"pwd" => "yourPassword"
);
function exception_handler($exception) {
echo "<h1>Failure</h1>";
echo "Uncaught exception: " , $exception->getMessage();
echo "<h1>PHP Info for troubleshooting</h1>";
phpinfo();
}
set_exception_handler('exception_handler');
// Establishes the connection
$conn = sqlsrv_connect($serverName, $connectionOptions);
if ($conn === false) {
die(formatErrors(sqlsrv_errors()));
}
// Select Query
$tsql = "SELECT @@Version AS SQL_VERSION";
// Executes the query
$stmt = sqlsrv_query($conn, $tsql);
// Error handling
if ($stmt === false) {
die(formatErrors(sqlsrv_errors()));
}
?>
<h1> Success Results : </h1>
<?php
while ($row = sqlsrv_fetch_array($stmt, SQLSRV_FETCH_ASSOC)) {
echo $row['SQL_VERSION'] . PHP_EOL;
}
sqlsrv_free_stmt($stmt);
sqlsrv_close($conn);
function formatErrors($errors)
{
// Display errors
echo "<h1>SQL Error:</h1>";
echo "Error information: <br/>";
foreach ($errors as $error) {
echo "SQLSTATE: ". $error['SQLSTATE'] . "<br/>";
echo "Code: ". $error['code'] . "<br/>";
echo "Message: ". $error['message'] . "<br/>";
}
}
?>
PDO_SQLSRV example
<?php
try {
$serverName = "yourServername";
$databaseName = "yourDatabase";
$uid = "yourUsername";
$pwd = "yourPassword";
$conn = new PDO("sqlsrv:server = $serverName; Database = $databaseName;", $uid, $pwd);
// Select Query
$tsql = "SELECT @@Version AS SQL_VERSION";
// Executes the query
$stmt = $conn->query($tsql);
} catch (PDOException $exception1) {
echo "<h1>Caught PDO exception:</h1>";
echo $exception1->getMessage() . PHP_EOL;
echo "<h1>PHP Info for troubleshooting</h1>";
phpinfo();
}
?>
<h1> Success Results : </h1>
<?php
try {
while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
echo $row['SQL_VERSION'] . PHP_EOL;
}
} catch (PDOException $exception2) {
// Display errors
echo "<h1>Caught PDO exception:</h1>";
echo $exception2->getMessage() . PHP_EOL;
}
unset($stmt);
unset($conn);
?>
Point your browser to https://localhost/testsql.php (https://localhost:8080/testsql.php on macOS). You should now be able to connect to your SQL Server/Azure SQL database. If you don't see a success message showing SQL version information, you can do some basic troubleshooting by running the script from the command line:
php testsql.php
If running from the command line is successful but nothing shows in your browser, check the Apache log files. For more help, see Support resources for places to go.
See Also
Getting Started with the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
Loading the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
System Requirements for the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
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