Installation requirements vary based on your application needs. The different editions of SQL Server accommodate the unique performance, runtime, and price requirements of organizations and individuals. The SQL Server components that you install also depend on your specific requirements. The following sections help you understand how to make the best choice among the editions and components available in SQL Server.
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
Edition
Definition
Enterprise
The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance, unlimited virtualization 1, and end-to-end business intelligence, enabling high service levels for mission-critical workloads and end-user access to data insights.
SQL Server Standard edition delivers basic data management and business intelligence database for departments and small organizations to run their applications and supports common development tools for on-premises and cloud, enabling effective database management with minimal IT resources.
Web
SQL Server Web edition is a low total-cost-of-ownership option for Web hosters (including choosing Web edition on IaaS on Azure) and Web VAPs to provide scalability, affordability, and manageability capabilities for small to large-scale Web properties.
Developer
SQL Server Developer edition lets developers build any kind of application on top of SQL Server. It includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. SQL Server Developer is an ideal choice for people who build and test applications.
Express edition
SQL Server Express edition is the entry-level, free database and is ideal for learning and building desktop and small server data-driven applications. It is the best choice for independent software vendors, developers, and hobbyists building client applications. If you need more advanced database features, SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to other higher end versions of SQL Server. SQL Server Express LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express edition that has all of its programmability features, runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation and a short list of prerequisites.
You can install just the SQL Server client components on a computer that is running client/server applications that connect directly to an instance of SQL Server. A client components installation is also a good option if you administer an instance of SQL Server on a database server, or if you plan to develop SQL Server applications.
SQL Server components
SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Linux supports the SQL Server Database Engine. The following table describes the features in the Database Engine.
Server components
Description
SQL Server Database Engine
SQL Server Database Engine includes the Database Engine, the core service for storing, processing, and securing data, replication, Full-Text Search, tools for managing relational and XML data, and in database analytics integration.
Developer, Enterprise Core, and Evaluation editions
For features supported by Developer, Enterprise Core, and Evaluation editions, see features listed for the SQL Server Enterprise edition in the following tables.
Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine 1
Operating system maximum
Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores
Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores
Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores
Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - Analysis Services or Reporting Services
Operating system maximum
Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores
Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores
Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores
Maximum memory for buffer pool per instance of SQL Server Database Engine
Operating system maximum
128 GB
64 GB
1,410 MB
Maximum capacity for buffer pool extension per instance of SQL Server Database Engine
32 * (max server memory configuration)
4 * (max server memory configuration)
N/A
N/A
Maximum memory for Columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine
Unlimited memory
32 GB
16 GB
352 MB
Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine
Unlimited memory
32 GB
16 GB
352 MB
Maximum relational database size
524 PB
524 PB
524 PB
10 GB
1 Enterprise edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing (not available for new agreements) is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. There are no limits under the Core-based Server Licensing model. For more information, see Compute capacity limits by edition of SQL Server.
RDBMS high availability
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express
Log shipping
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Backup compression
Yes
Yes
No
No
Database snapshot
Yes
Yes
No
No
Always On failover cluster instance 1
Yes
Yes
No
No
Always On availability groups 2
Yes
No
No
No
Basic availability groups 3
No
Yes
No
No
Minimum replica commit availability group
Yes
Yes
No
No
Clusterless availability group
Yes
Yes
No
No
Online page and file restore
Yes
No
No
No
Online indexing
Yes
No
No
No
Resumable online index rebuilds
Yes
No
No
No
Online schema change
Yes
No
No
No
Fast recovery
Yes
No
No
No
Mirrored backups
Yes
No
No
No
Hot add memory and CPU
Yes
No
No
No
Encrypted backup
Yes
Yes
No
No
Hybrid backup to Azure (backup to URL)
Yes
Yes
No
No
1 On Enterprise edition, the number of nodes is the operating system maximum. On Standard edition, there's support for two nodes.
2 On Enterprise edition, provides support for up to 8 secondary replicas - including 2 synchronous secondary replicas.
3 Standard edition supports basic availability groups. A basic availability group supports two replicas, with one database. For more information about basic availability groups, see Basic Always On availability groups for a single database.
RDBMS scalability and performance
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express
Columnstore 1
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Large object binaries in clustered columnstore indexes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Online nonclustered columnstore index rebuild
Yes
No
No
No
In-Memory OLTP 1
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Persistent Main Memory
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Table and index partitioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data compression
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Resource Governor
Yes
No
No
No
Partitioned Table Parallelism
Yes
No
No
No
NUMA Aware and Large Page Memory and Buffer Array Allocation
Yes
No
No
No
IO Resource Governance
Yes
No
No
No
Delayed Durability
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Automatic tuning
Yes
No
No
No
Batch Mode Adaptive Joins
Yes
No
No
No
Batch Mode Memory Grant Feedback
Yes
No
No
No
Interleaved Execution for Multi-Statement Table Valued Functions
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bulk insert improvements
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
1 In-Memory OLTP data size and columnstore segment cache are limited to the amount of memory specified by edition in the Scale limits section. The max degree of parallelism is limited. The degree of process parallelism (DOP) for an index build is limited to 2 DOP for the Standard edition and 1 DOP for the Web and Express editions. This refers to columnstore indexes created over disk-based tables and memory-optimized tables.
RDBMS security
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express
Row-level security
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Always Encrypted
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dynamic data masking
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Basic auditing
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Fine-grained auditing
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Transparent database encryption (TDE)
Yes
Yes
No
No
User-defined roles
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Contained databases
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Encryption for backups
Yes
Yes
No
No
RDBMS manageability
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express
Dedicated admin connection
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
PowerShell scripting support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Support for data-tier application component operations - extract, deploy, upgrade, delete
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Policy automation (check on schedule and change)
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Performance data collector
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Standard performance reports
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Direct query of indexed views (using NOEXPAND hint)
Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Unsupported features and services
The following features and services aren't available for SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Linux. The support of these features will be increasingly enabled over time.
Area
Unsupported feature or service
Comments
Database engine
Merge replication
Stretch DB
This feature is deprecated in SQL Server 2022 (16.x), and isn't supported.
Distributed query with third-party connections
Linked servers to data sources other than SQL Server
Install PolyBase on Linux to query other data sources from SQL Server using Transact-SQL syntax. For scenarios where PolyBase isn't helpful, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum.
System extended stored procedures (xp_cmdshell, etc.)
Administer an SQL Server database infrastructure for cloud, on-premises and hybrid relational databases using the Microsoft PaaS relational database offerings.