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Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019 on Linux

Applies to: SQL Server - Linux

This article provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Linux.

For editions and supported features of SQL Server on Windows, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019. For more information on what's new in SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Windows, see What's new in SQL Server 2019 (15.x).

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.

For the latest release notes and what's new information, see Release notes for SQL Server 2019 on Linux.

For a list of SQL Server features not available on Linux, see Unsupported features and services.

Try SQL Server

SQL Server editions

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.

Enterprise edition is available for evaluation. An evaluation deployment is available for 180 days. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents.
Standard 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.

1 Unlimited virtualization is available on Enterprise edition for customers with Software Assurance. Deployments must comply with the licensing guide. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents.

Use SQL Server with client/server applications

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.

The Developer edition continues to support only one client for SQL Server Distributed Replay.

Scale limits

Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
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) Yes Yes Yes Yes
Automatic indexed views maintenance Yes Yes Yes No
Distributed partitioned views Yes No No No
Parallel index operations Yes No No No
Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer Yes No No No
Parallel consistency check Yes No No No
SQL Server Utility Control Point Yes No No No

1 With trace flag.

Programmability

Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
JSON Yes Yes Yes Yes
Query Store Yes Yes Yes Yes
Temporal Yes Yes Yes Yes
Native XML support Yes Yes Yes Yes
XML indexing Yes Yes Yes Yes
MERGE and UPSERT capabilities Yes Yes Yes Yes
Date and time data types Yes Yes Yes Yes
Internationalization support Yes Yes Yes Yes
Full-text and semantic search Yes Yes Yes Yes
Specification of language in query Yes Yes Yes Yes
Service Broker (messaging) Yes Yes No 1 No 1
Transact-SQL endpoints Yes Yes Yes No
Graph Yes Yes Yes Yes

1 Client only.

Integration Services

For info about the Integration Services (SSIS) features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Integration Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server.

Spatial and location services

Feature name Enterprise Standard Web Express
Spatial indexes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Planar and geodetic data types Yes Yes Yes Yes
Advanced spatial libraries Yes Yes Yes Yes
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.) This feature is deprecated. If you have specific requirements, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum.
FileTable, FILESTREAM If you have specific requirements, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum.
CLR assemblies with the EXTERNAL_ACCESS or UNSAFE permission set
Buffer Pool Extension
Backup to URL - page blob Backup to URL is supported for block blobs, using the Shared Access Signature.
SQL Server Agent Subsystems: CmdExec, PowerShell, Queue Reader, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS
Alerts
Managed Backup
High Availability Database mirroring This feature is deprecated. Use Always On availability groups instead.
Security Extensible Key Management (EKM)
Windows integrated authentication for linked servers
Windows integrated authentication for availability group (AG) endpoints Create and use certificate based endpoint authentication for availability groups. For more information, see Configure SQL Server Always On Availability Group for high availability on Linux.
Services SQL Server Browser
SQL Server R services SQL Server R is supported within SQL Server, but SQL Server R services as a separate package isn't supported.

You can install Machine Learning Services on Linux for SQL Server 2019 and SQL Server 2022.
Analysis Services
Reporting Services Configure Power BI Report Server catalog databases for SQL Server on Linux. Run SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on Windows, and host the catalog databases for SSRS on SQL Server on Linux deployments.
Data Quality Services
Master Data Services

For a list of features supported by the editions of SQL Server on Windows, see: