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Install SQL Server 2019 Machine Learning Services (Python and R) on Linux

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Applies to: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) - Linux

This article guides you in the installation of SQL Server Machine Learning Services on Linux. Python and R scripts can be executed in-database using Machine Learning Services.

You can install Machine Learning Services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), and Ubuntu. For more information, see the Supported platforms section in the Installation guidance for SQL Server on Linux.

Important

These instructions are specific to SQL Server 2019 (15.x). For SQL Server 2022 (16.x), where installation steps are different, refer to Install SQL Server 2022 Machine Learning Services (Python and R) on Linux.

Pre-install checklist

  • Install SQL Server on Linux and verify the installation.

  • Check the SQL Server Linux repositories for the Python and R extensions. If you already configured source repositories for the database engine install, you can run the mssql-mlservices package install commands using the same repo registration.

  • (R only) Microsoft R Open (MRO) provides the base R distribution for the R feature in SQL Server and is a prerequisite for using RevoScaleR, MicrosoftML, and other R packages installed with Machine Learning Services.

    • The required version is MRO 3.5.2.
    • Register the packages.microsoft.com repo as described below to install the MRO distribution: microsoft-r-open-mro and microsoft-r-open-mkl.
    • See the installation sections below for how to install MRO.

  • You should have a tool for running T-SQL commands.

    • You can use Azure Data Studio, a free database tool that runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Package list

On an internet-connected device, packages are downloaded and installed independently of the database engine using the package installer for each operating system. The following table describes all available packages, but for R and Python, you specify packages that provide either the full feature installation or the minimum feature installation.

Available installation packages:

Package name Applies-to Description
mssql-server-extensibility All Extensibility framework used to run Python and R.
microsoft-openmpi Python, R Message passing interface used by the Rev* libraries for parallelization on Linux.
mssql-mlservices-python Python Open-source distribution of Anaconda and Python.
mssql-mlservices-mlm-py Python Full install. Provides revoscalepy, microsoftml, pre-trained models for image featurization and text sentiment analysis.
mssql-mlservices-packages-py Python Minimum install. Provides revoscalepy and microsoftml.
Excludes pre-trained models.
microsoft-r-open* R Open-source distribution of R, composed of three packages.
mssql-mlservices-mlm-r R Full install. Provides: RevoScaleR, MicrosoftML, sqlRUtils, olapR, pre-trained models for image featurization and text sentiment analysis.
mssql-mlservices-packages-r R Minimum install. Provides RevoScaleR, sqlRUtils, MicrosoftML, olapR.
Excludes pre-trained models.

Install on RHEL

Follow the steps below to install SQL Server Machine Learning Services on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Install MRO on RHEL

The following commands register the repository providing MRO. Post-registration, the commands for installing other R packages, such as mssql-mlservices-mml-r, will automatically include MRO as a package dependency.

# Import the Microsoft repository key

sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

# Set the location of the package repo at the "prod" directory
# The following command is for version 8.x
# To get the version for 6.x or 7.x, replace 8 with 6 or 7, respectively.
rpm -Uvh https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm

# Update packages on your system (optional)
yum update

Installation Options for Python and R:

  • Install language support based on your requirements (single or multiple languages).
  • The full installation provides all available features including pre-trained machine learning models.
  • The minimal installation excludes the models but still has all of the functionality.

Tip

If possible, run yum clean all to refresh packages on the system prior to installation.

Full installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Extensions (Python, R)
  • Machine learning libraries
  • Pre-Trained models for Python and R
# Install as root or sudo
# Add everything (all R, Python)
# Be sure to include -9.4.7* in mlsservices package names
sudo yum install mssql-mlservices-mlm-py-9.4.7*
sudo yum install mssql-mlservices-mlm-r-9.4.7*

Minimum installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Core Revo* libraries
  • Machine learning libraries
# Install as root or sudo
# Minimum install of R, Python extensions
# Be sure to include -9.4.6* in mlsservices package names
sudo yum install mssql-mlservices-packages-py-9.4.7*
sudo yum install mssql-mlservices-packages-r-9.4.7*

Install on Ubuntu

Follow the steps below to install SQL Server Machine Learning Services on Ubuntu.

Install MRO on Ubuntu

The following commands register the repository providing MRO. Post-registration, the commands for installing other R packages, such as mssql-mlservices-mml-r, will automatically include MRO as a package dependency.

# Install as root
sudo su

# Optionally, if your system does not have the https apt transport option
apt-get install apt-transport-https

# If you are on Ubuntu 20.04, install the following package (MRO 3.5 has a dependency on libtinfo.so.5 in Ubuntu 20.04)
apt-get install libncurses5

# Set the location of the package repo the "prod" directory containing the distribution.
# This example specifies 20.04. Replace with 16.04 or 14.04 if you want those versions.
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Register the repo
dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

# Update packages on your system (required), including MRO installation
sudo apt-get update

Installation Options for Python and R:

  • Install language support based on your requirements (single or multiple languages).
  • The full installation provides all available features the including pre-trained machine learning models.
  • The minimal installation excludes the models but still has all of the functionality.

Tip

If possible, run apt-get update to refresh packages on the system prior to installation.

Full installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Python extensions
  • R extensions
  • Machine learning libraries
  • Pre-trained models for Python and R
# Install as root or sudo
# Add everything (all R, Python)
# There is no asterisk in this full install
sudo apt-get install mssql-mlservices-mlm-py 
sudo apt-get install mssql-mlservices-mlm-r

Minimum installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Core Revo* libraries
  • Machine learning libraries
# Install as root or sudo
# Minimum install of R, Python
# No asterisk
sudo apt-get install mssql-mlservices-packages-py
sudo apt-get install mssql-mlservices-packages-r

Install on SLES

Follow the steps below to install SQL Server Machine Learning Services on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

Install MRO on SLES

The following commands register the repository providing MRO. Post-registration, the commands for installing other R packages, such as mssql-mlservices-mml-r, will automatically include MRO as a package dependency.

# Install as root
sudo su

# Set the location of the package repo at the "prod" directory containing the distribution
# This example is for SLES12
zypper ar -f https://packages.microsoft.com/sles/12/prod packages-microsoft-com

# Update packages on your system (optional)
zypper update

Installation Options for Python and R:

  • Install language support based on your requirements (single or multiple languages).
  • The full installation provides all available features the including pre-trained machine learning models.
  • The minimal installation excludes the models but still has all of the functionality.

Full installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Extensions for Python and R
  • Machine learning libraries
  • Pre-trained models for Python and R
# Install as root or sudo
# Add everything (all R, Python)
sudo zypper install mssql-mlservices-mlm-py
sudo zypper install mssql-mlservices-mlm-r

Minimum installation

Includes:

  • Open-source Python
  • Open-source R
  • Extensibility framework
  • Microsoft-openmpi
  • Core Revo* libraries
  • Machine learning libraries
# Install as root or sudo
# Minimum install of R, Python extensions
sudo zypper install mssql-mlservices-packages-py
sudo zypper install mssql-mlservices-packages-r

Post-install config (required)

Additional configuration is primarily through the mssql-conf tool.

  1. After the package installation finishes, run mssql-conf setup and follow the prompts to set the SA password and choose your edition. Perform this step only if you have not configured SQL Server on Linux yet.

    sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

  2. Accept the licensing agreements for open-source Python and R extensions. Use the following command:

    # Run as SUDO or root
# Use set + EULA 
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set EULA accepteulaml Y

    Setup detects the mssql-mlservices packages and prompts for EULA acceptance (if not previously accepted) when mssql-conf setup is run. For more information about EULA parameters, see Configure SQL Server with the mssql-conf tool.

  3. Enable outbound network access. Outbound network access is disabled by default. To enable outbound requests, set the "outboundnetworkaccess" Boolean property using the mssql-conf tool. For more information, see Configure SQL Server on Linux with mssql-conf.

    # Run as SUDO or root
# Enable outbound requests over the network
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set extensibility outboundnetworkaccess 1

  4. For R feature integration only, set the MKL_CBWR environment variable to ensure consistent output from Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL) calculations.

    • Edit or create a file .bash_profile in your user home directory, adding the line export MKL_CBWR="AUTO" to the file.

    • Execute this file by typing source .bash_profile at a bash command prompt.

  5. Restart the SQL Server Launchpad service and the database engine instance to read the updated values from the INI file. A notification message is displayed when an extensibility-related setting is modified.

    systemctl restart mssql-launchpadd

systemctl restart mssql-server.service

  6. Enable external script execution using Azure Data Studio or another tool like SQL Server Management Studio (Windows only) that runs Transact-SQL.

    EXEC sp_configure 'external scripts enabled', 1 
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

  7. Restart the Launchpad service again.

Verify installation

R libraries (MicrosoftML, RevoScaleR, and others) can be found at /opt/mssql/mlservices/libraries/RServer.

Python libraries (microsoftml and revoscalepy) can be found at /opt/mssql/mlservices/libraries/PythonServer.

To validate installation:

  • Run a T-SQL script that executes a system stored procedure invoking Python or R using a query tool.

  • Execute the following SQL command to test R execution in SQL Server. Errors? Try a service restart, sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service.

    EXEC sp_execute_external_script   
@language =N'R', 
@script=N' 
OutputDataSet <- InputDataSet', 
@input_data_1 =N'SELECT 1 AS hello' 
WITH RESULT SETS (([hello] int not null)); 
GO

  • Execute the following SQL command to test Python execution in SQL Server.

    EXEC sp_execute_external_script  
@language =N'Python', 
@script=N' 
OutputDataSet = InputDataSet; 
', 
@input_data_1 =N'SELECT 1 AS hello' 
WITH RESULT SETS (([hello] int not null)); 
GO

Unattended installation

Using the unattended install for the Database Engine, add the packages for mssql-mlservices and EULAs.

Use one of the mlservices-specific EULA parameters for the open-source R and Python distributions:

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup accept-eula-ml

The complete EULA is documented at Configure SQL Server on Linux with the mssql-conf tool.

Offline installation

Follow the Offline installation instructions for steps on installing the packages. Find your download site, and then download specific packages using the package list below.

Tip

Several of the package management tools provide commands that can help you determine package dependencies. For yum, use sudo yum deplist [package]. For Ubuntu, use sudo apt-get install --reinstall --download-only [package name] followed by dpkg -I [package name].deb.

Download site

Download packages from https://packages.microsoft.com/. All of the mlservices packages for Python and R are colocated with database engine package. Base version for the mlservices packages is 9.4.6. Recall that the microsoft-r-open packages are in a different repository.

RHEL/8 paths

Package Download location
mssql/mlservices packages https://packages.microsoft.com/rhel/8/mssql-server-2019/
microsoft-r-open packages https://packages.microsoft.com/rhel/8/prod/

Ubuntu/20.04 paths

Package Download location
mssql/mlservices packages https://packages.microsoft.com/ubuntu/20.04/mssql-server-2019/pool/main/m/
microsoft-r-open packages https://packages.microsoft.com/ubuntu/20.04/prod/pool/main/m/

SLES/12 paths

Package Download location
mssql/mlservices packages https://packages.microsoft.com/sles/12/mssql-server-2019/
microsoft-r-open packages https://packages.microsoft.com/sles/12/prod/

Select extensions you want to use and download the packages necessary for a specific language. The filenames include platform information in the suffix.

Package list

Depending on which extensions you want to use, download the packages necessary for a specific language. Exact filenames include platform information in the suffix, but the file names below should be close enough for you to determine which files to get.

# Core packages 
mssql-server-15.0.1000
mssql-server-extensibility-15.0.1000

# R
microsoft-openmpi-3.0.0
microsoft-r-open-mkl-3.5.2
microsoft-r-open-mro-3.5.2
mssql-mlservices-packages-r-9.4.7.64
mssql-mlservices-mlm-r-9.4.7.64


# Python
microsoft-openmpi-3.0.0
mssql-mlservices-python-9.4.7.64
mssql-mlservices-packages-py-9.4.7.64
mssql-mlservices-mlm-py-9.4.7.64

Related content

Python developers can learn how to use Python with SQL Server by following these tutorials:

R developers can get started with some simple examples, and learn the basics of how R works with SQL Server. For your next step, see the following links: