Sample: Unattended SQL Server installation script for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Applies to:
SQL Server - Linux
This sample bash script installs SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without interactive input. It provides examples of installing the Database Engine, the SQL Server command-line tools, SQL Server Agent, and performs post-install steps. You can optionally install full-text search and create an administrative user.
Tip
If you don't need an unattended installation script, the fastest way to install SQL Server is to follow the Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on Red Hat. For other setup information, see Installation guidance for SQL Server on Linux.
Prerequisites
- You need at least 2 GB of memory to run SQL Server on Linux.
- The file system must be XFS or EXT4. Other file systems, such as BTRFS, are unsupported.
- For other system requirements, see System requirements for SQL Server on Linux.
Sample script
This example installs SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on RHEL 8.x. If you want to install a different version of SQL Server or RHEL, change the Microsoft repository paths accordingly.
Save the sample script to a file. To customize it, You must replace the variable values in the script. You can also set any of the scripting variables as environment variables, as long as you remove them from the script file.
Important
The SA_PASSWORD
environment variable is deprecated. Use MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD
instead.
#!/bin/bash -e
# Use the following variables to control your install:
# Password for the SA user (required)
MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>'
# Product ID of the version of SQL Server you're installing
# Must be evaluation, developer, express, web, standard, enterprise, or your 25 digit product key
# Defaults to developer
MSSQL_PID='evaluation'
# Enable SQL Server Agent (recommended)
SQL_ENABLE_AGENT='y'
# Install SQL Server Full Text Search (optional)
# SQL_INSTALL_FULLTEXT='y'
# Create an additional user with sysadmin privileges (optional)
# SQL_INSTALL_USER='<Username>'
# SQL_INSTALL_USER_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>'
if [ -z $MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD ]
then
echo Environment variable MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD must be set for unattended install
exit 1
fi
echo Adding Microsoft repositories...
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/mssql-server-2019.repo
sudo curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/msprod.repo https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/prod.repo
echo Installing SQL Server...
sudo yum install -y mssql-server
echo Running mssql-conf setup...
sudo MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD=$MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD \
MSSQL_PID=$MSSQL_PID \
/opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf -n setup accept-eula
echo Installing mssql-tools and unixODBC developer...
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y yum install -y mssql-tools unixODBC-devel
# Add SQL Server tools to the path by default:
echo Adding SQL Server tools to your path...
echo PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin" >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
# Optional Enable SQL Server Agent:
if [ ! -z $SQL_ENABLE_AGENT ]
then
echo Enable SQL Server Agent...
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set sqlagent.enabled true
fi
# Optional SQL Server Full Text Search installation:
if [ ! -z $SQL_INSTALL_FULLTEXT ]
then
echo Installing SQL Server Full-Text Search...
sudo yum install -y mssql-server-fts
fi
# Configure firewall to allow TCP port 1433:
echo Configuring firewall to allow traffic on port 1433...
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=1433/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
# Example of setting post-installation configuration options
# Set trace flags 1204 and 1222 for deadlock tracing:
#echo Setting trace flags...
#sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf traceflag 1204 1222 on
# Restart SQL Server after making configuration changes:
echo Restarting SQL Server...
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server
# Connect to server and get the version:
counter=1
errstatus=1
while [ $counter -le 5 ] && [ $errstatus = 1 ]
do
echo Waiting for SQL Server to start...
sleep 5s
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd \
-S localhost \
-U SA \
-P $MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD \
-Q "SELECT @@VERSION" 2>/dev/null
errstatus=$?
((counter++))
done
# Display error if connection failed:
if [ $errstatus = 1 ]
then
echo Cannot connect to SQL Server, installation aborted
exit $errstatus
fi
# Optional new user creation:
if [ ! -z $SQL_INSTALL_USER ] && [ ! -z $SQL_INSTALL_USER_PASSWORD ]
then
echo Creating user $SQL_INSTALL_USER
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd \
-S localhost \
-U SA \
-P $MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD \
-Q "CREATE LOGIN [$SQL_INSTALL_USER] WITH PASSWORD=N'$SQL_INSTALL_USER_PASSWORD', DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master], CHECK_EXPIRATION=ON, CHECK_POLICY=ON; ALTER SERVER ROLE [sysadmin] ADD MEMBER [$SQL_INSTALL_USER]"
fi
echo Done!
Run the script
To run the script:
Paste the sample into your favorite text editor and save it with a memorable name, like
install_sql.sh
.Customize
MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD
,MSSQL_PID
, and any of the other variables you'd like to change.Mark the script as executable
chmod +x install_sql.sh
Run the script
./install_sql.sh
Understand the script
The first thing the bash script does is set a few variables. These variables can be either scripting variables, like the sample, or environment variables. The variable MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD
is required by SQL Server installation. The others are custom variables created for the script. The sample script performs the following steps:
Import the public Microsoft GPG keys.
Register the Microsoft repositories for SQL Server and the command-line tools.
Update the local repositories.
Install SQL Server.
Configure SQL Server with the
MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD
and automatically accept the End-User License Agreement.Automatically accept the End-User License Agreement for the SQL Server command-line tools, install them, and install the
unixODBC-devel
package.Add the SQL Server command-line tools to the path for ease of use.
Enable the SQL Server Agent if the scripting variable
SQL_ENABLE_AGENT
is set, on by default.Optionally install SQL Server Full-Text search, if the variable
SQL_INSTALL_FULLTEXT
is set.Unblock port 1433 for TCP on the system firewall, necessary to connect to SQL Server from another system.
Optionally set trace flags for deadlock tracing (requires uncommenting the lines).
SQL Server is now installed, to make it operational, restart the process.
Verify that SQL Server is installed correctly, while hiding any error messages.
Create a new server administrator user if
SQL_INSTALL_USER
andSQL_INSTALL_USER_PASSWORD
are both set.
Unattended install
Simplify multiple unattended installs and create a stand-alone bash script that sets the proper environment variables. You can remove any of the variables the sample script uses and put them in their own bash script.
#!/bin/bash
export MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>'
export MSSQL_PID='evaluation'
export SQL_ENABLE_AGENT='y'
export SQL_INSTALL_USER='<Username>'
export SQL_INSTALL_USER_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>'
Then run the bash script as follows:
. ./my_script_name.sh