I’m working the first section of a basic administration course, and the first part of this is installing SQL Server 2019. I built a similar course a few years back for SQL Server 2016, but the world has changed. As I review the requirements for installation, it’s interesting to note that we now have Linux and Docker installs in addition to Windows.
As I went through the list for SQL Server 2019, I found a few things that stood out for me. First, the requirements for the platforms are different. I’ll note a couple:
- CPU – a 2.0GHz processor needed on Linux, but recommended on Windows. You can get by with a 1.4GHz one.
- RAM – 1GB on Windows, but 2GB on Linux.
- No .NET requirement on Linux, though presumably the package manager installs this.
- Windows is 2012+, but Linux has specific versions listed as supported.
The first two items probably don’t matter. Most of us aren’t going to run SQL Server on a slow, single core machine with just a few GB of RAM. Even laptops tend to be 8GB these days, so who cares. Maybe a few people, but if you’re that hardware constrained, this is likely an embedded type installation. In that case, I’m not sure what to tell you.
The .NET items is interesting. I have had to update .NET at times on VMs, so I’m surprised Linux doesn’t require anything. I’m sure something is required, but if this is embedded in the package manager, I’d still like to know.
Overall I do find Linux easier to use and if I’m going to consider installing SQL Server, I am leaning towards Linux as the platform. There are still some security and AD integration items to work out, but overall, I think I prefer running SQL Server on a Linux host, and likely in a container, moving forward.
