As part of my learning goals for 2018, I wanted to work through various books. This is part of my series on Pro SQL Server on Linux from Bob Ward.

I purchased Pro SQL Server on Linux and started reading it in December. I’ve been playing with the Linux version of SQL Server 2017 for a few years, but very lightly. Mostly I’ve just tested stuff I do on Windows to see what works on Linux. After talking to Bob Ward at our SQL in the City Summit events, I decided to dive in deeper and work through some basics as my knowledge here is spotty.

I didn’t have a Linux machine handy in December while traveling, but I started to read anyway. This is a first look at what I got through.

Why SQL Server on Linux?

The opening chapter describes some of the history of SQL Server and how the version was built on Linux. Between MVP sessions, some online reading, and some other presentations, I’ve seen a lot of this, but it’s still neat to review it.

To me, this is one of the more impressive software ports I’ve seen, especially since the core engine really is the same, with the code being shared between Windows and Linux. Microsoft is easily maintaining two platforms here in a way that they couldn’t do with Windows.

Interesting to read.

Install and Config

I’ve done this a few times, but it’s good to go through. Bob covers some common Linux commands you’ll use, and it’s good to see these. While I read this without a VM, I vaguely remember some of this. Need to go through this when I get in front of a setup.

The install of SQL Server is done a few times, a very high level, and then a more detailed look. There are also some troubleshooting references to review with lots of links. We’ll check this later.

Chapter 3, 4, 5

I bundled these as they are SQL Server basics that aren’t really related to Linux. Chapter 3 is about building a database and some T-SQL fundamentals. I know most of these, so I skimmed this one.

Chapter 4 lets you build a basic Node.js app and connect. This also covers some advanted T-SQL structures. Again, for someone that’s used SQL Server for any length of time and tried new features, you’ll want to skip this.

Chapter 5 is tools. I know most of the tools, though I’ll review the linux variants later.

The First Half

This is what I got done before the end of the year, reading on planes and during downtime. This is almost the first half of the book, but it’s a lot of pages. I’m looking forward to digging into more parts of the book during the rest of January.