SQL Server 2019 now available on Ubuntu 18.04, supported on SLES 12 SP5

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: SQL Server articles.

SQL Server on Ubuntu 18.04

We are happy to announce the availability of SQL Server 2019 package native to Ubuntu 18.04 ecosystem, fully supported for production use, starting with CU3. You can read about SQL Server 2019 CU3 release at following page.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4538853

 

Instructions on how to install SQL 2019 CU3 with Ubuntu 18.04 have been updated on the documentation at following pages.

Configuring Repo: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-change-repo?view=sql-server-ver15&pivots=ld2-ubuntu#configure-new-repository

Installation Tutorial: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-ubuntu?view=sql-server-ver15

 

SQL Server on Ubuntu 18.04 based Containers

We are also glad to announce the availability of SQL Server 2019 CU3 container image build on Ubuntu 18.04. It is fully supported for production use. You can read about how to deploy the container at following page.

Running SQL Server 2019 CU3 container with Ubuntu 18.04 base: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-docker?view=sql-server-ver15&pivots=cs1-bash#pullandrun2019

 

SQL Server on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP5

We are glad to announce that starting with SQL Server 2019 CU3, SLES 12 SP5 is fully supported for production use. Support level is updated at following article.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-release-notes-2019?view=sql-server-ver15

There is no separate repo or package requirement in case of SLES 12 SP5 and existing instructions documented at following article would continue to work.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-suse?view=sql-server-ver15

 

Performance Improvement Updates with SLES 12 SP5

As one may have worked with SQL Server on Linux, they may have introduced to certain storage and IO flush related configurations due to unavailability of FUA (Forced Unit Access) functionality in user mode of Linux ecosystem. You can read extremely good technical details at following blog written by Bob Dorr, a lead in SQL Server product group.

https://bobsql.com/sql-server-on-linux-forced-unit-access-fua-internals/

 

If you see the “Safety and Performance” section in the blog, it outlines the various configurations you can have depending on kernel version and storage capabilities.

We are glad to say that SUSE engineering team have introduced the FUA capability in user mode for XFS filesystem starting with SLES 12 SP5. This means for SQL Server 2019 on SLES 12 SP5, recommended configuration is following.

If using XFS filesystem for database files storage on top of FUA capable hardware then,

  • Enable trace flag 3979
  • Set control.writethrough (a mssql-conf configuration option) to 1.
  • Set control.alternatewritethrough (a mssql-conf configuration option) to 0.

Of course, if EXT4 filesystem is in use then the blog should be reviewed thoroughly to see how to get best performance based on underlying storage configuration.

 

Thanks!

Mike Habben (Principal Software Engineering Manager)

Vin Yu (Senior Program Manager)

Tejas Shah (Principal Program Manager)

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