Install SQL Server 2019 on a Mac

Posted on by Ian

I previously explained how to install SQL Server on a Mac via a Docker container. When I wrote that, SQL Server 2017 was the latest version of SQL Server, and it had just been made available for Linux and Docker (which means that you can also install it on MacOS systems).

In late 2018, Microsoft announced SQL Server 2019 Preview, and subsequently announced general release in late 2019. The installation process for SQL Server 2019 is exactly the same as for SQL Server 2017. The only difference is that you need to use the container image for SQL Server 2019 instead of the 2017 image. Here I show you how to do that.

Also, if you already have SQL Server 2017 installed, and you want to install SQL Server 2019 without removing the 2017 version, you’ll need to allocate a different port number on your host. I show you how to do that too.

But first… if you’re using a Mac with the M1 chip, see How to Install SQL Server on an M1 Mac (ARM64).

Docker

The first step is to install Docker. If you already have Docker installed you can skip this step (and jump straight to SQL Server).

Docker is a platform that enables software to run in its own isolated environment. Therefore, SQL Server 2019 can be run on Docker in its own isolated container.

  1. Install Docker

    To download, visit the Docker CE for Mac download page and click Get Docker.

    To install, double-click on the .dmg file and then drag the Docker.app icon to your Application folder.

    Screenshot of the Docker installation.
    Docker installation on a Mac.

  2. Launch Docker

    Launch Docker the same way you’d launch any other application (eg, via the Applications folder, the Launchpad, etc).

    When you open Docker, you might be prompted for your password so that Docker can install its networking components and links to the Docker apps. Go ahead and provide your password, as Docker needs this to run.

    Screenshot of the password request dialog
    The password request dialog

  3. Increase the Memory (optional)

    By default, Docker will have 2GB of memory allocated to it. I’d suggest increasing it to 4GB if you can.

    To do this, select Preferences from the little Docker icon in the top menu:

    Screenshot of selecting the Preferences

    Then on the Resources > Advanced screen, slide the memory slider up to at least 4GB:

    Screenshot of the Advanced screen under the Resources tab in Docker.

    Then finish off by clicking Apply & Restart

SQL Server

Now that Docker has been installed and configured, we can download and install SQL Server 2019.

  1. Download SQL Server 2019

    Open a Terminal window and run the following command.

    sudo docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest

    This downloads the latest SQL Server for Linux Docker image to your computer.

    You can also check for the various container image options on the Docker website if you wish.

  2. Launch the Docker Image

    Run the following command to launch an instance of the Docker image you just downloaded:

    sudo docker run -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" -e "SA_PASSWORD=reallyStrongPwd#123" -p 1433:1433 --name Bart -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest

    Just change Bart to a name of your choosing, and reallyStrongPwd#123 to a password of your choosing.

    If you get a “port already allocated” error, see below.

    Here’s an explanation of the parameters:

    -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y'
    The Y shows that you agree with the EULA (End User Licence Agreement). This is required.
    -e 'SA_PASSWORD=reallyStrongPwd#123'
    Required parameter that sets the sa database password.
    -p 1433:1433
    This maps the local port 1433 to port 1433 on the container. The first value is the TCP port on the host environment. The second value is the TCP port in the container.
    --name Bart
    Another optional parameter. This parameter allows you to name the container. This can be handy when stopping and starting your container from the Terminal. You might prefer to give it a more descriptive name like sql_server_2019 or similar.
    -d
    This optional parameter launches the Docker container in daemon mode. This means that it runs in the background and doesn’t need its own Terminal window open. You can omit this parameter to have the container run in its own Terminal window.
    mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest
    This tells Docker which image to use.

    Password Strength

    You need to use a strong password. Microsoft says this about the password:

    The password should follow the SQL Server default password policy, otherwise the container can not setup SQL server and will stop working. By default, the password must be at least 8 characters long and contain characters from three of the following four sets: Uppercase letters, Lowercase letters, Base 10 digits, and Symbols.

    Error – “Port already allocated”?

    If you get an error that says something about “port is already allocated”, then perhaps you already have SQL Server installed on another container that uses that port. In this case, you’ll need to map to a different port on the host.

    Therefore, you could change the above command to something like this:

    sudo docker run -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" -e "SA_PASSWORD=reallyStrongPwd#123" -p 1400:1433 --name Bart -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest

    In this case I simply changed -p 1433:1433 to -p 1400:1433. Everything else remains the same.

    You may now get an error saying that you need to remove the existing container first. To do that, run the following (but swap Bart with the name of your own container):

    sudo docker rm Bart

    Once removed, you can try running the previous command again.

    Note that if you change the port like I’ve done here, you will probably need to include the port number when connecting to SQL Server from any database tools from your desktop. For example, when connecting via the Azure Data Studio (mentioned below), you can connect by using Localhost,1400 instead of just Localhost. Same with mssql-cli, which is a command line SQL tool.

Check Everything

Now that we’ve done that, we should be good to go. Let’s go through and run a few checks.

  1. Check the Docker container (optional)

    You can type the following command to check that the Docker container is running.

    sudo docker ps -a

    In my case I get this:

    CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                               COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS              PORTS                    NAMES
c1b060f68fcb        mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest          "/opt/mssql/bin/sqls…"   About a minute ago   Up About a minute   0.0.0.0:1400->1433/tcp   Bart
fdec67e6a28d        microsoft/mssql-server-linux                        "/opt/mssql/bin/sqls…"   4 months ago         Up 8 days           0.0.0.0:1433->1433/tcp   Homer

    This tells me that I have two docker containers up and running: one called Bart and the other called Homer.

  2. Connect to SQL Server

    Here we use the SQL Server command line tool called “sqlcmd” inside the container to connect to SQL Server.

    sudo docker exec -it Bart "bash"

    Enter your password if prompted.

    Now that you’re inside the container, connect locally with sqlcmd:

    /opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P "reallyStrongPwd#123"

    This should bring you to the sqlcmd prompt 1>.

  3. Run a Quick Test

    Run a quick test to check that SQL Server is up and running. For example, check the SQL Server version by entering this:

    SELECT @@version

    This will bring you to a command prompt 2> on the next line. To execute the query, enter:

    GO

    Result:

    +--------------------+
| (No column name)   |
|--------------------|
| Microsoft SQL Server 2019 (RTM-CU3) (KB4538853) - 15.0.4023.6 (X64) 
        Mar  4 2020 00:59:26 
        Copyright (C) 2019 Microsoft Corporation
        Developer Edition (64-bit) on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS)                     |
+--------------------+
(1 row affected)

    If you see a message like this, congratulations — SQL Server is now up and running on your Mac!

    If you prefer to use a GUI to manage SQL Server, read on.

Azure Data Studio

Azure Data Studio dashboard
The Azure Data Studio dashboard.

Azure Data Studio is a free GUI management tool that you can use to manage SQL Server on your Mac. You can use it to create and manage databases, write queries, backup and restore databases, and more.

Azure Data Studio is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Here are some articles/tutorials I’ve written for Azure Data Studio:

Another Free SQL Server GUI – DBeaver

Another SQL Server GUI tool that you can use on your Mac (and Windows/Linux/Solaris) is DBeaver.

DBeaver is a free, open source database management tool that can be used on most database management systems (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, Microsoft Access, Teradata, Firebird, Derby, and more).

Screenshot of DBeaver using the Dark theme
DBeaver using the “Dark” theme.

I wrote a little introduction to DBeaver, or you can go straight to the DBeaver download page and try it out with your new SQL Server installation.