Configure SQL Server settings with environment variables on Linux

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Applies to: SQL Server - Linux

You can use several different environment variables to configure SQL Server 2017 (14.x) on Linux. These variables are used in two scenarios:

You can use several different environment variables to configure SQL Server 2019 (15.x) on Linux. These variables are used in two scenarios:

You can use several different environment variables to configure SQL Server 2022 (16.x) on Linux. These variables are used in two scenarios:

Tip

If you need to configure SQL Server after these setup scenarios, see Configure SQL Server on Linux with the mssql-conf tool.

Environment variables

Environment variable Description
ACCEPT_EULA Set the ACCEPT_EULA variable to any value to confirm your acceptance of the End-User Licensing Agreement. Required setting for the SQL Server image.
MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD Configure the SA user password.

The SA_PASSWORD environment variable is deprecated. Use MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD instead.
MSSQL_PID Set the SQL Server edition or product key. Possible values include:

Evaluation
Developer
Express
Web
Standard
Enterprise 1
EnterpriseCore 1
A product key

If specifying a product key, it must be in the form of #####-#####-#####-#####-#####, where '#' is a number or a letter.
MSSQL_LCID Sets the language ID to use for SQL Server. For example, 1036 is French.
MSSQL_COLLATION Sets the default collation for SQL Server. This overrides the default mapping of language ID (LCID) to collation.
MSSQL_MEMORY_LIMIT_MB Sets the maximum amount of memory (in MB) that SQL Server can use. By default, it's 80% of the total physical memory.
MSSQL_TCP_PORT Configure the TCP port that SQL Server listens on (default 1433).
MSSQL_IP_ADDRESS Set the IP address. Currently, the IP address must be IPv4 style (0.0.0.0).
MSSQL_BACKUP_DIR Set the Default backup directory location.
MSSQL_DATA_DIR Change the directory where the new SQL Server database data files (.mdf) are created.
MSSQL_LOG_DIR Change the directory where the new SQL Server database log (.ldf) files are created.
MSSQL_DUMP_DIR Change the directory where SQL Server deposits the memory dumps and other troubleshooting files by default.
MSSQL_ENABLE_HADR Enable Availability Group. For example, '1' is enabled, and '0' is disabled
MSSQL_AGENT_ENABLED Enable SQL Server Agent. For example, 'true' is enabled and 'false' is disabled. By default, agent is disabled.
MSSQL_MASTER_DATA_FILE Sets the location of the master database data file. Must be named master.mdf until first run of SQL Server.
MSSQL_MASTER_LOG_FILE Sets the location of the master database log file. Must be named mastlog.ldf until first run of SQL Server.
MSSQL_ERROR_LOG_FILE Sets the location of the errorlog files. For example, /var/opt/mssql/log/errorlog.

1 The legacy Enterprise license represents Enterprise edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing, and is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. Enterprise isn't available for new agreements. You should choose EnterpriseCore when you wish to deploy Enterprise edition. EnterpriseCore represents the core-based server licensing model with no core limits. For more information, see Compute capacity limits by edition of SQL Server.

Use with initial setup

This example runs mssql-conf setup with configured environment variables. The following environment variables are specified:

  • ACCEPT_EULA accepts the end user license agreement.
  • MSSQL_PID specifies the freely licensed Developer Edition of SQL Server for non-production use.
  • MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD sets a strong password.
  • MSSQL_TCP_PORT sets the TCP port that SQL Server listens on to 1234.
sudo ACCEPT_EULA='Y' MSSQL_PID='Developer' MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup

Use with Docker

This example docker command uses the following environment variables to create a new SQL Server container:

  • ACCEPT_EULA accepts the end user license agreement.
  • MSSQL_PID specifies the freely licensed Developer Edition of SQL Server for non-production use.
  • MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD sets a strong password.
  • MSSQL_TCP_PORT sets the TCP port that SQL Server listens on to 1234. This means that instead of mapping port 1433 (default) to a host port, the custom TCP port must be mapped with the -p 1234:1234 command in this example.

If you're running Docker on Linux, use the following syntax with single quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID='Developer' -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2017-latest

If you're running Docker on Windows, use the following syntax with double quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID="Developer" -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD="<YourStrong!Passw0rd>" -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2017-latest

Note

The process for running production editions in containers is slightly different. For more information, see Run production container images.

If you're running Docker on Linux, use the following syntax with single quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID='Developer' -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest

If you're running Docker on Windows, use the following syntax with double quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID="Developer" -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD="<YourStrong!Passw0rd>" -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest

If you're running Docker on Linux, use the following syntax with single quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID='Developer' -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD='<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest

If you're running Docker on Windows, use the following syntax with double quotes:

docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID="Developer" -e MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD="<YourStrong!Passw0rd>" -e MSSQL_TCP_PORT=1234 -p 1234:1234 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest

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