Microsoft now loves Linux and part of its new exciting strategy is the availability of SQL Server as one of the best database platforms on all major Linux distributions. This book will be your quick-start guide to this new uncharted space. You will recognize and understand the full potential of a new database environment in the Linux world. At this point, the technology is pretty fresh and getting to know things now in this early phase will be to your strategic advantage.
Chapter 1, Linux Distributions, covers the basics of supported Linux distributions. You will learn about openSUSE and Ubuntu distributions and will be prepared for the installation procedure.
Chapter 2, Installation and Configuration, covers key points about the installation and initial configuration of SQL Server on Linux. You will learn how to install SQL Server on Linux on the openSUSE and Ubuntu distributions.
Chapter 3, SQL Server Basics, is about the SQL Server architecture and concepts, and how they differ from other database platforms.
Chapter 4, Database in the Sandbox, is about using DDL and DML sets of SQL statements in the SQL Server environment. You will learn how to create, modify, and delete a database and its objects, and how to implement INSERT, SELECT, DELETE, and update statements.
Chapter 5, Sample Databases, teaches you how to find and install SQL Server samples. You will learn how to restore a sample database and browse through its structure and objects.
Chapter 6, A Crash Course in Querying, shows you how to write efficient queries on SQL Server samples. The readers will learn to write SELECT statements on one or more tables in combination with different sets of operators and functions.
Chapter 7, Backup and Recovery Operations, is about understanding and creating backup procedures inside your database environment. The process of restoring is equally as important as backing up. This chapter will also teach you how to create and implement an efficient restore procedure.
Chapter 8, User Management, focusses on the user management process using the security features of SQL Server. You will learn how to implement new logins and map procedures to specific assets on SQL Server.
Chapter 9, Implementing Data Protection, is focused on data protection using the built-in support for encryption. If you want to prevent and minimize the consequences of data breaches, then this is the right chapter for you.
Chapter 10, Indexing, explains how to use different types of indexing to achieve better performance for your SQL code. The reader will learn how to recognize bottlenecks inside databases and apply the appropriate indexing methods.
Chapter 11, In-Memory OLTP, shows the readers how to implement different types of in-memory OLTP features.
Chapter 12, Beyond SQL Server, takes you on a beautiful journey through the rest of the features and tools that can be used in SQL Server development.
This book is a highly practical guide for SQL Server on Linux. We focus on how to get things up-and-running, whether or not you have any prior SQL Server or Linux experience. To achieve the full potential and get the maximum benefits from this book, you will need one of these Linux distributions: Ubuntu 16.04 or Ubuntu 17.04, openSUSE Leap 42.2 or openSUSE Tumbleweed, Kubuntu 16.04 or 17.04, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3, SUSE, or Linux Enterprise Server v12 SP2. Last but not least, you will need to install SQL Server on Linux. At the time of writing, the last actual version was SQL Server on Linux RC1. I recommend the Developer edition. We have tried to keep all the code as user-friendly and readable as possible. We feel that this will enable our readers to easily understand it, and readily use it, in different scenarios.
This book is for the Linux users who want to learn SQL Server on their favorite Linux distributions. It is not important if you are experienced database user or a beginner as we are starting from scratch. However, it is recommended that you have basic knowledge about relational models. More advanced readers can pick the chapters of their interest and study specific topics immediately. Users from Windows platform can also benefit from this book to expand their frontiers and become equally efficient on both platforms..
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning. Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "Execute the following SELECT statement and count the number of records."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
1> ALTER DATABASE CURRENT 2> SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 130; 3> GO
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "In order to download new modules, we will go to Files | Settings | Project Name | Project Interpreter."
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