Create Node.js apps using SQL Server on RHEL

In this section, you will get SQL Server 2017 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. After that you will install the necessary dependencies to create Node.js apps with SQL Server

Step 1.1 Install SQL Server

Note: To ensure optimal performance of SQL Server, your machine should have at least 4 GB of memory.

1. Register the Microsoft Linux repository

    curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/mssql-server.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-server.repo
   

2. Install SQL Server

    sudo yum update
    sudo yum install mssql-server
   

3. Setup your SQL Server

    sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup
   

    Microsoft(R) SQL Server(R) Setup
   
    To abort setup at anytime, press Ctrl-C.
   
    The license terms for this product can be downloaded from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=746388 and
    found in /usr/share/doc/mssql-server/LICENSE.TXT.
   
    Do you accept the license terms? If so, please type YES:
    Please enter a password for the system administrator (SA) account:
    Please confirm the password for the system administrator (SA) account:
   

You now have SQL Server running locally on your RHEL machine! Check out the next section to continue installing prerequisites.

Step 1.2 Node.js

Add Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) to your list of repos and update. If you already have Node.js installed on your machine, skip this step.

wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
sudo yum update

Install Node.js by first adding the necessary node repositories, and then installing the nodejs package.

sudo yum update
sudo yum -y install nodejs

You can verify your Node.js installation using this command:

node -v

v.6.9.1

You now have Node.js installed! The next section will walk you through getting the tools to interact with your database.

Step 1.3 Install the ODBC Driver and SQL Command Line Utility for SQL Server

SQLCMD is a command line tool that enables you to connect to SQL Server and run queries.

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/prod.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-tools.repo
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y yum install msodbcsql mssql-tools
sudo yum install unixODBC-devel
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

After installing SQLCMD, you can connect to SQL Server using the following command:

sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P yourpassword
1> # You're connected! Type your T-SQL statements here. Use the keyword 'GO' to execute each batch of statements.

This how to run a basic inline query. The results will be printed to the STDOUT.

sqlcmd -S localhost -U sa -P yourpassword -Q "SELECT @@VERSION"

--------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft SQL Server vNext (CTP2.0) - 14.0.500.272 (X64) 
	Apr 13 2017 11:44:40 
	Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
    on Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux)

1 rows(s) returned

Executed in 1 ns

You have successfully installed SQL Server Command Line Utilities on your Red Hat machine!