Phil Factor starts a series of articles that will demonstrate the use of temporary SQL Server instances and running in Linux containers, into which we can deploy the latest database build stocked with data for development and testing work. This initial article shows how to set up a SQL Server instance inside a Linux Docker container, create some sample databases, and persist data locally.
Running Linux SQL Server as a container in a Windows Virtual Machine is valuable for development work. It saves time in setting up development and test environments. It provides a standard environment for running databases. There are limitations, however. Currently, Windows authentication isn't supported, and running containerized database applications in production isn't generally recommended due to the increasing isolation from the filesystem that can affect caching and the server's response to failure cases in the filesystem.