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Applies to: 
SQL Server - Linux
This article provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2025 (17.x) on Linux.
For editions and supported features of SQL Server on Windows, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025.
For more information on what's new in SQL Server 2025 (17.x), see:
Installation requirements vary based on your application needs. The different editions of SQL Server accommodate the unique performance, runtime, and price requirements of organizations and individuals. The SQL Server components that you install also depend on your specific requirements. The following sections help you understand how to make the best choice among the editions and components available in SQL Server.
For the latest release notes and what's new information, see Release notes for SQL Server 2025 on Linux.
For a list of SQL Server features not available on Linux, see Unsupported features and services.
SQL Server editions
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
| Edition | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enterprise 1 | The premier offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition is built for organizations demanding uncompromising performance, security, and scalability. This edition is both an AI-powered database and a mission-critical engine designed to power the most complex workloads across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. |
| Standard | SQL Server Standard edition delivers a balance of performance, security, and affordability for businesses that need enterprise-class capabilities without the complexity. This edition empowers growing businesses with enterprise-grade performance, modern AI capabilities, and hybrid flexibility. |
| Enterprise Developer | SQL Server Enterprise Developer edition lets developers build any kind of application on top of SQL Server. It includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. Developer editions are an ideal choice for people who build and test applications. |
| Standard Developer | Similar to Enterprise Developer edition, SQL Server Standard Developer edition includes all the functionality of Standard edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. |
| Evaluation | SQL Server Evaluation edition includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition. An evaluation deployment is available for 180 days. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents. |
| Express 2 | SQL Server Express edition is the entry-level, free database, ideal for learning and building desktop and small server data-driven applications. This unified edition includes SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), machine learning integration, and Full Text Search. It's the best choice for independent software vendors, developers, and hobbyists building client applications. If you need more advanced database features, SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to other higher end editions of SQL Server. SQL Server Express LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express edition that has all its programmability features, runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation and a short list of prerequisites. |
1 Enterprise edition offers unlimited virtualization for customers with Software Assurance. Deployments must comply with the licensing guide. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents.
2 Starting with SQL Server 2025 (17.x), Express edition includes all the functionality that was available in SQL Server Express edition with Advanced Services.
Use SQL Server with client/server applications
You can install just the SQL Server client components on a computer running client/server applications that connect directly to an instance of SQL Server. A client components installation is also a good option if you administer an instance of SQL Server on a database server, or if you plan to develop SQL Server applications.
SQL Server components
SQL Server 2025 (17.x) on Linux supports the SQL Server Database Engine. The following table describes the features in the Database Engine.
| Server components | Description |
|---|---|
| SQL Server Database Engine | SQL Server Database Engine includes the Database Engine, the core service for storing, processing, and securing data, replication, Full-Text Search, tools for managing relational and XML data, and in database analytics integration. |
Enterprise Developer, Standard Developer, Enterprise Core, and Evaluation editions
For features supported by Enterprise Developer, Standard Developer, Enterprise Core, and Evaluation editions, see features listed for the SQL Server Enterprise edition in the following tables.
The Developer editions continue to support only one client for SQL Server Distributed Replay.
Note
SQL Server 2025 (17.x) introduces separate Enterprise Developer and Standard Developer editions of SQL Server.
Scale limits
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine 1 | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - Analysis Services or Reporting Services | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
| Maximum memory for buffer pool per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Operating system maximum | 256 GB | 1,410 MB |
| Maximum capacity for the buffer pool extension per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | 32 * (max server memory configuration) | 4 * (max server memory configuration) | N/A |
| Maximum memory for columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 352 MB |
| Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 352 MB |
| Maximum relational database size | 524 PB | 524 PB | 10 GB |
1 Enterprise edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing (not available for new agreements) is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. There are no limits under the Core-based Server Licensing model. For more information, see Compute capacity limits by edition of SQL Server.
High availability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Log shipping | Yes | Yes | No |
| Backup compression | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database snapshot | Yes | Yes | No |
| Always On failover cluster instances 1 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Always On availability groups 2 | Yes | No | No |
| Basic availability groups 3 | No | Yes | No |
| Minimum replica commit availability group | Yes | Yes | No |
| Clusterless availability group | Yes | Yes | No |
| Online page and file restore | Yes | No | No |
| Online indexing | Yes | No | No |
| Resumable online index rebuilds | Yes | No | No |
| Online schema change | Yes | No | No |
| Fast recovery | Yes | No | No |
| Mirrored backups | Yes | No | No |
| Hot add memory and CPU | Yes | No | No |
| Encrypted backup | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hybrid backup to Azure (backup to URL) | Yes | Yes | No |
1 On Enterprise edition, the number of nodes is the operating system maximum. On Standard edition, there's support for two nodes.
2 On Enterprise edition, provides support for up to 8 secondary replicas - including 2 synchronous secondary replicas.
3 Standard edition supports basic availability groups. A basic availability group supports two replicas, with one database. For more information about basic availability groups, see Basic Always On availability groups for a single database.
Scalability and performance
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columnstore 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Large object binaries in clustered columnstore indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online nonclustered columnstore index rebuild | Yes | No | No |
| In-Memory OLTP 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent main memory | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Table and index partitioning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data compression | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Resource governor | Yes | No | No |
| Partitioned table parallelism | Yes | No | No |
| NUMA aware large page memory and buffer array allocation | Yes | No | No |
| I/O resource governance | Yes | No | No |
| Delayed durability | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk insert improvements | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 In-Memory OLTP data size and columnstore segment cache are limited to the amount of memory specified by edition in the Scale limits section. The max degree of parallelism is limited. The degree of process parallelism (DOP) for an index build is limited to 2 DOP for the Standard edition and 1 DOP for Express edition. This refers to columnstore indexes created over disk-based tables and memory-optimized tables.
Intelligent query processing
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic tuning | Yes | No | No |
| Batch mode adaptive joins | Yes | No | No |
| Batch mode memory grant feedback | Yes | No | No |
| Interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Security
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row-level security | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always Encrypted | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic data masking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fine-grained auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent data encryption (TDE) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Extensible Key Management (EKM) using Azure Key Vault | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | No |
Manageability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated admin connection | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 |
| PowerShell scripting support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support for data-tier application component operations (extract, deploy, upgrade, delete) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Policy automation (check on schedule and change) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Performance data collector | Yes | Yes | No |
| Standard performance reports | Yes | Yes | No |
| Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides | Yes | Yes | No |
Direct query of indexed views (using NOEXPAND hint) |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic indexed views maintenance | Yes | Yes | No |
| Distributed partitioned views | Yes | No | No |
| Parallel index maintenance operations | Yes | No | No |
| Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer | Yes | No | No |
| Parallel consistency check | Yes | No | No |
| SQL Server Utility Control Point | Yes | No | No |
1 With trace flag.
Programmability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSON | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Temporal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native XML support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MERGE and upsert capabilities |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Date and time data types | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Internationalization support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full-text and semantic search | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Specification of language in query | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Service Broker (messaging and queuing) | Yes | Yes | No 1 |
| Transact-SQL endpoints | Yes | Yes | No |
| Graph | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Client only.
Integration Services
For info about the Integration Services (SSIS) features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Integration Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server.
Spatial and location services
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Planar and geodetic data types | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced spatial libraries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Configure memory limits with control group (cgroup) v2
Starting with SQL Server 2025 (17.x) and SQL Server 2022 (16.x) CU 20, SQL Server detects and honors control group (cgroup) v2 constraints, improving performance stability and resource isolation across Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift environments. Control groups enable fine-grained control in the Linux kernel over system resources such as CPU and memory.
With cgroup v2 support, SQL Server mitigates out of memory (OOM) errors previously observed in containerized deployments, particularly on Kubernetes clusters (for example, AKS v1.25+), where memory limits defined in container specifications weren't enforced.
Check cgroup version
stat -fc %T /sys/fs/cgroup
The results are as follows:
| Result | Description |
|---|---|
cgroup2fs |
You're using cgroup v2 |
cgroup |
You're using cgroup v1 |
Switch to cgroup v2
The easiest path is choosing a distribution that supports cgroup v2 out of the box.
If you need to switch manually, add the following line to your GRUB configuration:
systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1
Then, run the following command to update GRUB:
sudo update-grub
For more information, see the following resources:
- Quickstart: Deploy a SQL Server Linux container to Kubernetes using Helm charts
- Linux Kernel cgroup v2 documentation
- Control Group v2
Unsupported features and services
The following features and services aren't available for SQL Server 2025 (17.x) on Linux. The support of these features will be increasingly enabled over time.
| Area | Unsupported feature or service | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Database engine | Merge replication | |
| Distributed query with third-party connections | ||
| Linked servers to data sources other than SQL Server | Install PolyBase on Linux to query other data sources from SQL Server using Transact-SQL syntax. For scenarios where PolyBase isn't helpful, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum. | |
System extended stored procedures (xp_cmdshell, etc.) |
This feature is deprecated. If you have specific requirements, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum. | |
| FileTable, FILESTREAM | If you have specific requirements, submit feedback to the Microsoft Azure forum. | |
CLR assemblies with the EXTERNAL_ACCESS or UNSAFE permission set |
||
| Buffer Pool Extension | ||
| Backup to URL - page blob | Backup to URL is supported for block blobs, using the Shared Access Signature. | |
| SQL Server Agent | Subsystems: CmdExec, PowerShell, Queue Reader, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS | |
| Alerts | ||
| Managed Backup | ||
| High Availability | Database mirroring | This feature is deprecated. Use Always On availability groups instead. |
| Security | Extensible Key Management (EKM) | Extensible Key Management using Azure Key Vault is available for SQL Server on Linux environments, starting with SQL Server 2022 (16.x) CU 12. Follow the instructions from Step 5: Configure SQL Server onward. |
| Windows integrated authentication for linked servers | ||
| Windows integrated authentication for availability group (AG) endpoints | Create and use certificate based endpoint authentication for availability groups. For more information, see Configure SQL Server availability group for high availability on Linux. | |
| Always Encrypted with secure enclaves | ||
| SQL Server on Linux deployments aren't FIPS compliant | ||
| Services | SQL Server Browser | The SQL Server Browser service isn't required on Linux because only a single default instance is supported per host. Unlike on Windows, there are no named instances to resolve, and the port is explicitly configured during setup. |
| SQL Server R services | SQL Server R is supported within SQL Server, but SQL Server R services as a separate package isn't supported. You can install Machine Learning Services on Linux for SQL Server 2019 and SQL Server 2022. |
|
| Analysis Services | ||
| Reporting Services | Configure Power BI Report Server catalog databases for SQL Server on Linux. Run SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on Windows, and host the catalog databases for SSRS on SQL Server on Linux deployments. |
Note
The latest SQL Server 2025 (17.x) features that depend on Azure Arc agent, including Microsoft Entra Authentication (previously known as Azure Active Directory authentication), Microsoft Purview, Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) for SQL Server, and Defender integration, are currently not supported for SQL Server deployed in containers. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc doesn't support SQL Server running in containers.
For a list of features supported by the editions of SQL Server on Windows, see:
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2017
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016