Running MSSQL Server in docker for development

MSSQL in docker

Assuming docker and docker-compose are already installed in the machine or else follow the instruction here, including the prerequisites.

To run mssql, preferably create a directory and inside it create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content.

version: "3"

services:
  mssql:
    image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest
    volumes:
      - mssql:/var/opt/mssql
    environment:
      - ACCEPT_EULA=Y
      - SA_PASSWORD=yourStrong(!)Password
    ports:
      - "1433:1433"
volumes:
  mssql:

Here, we are using docker-compose for simplicity and mssql server 2019 latest image with a volume to persist storage. From the terminal run docker-compose up or docker-compose up -d for running it in the background. The SQL Server should be up and running. Now, if you want, you can add a connection and interact with the database in VS Code using extension SQL Server (mssql).