Now that we have two versions of MySQL up and running in our homelab, one being Turnkey Linux’s MariaDB MySQL and the other being helper-scripts.com’s MySQL, there might be some projects, apps or services that does not integrate with MySQL but rather need Microsoft’s SQL Server. For those cases, or for those software developers that need a staging environment database, today we will look at getting Microsoft SQL Server installed in our Proxmox. When we said Proxmox is awesome, we meant it: Yes, we can run Microsoft SQL Server inside our Linux based virtualisation OS with all the functionalities of running in a Windows Based OS.
It is possible to also run a Windows Server VM in Proxmox and then manually installing SQL Server that way, but again, the overhead is quite a lot. For those users that does not have a lot of spare overhead resources, like us, we prefer the most lightweight installation, and for that we are once again turning to the amazing helper-scripts.com.
Step 1: Get the install script
Again, we are going to use helper-scripts.com because of the ease of use and flexibility it provides. We again want to install an LXC container due to the negligible resource overhead that we need to get SQL Server installed. Go to https://helper-scripts.com and search for SQL Server. There should only be one result, an LXC instance. Select it as we are going to use that one. Read through the instructions, and note that the sa account will be set up and activated during installation. If this instance is going to face the web, it is highly recommended to get sa closed off after install and setup. But for now, we just need the install script:
bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/ct/sqlserver2022.sh)"
Step 2: Install SQL Server
Now that we have the script to install SQL Server, open your Proxmox instance interface in a new browser window and log in with your username and password as set up when installing it. Once logged in, in the left navigation pane, expand Datacenter and select the Proxmox node where we want to install MySQL on. In the middle navigation pane, click on 
to open the integrated shell in the main window. In the main window, paste the install command:
bash -c "$(wget -qLO - https://github.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/raw/main/ct/sqlserver2022.sh)"Once installation begins, we can navigate through the windows:
The first window will confirm that we are about to install a New SQL Server LXC Container. Yes, proceed please.
Next we will be prompted which SETTINGS we want to use. Default is fine for now. We can always change the resource values later, especially the disk size.
Next we need to select the disk we want to install this LXC on. This will only appear if you have more than one disk.
Installation of the LXC container will now commence. This will also get the correct SQL Server install files ready to be executed. Once the LXC has been set up, you will be prompted if you want to run the install files. Well, without running the install files, this LXC Container we just created is just a waste of space and resources as there is nothing running it yet, so yes, we want to install SQL Server please.
The first choice we will need to make is which edition of SQL Server we need to install. If you are installing SQL Server 2022, check out the official documentation on the differences in editions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2022?view=sql-server-ver16. For our homelab, Express will be perfect for most scenarios, so we can install that one. If you are a developer and need the full enterprise toolset, and are not going to run production databases on your homelab Proxmox, you can choose Developer edition.
Once you have selected the edition, you will be prompted for a password for the sa account. Please make sure the password is more than 8 characters. If you are not going to open this LXC Container to the general internet, you do not really need to switch off the sa account, otherwise please remember to create a new user once you log in (step 3) and disable sa. We might have a future article on SQL Server management, but for most home lab tasks, we should be fine with sa.
Once install completes, take note of the IP Address and port, with the port being 1433.
Step 3: Configure SQL Server
Once the install completes, we will need to configure this SQL Server. We do not have a PhpMyAdmin like we had in MySQL, but luckily there are other tools. We can download and install SQL Server Management Studio form the official Microsoft Website here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms Otherwise just do a quick Google search for ssms and you should find the latest version ready for install.
Once downloaded and installed, open SQL Server Management Studio, which will prompt you to connect to a database server. In the server field, add the IP address of the SQL Server LXC we installed, without the port number. In our case that is 192.168.1.20 (Remember to add an IP Address reservation in your router to ensure you always get the same IP Address for this LXC). For the username, we are going to use sa and the password will be the one selected during install in step 2. Click connect and you shall be connected!
Conclusion
We now have a plethora of database servers up and running in our Homelab. We can now use any one of these to host our databases, whether it is for our WordPress website or our Technitium DNS. We hope you are enjoying our Build your Homelab series and look forward to the next instalment, where we will learn how to change the resource allocations for our LXC containers and VMs inside our Proxmox installation.
