We’re happy to announce that SQL Server 2025 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) now includes preview support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, expanding our commitment to modern, secure, and flexible Linux-based deployments.
RHEL 10 Support in SQL Server 2025 RC1
You can now deploy SQL Server 2025 Preview on RHEL10 for your Dev/Test environments using the Enterprise Evaluation Edition, which is valid for 180 days. For your production workloads you could use SQL Server 2022 on RHEL 9 or Ubuntu 22.04.
Deploying SQL Server 2025 RC1 on RHEL10
You can follow the Quickstart: Install SQL Server and create a database on RHEL10 to install SQL Server and create a database on RHEL10. It walks you through everything—from preparing your system to installing and configuring SQL Server.
To explore the latest improvements in SQL Server 2025 RC1, check out What's New in SQL Server 2025 - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn. I was particularly interested in testing the new Half-precision float support in vector data type.
To do this, I deployed SQL Server RHEL10 (the tag is 2025-RC1-rhel-10) container on WSL2 and I already have Docker Desktop installed on my local machine to manage containers. I launched the SQL Server 2025 RC1 container, connected to it using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), and successfully tested the vector data type enhancement.
docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/rhel/server:2025-RC1-rhel-10
docker run -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" -e "MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD=passwordshouldbestrong" \
-e "MSSQL_AGENT_ENABLED=true" \
-p 14337:1433 --name sql2025RC1RHEL10 --hostname sql2025RC1RHEL10 \
-d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/rhel/server:2025-RC1-rhel-10SELECT @@VERSION
GO
CREATE DATABASE SQL2025onRHEL10
GO
USE SQL2025onRHEL10
GO
-- Step 0: Enable Preview Features
ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION
SET PREVIEW_FEATURES = ON;
GO
-- Step 1: Create a Table with a VECTOR(5, float16) Column
CREATE TABLE dbo.Articles
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
title NVARCHAR(100),
content NVARCHAR(MAX),
embedding VECTOR(5, float16)
);
-- Step 2: Insert Sample Data
INSERT INTO Articles (id, title, content, embedding)
VALUES
(1, 'Intro to AI', 'This article introduces AI concepts.', '[0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5]'),
(2, 'Deep Learning', 'Deep learning is a subset of ML.', '[0.2, 0.1, 0.4, 0.3, 0.6]'),
(3, 'Neural Networks', 'Neural networks are powerful models.', '[0.3, 0.3, 0.2, 0.5, 0.1]'),
(4, 'Machine Learning Basics', 'ML basics for beginners.', '[0.4, 0.5, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3]'),
(5, 'Advanced AI', 'Exploring advanced AI techniques.', '[0.5, 0.4, 0.6, 0.1, 0.2]');
-- Step 3: Perform a Vector Similarity Search Using VECTOR_DISTANCE function
DECLARE @v VECTOR(5, float16) = '[0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3]';
SELECT TOP (3)
id,
title,
VECTOR_DISTANCE('cosine', @v, embedding) AS distance
FROM dbo.Articles
ORDER BY distance;
-- Step 4: Optionally Create a Vector Index
CREATE VECTOR INDEX vec_idx ON Articles(embedding)
WITH (
metric = 'cosine',
type = 'diskANN'
);
-- Step 5: Perform a Vector Similarity Search
DECLARE @qv VECTOR(5, float16) = '[0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 0.3]';
SELECT
t.id,
t.title,
t.content,
s.distance
FROM
VECTOR_SEARCH(
table = Articles AS t,
column = embedding,
similar_to = @qv,
metric = 'cosine',
top_n = 3
) AS s
ORDER BY s.distance, t.title;
Conclusion
The addition of RHEL10 support in SQL Server 2025 Preview is a major milestone in delivering a modern, secure, and flexible data platform for Linux users. We encourage you explore these new capabilities and share your feedback to help us continue enhancing SQL Server for the Linux ecosystem.
You can share your feedback using any of the following methods:
- Email us at sqlpreviewpackage@microsoft.com with your thoughts and suggestions.
- Submit your ideas on Azure Ideas (Use the SQL Server on Linux Group on the left side of the page)
- Alternatively, you can open issues related to the preview packages Issues · microsoft/mssql-docker (github.com) on GitHub.
We hope you give SQL Server 2025 preview on RHEL10 a try - and we look forward to hearing what you think!
Microsoft