Microsoft makes it quite easy to create a server instance, we just need to copy the appropriate run command from the docker hub website. I am selecting 2019 here as it is closest to what Azure SQL databases uses as of publishing time of this post. To download the image, we need to open a terminal and download it with the pull command: sudo docker pull /mssql/server:2019-latest You can choose between SQL Server 2017, 20, with the latter one being preview (as of publishing time of this post). Install SQL ServerĪfter installing the Docker desktop client, head over to the docker hub of Microsoft’s SQL Server. Install the app by opening the disk image and follow the instructions. Just head over to the Docker website and download the appropriate version. Obviously, the first step is to download Docker and install it on your Mac. Luckily, there is a not so complicated solution using a Docker container – provided by Microsoft themselves.

Microsoft’s SQL Server cannot be installed directly on macOS, like on Windows machines.

Download sql server for mac os