Microsoft loves Linux, at least in enterprise. The company has been building bridges between the two worlds by bringing Linux-centric technologies to Windows/Azure and Microsoft technologies to Linux.

Last year, Microsoft shook the world by announcing SQL Server for Linux. That was a sea-change in Microsoft’s strategy, where they clearly demonstrated that they wanted to create an even playing field for Linux.

This week, Microsoft released the first release candidate of SQL Server 2017 with full support for Linux.

“SQL Server 2017 will bring with it support for the Linux OS and containers running on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Our goal is to enable SQL Server to run in modern IT infrastructure in any public or private cloud,” Tony Petrossian, Partner Group Program Manager, Database Systems Group at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

According to the release notes of SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2017 support for Linux includes the same high-availability solutions on Linux as Windows Server, including Always On availability groups integrated with Linux native clustering solutions like Pacemaker.

Some of the core features of SQL Server 2017 include the following:

• SQL Server on Linux Active Directory integration – With RC1, SQL Server on Linux supports Active Directory Authentication, which enables domain-joined clients on either Windows or Linux to authenticate to SQL Server using their domain credentials and the Kerberos protocol. Check out the getting started instructions.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt data – SQL Server on Linux can use TLS to encrypt data that is transmitted across a network between a client application and an instance of SQL Server. SQL Server on Linux supports the following TLS protocols: TLS 1.2, 1.1, and 1.0.
• Machine Learning Services enhancements – In RC1, we add more model management capabilities for R Services on Windows Server, including External Library Management. The new release also supports Native Scoring.
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) – In addition to the enhancements to SSAS from previous Community Technology Previews of SQL Server 2017, RC1 adds additional Dynamic Management Views, enabling dependency analysis and reporting.
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) on Linux – The preview of SQL Server Integration Services on Linux now adds support for any Unicode ODBC driver, if it follows ODBC specifications. (ANSI ODBC driver is not supported.)
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) on Windows Server – RC1 adds support for SSIS scale-out in highly available environments. Customers can now enable Always On for SSIS, setting up Windows Server failover clustering for the scale-out master.

Microsoft has also announced a new microsite for DevOps using SQL Server that serves as a platform for developers and development managers to learn how to integrate SQL Server in their DevOps tasks.