Then we’ll download and install SQL Server.īut first… if you’re using a Mac with the M1 chip, see How to Install SQL Server on an M1 Mac (ARM64). The way to do this is to run SQL Server on Docker. And because macOS is Unix based (and Linux is Unix based), you can run SQL Server for Linux on your Mac. Starting with SQL Server 2017, you can now install SQL Server directly on to a Linux machine. This is still a valid option depending on your requirements (here’s how to install SQL Server on a Mac with VirtualBox if you’d like to try that method). Prior to SQL Server 2017, if you wanted to run SQL Server on your Mac, you first had to create a virtual machine (using VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Bootcamp), then install Windows onto that VM, then finally SQL Server. And the best part is, you’ll have SQL Server running locally without needing any virtualization software.

Here I’ll show you how to get SQL Server up and running on your Mac in less than half an hour.

Visual studio for mac open sql database