Microsoft’s SQL Server Management Studio is a Windows-only product, meaning developers and admins who preferred other operating systems had to find alternate tools, until now with the preview release of SQL Operations Studio.
Microsoft continues its trend of embracing alternate, non-Windows, platforms under CEO Natya Sadella. While it’s not news Microsoft has been working to bring its database product SQL Server to Linux since early last year developers who used Linux or Macintosh hardware running OS X had to resort to remote desktop connections into a Windows machine, or find alternate products such as JetBrain’s DataGrip, to execute database queries and manage databases directly from their own desktop.
{loadposition david08}This now changes with Microsoft’s release in preview of SQL Operations Studio. The name is an interesting choice, omitting “Server”, suggesting it may, in time, be useful for non-Microsoft database platforms also. For now, SQL Operations Studio exists for Windows, Linux and OS X and is available for download.
Or, if you’re keen, you can even build your own version straight from the GitHub repository because it’s also an open source product, built on top of Visual Studio Code. The license states Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) grants you a non-exclusive, perpetual,royalty-free right to use, copy, and modify the software code provided by us ("Software Code"). You may not sublicense the Software Code or any use of it (except to your affiliates and to vendors to perform work on your behalf)through distribution, network access, service agreement, lease, rental, or otherwise.
Once installed, it’s an easy task to connect to Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Server, using the regular connection details - server name, username and password, database name - and perform routine database operations.
Here’s where the ‘operations’ in the name comes in; this isn’t simply a query management tool for developers; it’s also intended for those in infrastructure teams who are not database professionals but yet must perform regular database server administration tasks, providing prescriptive features and version controlled-scripting support whether bash, PowerShell, or something else.
