Drew Furgiuele shows how to configure SQL Server on Linux to use Windows authentication:
In the following post, we’ll walk through joining a Linux SQL Server on Unbuntu to an Active Directory domain, and here’s the steps we’re going to take:
- Installing the required software and services to enable a Linux host to talk to and join an Active Directory Domain,
- Configuring the Linux host’s network configuration to talk to the Domain Controller(s),
- Setting up Samba, Kerberos, Winbind, and the System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) to properly talk to and digest authentication tokens from Active Directory, and
- Creating a Kerberos Keytab file for the SQL Server service to run as a domain service account.
Seems like a lot, doesn’t it? If you’re new to Linux, a lot of this configuration can seem a little daunting and a lot tedious, but as we walk through it, I’ll stop and talk a little bit about each step and what it does.
Active Directory integration was a critical piece of functionality for SQL Server on Linux. There are still some odd edge cases (like weirdness when going cross-domain) but for the normal scenario, it works fine once you’ve configured Linux correctly.