Setting up an environment with Liquibase & MSSQL using Docker

Sometimes, it’s handy to be able to set up a quick environment for tests and also to take our Liquibase University certification courses. Here’s how to use Docker to create an MSSQL container.

1. Install the version of Liquibase you’d like to use.

2. Run MSSQL via Docker.

Use these instructions from Docker Hub. The instructions are not version specific.

Run: docker run -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=yourStrongPassword1$' -p 1433:1433 -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2017-CU8-ubuntu
Note, this will run with the tag 2017-CU8-ubuntu

3. Connect the database.

You can use SQLPlus or a SQL Browser. We used DBeaver. See the connection configuration below. The password will be what you specified in the -e SA_PASSWORD=yourStrongPassword1$ on docker image start in the previous section. From the above example, it would be: yourStrongPassword1$

4. Prepare SQLServer with database/schemas/objects.

Now that we have a Docker container that is running MS SQLSERVER, we want to have a database with schemas to run Liquibase against. Or you can continue by using the default master db ; dbo schema.

5. Configure the Liquibase project.

You can use any Liquibase project you want. I use one I have committed to source:

Make sure you are in the root of project folder (in this case, ronak_lb_projects)
cd ronak_lb_projects/mssql
verify liquibase.properties file has URL and passwords correct, mine looked like this:

# Enter the path for your changelog file.
changeLogFile=changelog.sql

# Enter the URL of the source database
url=jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;database=master;

# Enter the username for your source database.
username: SA
password: 'yourStrongPassword1$'

driver=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
classpath: ../drivers/mssql-jdbc-8.2.2.jre8.jar

#### Target Database Information ####
## The target database is the database you want to use to compare to your source database.
logLevel: ERROR

You can test your configuration by running the liquibase updateSQL command.

liquibase --username=SA --password='yourStrongPassword1$' updateSQL

Destroy the Docker image

Find your container by listing it:

docker container ls -a

This command will return something like the following:

CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                         COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                  PORTS                    NAMES
4d5674c2da35        mssql                      "docker-entrypoint.s…"   2 days ago          Up 2 days               0.0.0.0:5432->5432/tcp   some-sqlserver

Use the container ID to delete the image.

docker stop <containerid>
docker container rm <containerid>