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Microsoft SQL Server + Studio on macOS ARM64

Introduction

This is a EXTREMELY LONG procedure from start to finish, so make sure you are able to dedicate 3-4 hours, depending on how familiar you are with stuff and how fast your Mac is, to go through them.

You may use your Mac during the process.

These are the step-by-step instructions for getting the Microsoft SQL Server and Studio on an ARM64 (aarch64) macOS device.

Supported versions:

  • SQL Server <= 22
  • SQL Management Studio:
    • 19 (tested - ✅)
    • 22 (tested - ❌)

It is highly recommended that you use a Windows x86 64-bit machine to natively run the MSSQL stack if possible to save time and effort. This solution should be a last resort.

Overview

  1. Install UTM
  2. Create Windows ARM64 virtual machine
    1. Install CrystalFetch
    2. Download Windows ARM64 iso image
  3. Install Windows
  4. Use install script from https://github.com/jimm98y/MSSQLEXPRESS-M1-Install to install SQL Server
  5. Configure SQL Server
  6. Install SQL Management Studio from https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/7/3/7738e337-ed99-40ea-b8ae-f639162c83c3/SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe
  7. Start SQL Management Studio

Install UTM

Installation

  • https://mac.getutm.app/
  • Click on Download button
  • Save the .dmg to a location on your Mac device. E.g. Downloads
  • After downloading, double click on UTM.dmg to mount the disk image
  • Drag and drop the UTM.app to Applications folder
  • Installation complete

What is UTM?

UTM is an emulator and virtual machine host/manager. The underlying technology is called QEMU, which is open-source and widely used in the industry as the emulation and virtualization backend.

Create a Windows ARM64 virtual machine in UTM (Part 1)

DO NOT START FROM THE MOUNTED DISK IMAGE.

  1. Start UTM by either from Spotlight search or from Applications folder
  2. Click Yes/Continue/Ok when the macOS security prompt appears
  3. You will be presented with the UTM window (screenshot, but empty) alt text
  4. Click on the plus icon at the top of the window
  5. Creation dialog appears
  6. Select Virtualize option
  7. Select Windows
  8. Click on Fetch latest Windows installer link

Using the CrystalFetch app

  1. Download, install and open the CrystalFetch app
  2. Keep default options as-is
  3. Select your preferred Language. E.g. English (United Kingdom) to avoid logging in with Microsoft account
  4. Select Windows 11 as the Edition
  5. Click on Download... button alt text

Create a Windows ARM64 virtual machine in UTM (Part 2)

  1. After CrystalFetch finishes downloading, go back to the UTM dialog
  2. Under Boot ISO Image, click on Browse... to select the downloaded ISO image alt text alt text
  3. Make sure Install drivers and SPICE tools is checked
  4. Click Continue
  5. Allocate memory to the VM, select at least 50% of Mac device memory. E.g. 8192 MiB on a 16 GB Mac
  6. Allocate CPU cores to the VM, select at least 50% of performance cores on Mac device. E.g. 4 Cores on a 10-core Mac (8 performance cores, 2 efficiency cores)
  7. Click Continue
  8. Storage size should be at least 80 GB
  9. Click Continue
  10. No need to configure Shared Directory
  11. Click Continue
  12. On Summary page, click Save alt text

Install Windows

  1. Boot up the created Windows virtual machine by clicking on the play button next to the entry in the list
  2. PAY ATTENTION, when you see the Press any key to boot from CD/DVD, press Enter or any key. This is only necessary for this step, ignore on future restarts. alt text
  3. Windows installer will now start booting. You should see the Windows loading animation.
  4. Once the installer is loaded, leave language settings as-is, click Next
  5. Select US as input method, or Canadian French or Canadian Multilingual Standard where applicable, click Next
  6. Select I don't have a product key link at the bottom
  7. Select Windows 11 Pro, click Next
  8. On EULA screen, Click Accept
  9. On Select Location to install screen, leave as-is, click Next
  10. Wait for the installation to be done.
  11. The virtual machine will automatically restart several times

Windows setup after installation

  1. You should now be looking at the (white) Windows setup screen
  2. Select region: Canada in this case, click Yes
  3. Select keyboard layout: US or Canadian, click Yes
  4. Select second keyboard layout: click Skip
  5. Windows setup should now start installing additional updates if applicable
  6. Create a local user account with name, username and password
  7. Setup should now start installing updates (again 🤡 because MSFT devs and product managers are mostly dumb-dumb, but not me). Will take a while depending on your internet connection.
  8. After which, it will restart several times again, as if it doesn’t want you to use the crappy software, then log in and you should be at the Desktop

Install drivers and tools

  1. Open Explorer (yellow folder icon on the Taskbar)
  2. On sidebar, select UTM Guest Tools drive alt text
  3. Double-click on the utm-guest-tools-<version-number> installation application
  4. On the installer window, click Next, I agree
  5. Wait for the installation to complete

Install MSSQL Server + Studio

MSSQL Server

For convenience, reopen this instruction website on the virtual machine browser (MS Edge)

  1. In the virtual machine, open a browser and open this link https://github.com/jimm98y/MSSQLEXPRESS-M1-Install/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
  2. After the zip file is downloaded, extract it
  3. Navigate into the extracted folder: e.g. MSSQLEXPRESS-M1-Install-main\MSSQLEXPRESS-M1-Install-main\src\Scripts
  4. Double-click on Sql2022Developer.bat script file
  5. On the Windows protected your PC popup, click More info link
  6. Click Run anyway
  7. Wait for the installation to complete (around 30 minutes) alt text
  8. After it finishes, start the Sql Server Configuration Manager to verify the SQL Server Services is running (screenshot below) alt text
  9. You can close the app, the services are running in the background.

MSSQL Studio

  1. Download MSSQL Studio 19 installer from here: https://download.microsoft.com/download/7/7/3/7738e337-ed99-40ea-b8ae-f639162c83c3/SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe
  2. Double-click to start the installer, will take longer than expected to start. This is because it is running through the architecture translation layer.
  3. You’re now seeing the setup window.
  4. Leave the default location and click on Install
  5. Wait for the installation to complete.
  6. Close the setup to finish.

Start MSSQL Studio 19

In the Windows start menu, there should ne MSSQL Management Studio 19 shortcut. Click on that to start. Will take a moment to start.

Leave the Connect to Server dialog fields as-is and click on Connect.

Done.