In 2017, Microsoft announced the SQL Server in the program Windows Containers Beta, allowing developers to connect to SQL Server instances from within the same container or outside of it. Benefits included ease of setup, maximizing instance density for development and testing purposes, and isolating and managing applications in a shared environment.
Today, Microsoft announced that it is suspending the program.
In a short suspension on its blog, Microsoft says that the SQL Server in Windows Containers Beta program has been suspended due to ecosystem challenges and "usage patterns." The latter suggests that the program simply did not have enough users to justify continued support. THE company she carefully formulated her statement to show that there are no plans to repeat the project in the near future.
The Redmond-based company suggests that users migrate to SQL Server on Linux Containers, which is already supported in production environments as opposed to Windows. It is important to note that SQL Server in Windows Containers never managed to "chase" the "beta" tag, so it was not intended for production environments. So this announcement will definitely annoy developers who have invested time in developing applications that use this feature or those who have used it in production environments.
Microsoft stated that SQL Server Express and Developer for Windows Containers Docker repositories will be deleted soon. The tags in these repositories will also be deleted and the Docker images will no longer be available for download.
