The following instructions assume a clean environment and show how to install PHP 7.3+, the Microsoft ODBC driver, the Apache web server, and the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server on Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and 20.04, RedHat 7 and 8, Debian 9 and 10, Suse 12 and 15, Alpine 3.11 and 3.12, and macOS 10.13, 10.14, and 10.15. These instructions advise installing the drivers using PECL, but you can also download the prebuilt binaries from the [Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server](https://github.com/Microsoft/msphpsql/releases) Github project page and install them following the instructions in [Loading the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/php/loading-the-php-sql-driver). For an explanation of extension loading and why we do not add the extensions to php.ini, see the section on [loading the drivers](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/php/loading-the-php-sql-driver#loading-the-driver-at-php-startup).
The following instructions install PHP 8.0 by default using `pecl install` if PHP 8.0 packages are available. You may need to run `pecl channel-update pecl.php.net` first. Note that some supported Linux distros default to PHP 7.1 or earlier, which is not supported for the latest version of the PHP drivers for SQL Server -- please see the notes at the beginning of each section to install PHP 7.4 or 7.3 instead.
Also included are instructions for installing the PHP FastCGI Process Manager, PHP-FPM, on Ubuntu. This is needed if using the nginx web server instead of Apache.
Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
Install the ODBC driver for Ubuntu by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
To configure nginx, you must edit the `/etc/nginx/sites-available/default` file. Add `index.php` to the list below the section that says `# Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP`:
```
# Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html index.php;
```
Next, modify the section following `# pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server` as follows:
Install the ODBC driver for Red Hat 7 or 8 by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
Install the ODBC driver for Debian by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
You may also need to generate the correct locale to get PHP output to display correctly in a browser. For example, for the en_US UTF-8 locale, run the following commands:
```
sudo su
sed -i 's/# en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8/g' /etc/locale.gen
If there is only one PHP version in the system, then the last step can be simplified to `phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv`. As with `locale-gen`, `phpenmod` is located in `/usr/sbin` so you may need to add this directory to your `$PATH`.
> In the following instructions, replace `<SuseVersion>` with your version of Suse - if you are using Suse Enterprise Linux 15, it will be SLE_15_SP1 or SLE_15_SP2. For Suse 12, use SLE_12_SP4 (or above if applicable). Not all versions of PHP are available for all versions of Suse Linux - please refer to `http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php` to see which versions of Suse have the default version PHP available, or check `http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/php:/` to see which other versions of PHP are available for which versions of Suse.
Install the ODBC driver for Suse by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
> If you get an error message saying `Connection to 'pecl.php.net:443' failed: Unable to find the socket transport "ssl"`, edit the pecl script at /usr/bin/pecl and remove the `-n` switch in the last line. This switch prevents PECL from loading ini files when PHP is called, which prevents the OpenSSL extension from loading.
> The default version of PHP is 7.3. Alternate versions of PHP may be available from other repositories for Alpine. You can instead compile PHP from source.
PHP packages for Alpine can be found in the `edge/community` repository. Please check [Enable Community Repository](https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Enable_Community_Repository) on their WIKI page. Add the following line to `/etc/apk/repositories`, replacing `<mirror>` with the URL of an Alpine repository mirror:
Install the ODBC driver for Alpine by following the instructions on [Install the Microsoft ODBC driver for SQL Server (Linux)](https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15).
PHP should now be in your path -- run `php -v` to verify that you are running the correct version of PHP. If PHP is not in your path or it is not the correct version, run the following:
The following commands append the required configuration to `httpd.conf`. Be sure to substitute the path returned by the preceding command in place of `/usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf`:
To test this sample script, create a file called testsql.php in your system's document root. This is `/var/www/html/` on Ubuntu, Debian, and Redhat, `/srv/www/htdocs` on SUSE, `/var/www/localhost/htdocs` on Alpine, or `/usr/local/var/www` on macOS. Copy the following script to it, replacing the server, database, username, and password as appropriate.
Point your browser to https://localhost/testsql.php (https://localhost:8080/testsql.php on macOS). You should now be able to connect to your SQL Server/Azure SQL database.