This GitHub action automatically installs a SQL server and sqlcmd on Windows and Linux.

On Windows, we install an Express edition of the container. On Linux, a Docker container is started. sqlcmd is actually preinstalled on all Windows images as well as Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04. Essentially, it only has an effect on Ubuntu 24.04.

• components: Specify the components you want to install. Can be sqlengine and sqlcmd. The list of components needs be a comma-separated list like sqlengine,sqlcmd. GitHub Actions does not support passing YAML lists to composite actions.
• force-encryption: When you request to install sqlengine, you can set this input to true in order to encrypt all connections to the SQL server. The action will generate a self-signed certificate for that. Default is false.
• sa-password: The sa password for the SQL instances. Default is bHuZH81%cGC6.
• version: Version of the SQL server you want to install (2017, 2020 or 2022).

name: Continuous Integration

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
  schedule:
    - cron: "30 8 * * 1"

jobs:
  test:
    name: Tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup MSSQL
        uses: rails-sqlserver/setup-mssql@v1
        with:
          components: sqlcmd,sqlengine
          force-encryption: true
          sa-password: "iamastrongpassword1234!"
          version: 2022

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License.

Inspiration for the action came from https://github.com/marketplace/actions/mssql-suite.