How to run SQL Server 2025 on Docker in Windows Server 2025

Problem

When using SQL Server 2025 with Docker, Windows Server 2025 or an earlier version is not supported out of the box. This is because the Docker Desktop can’t be installed on Windows Server by default. Moreover, the SQL Server Docker images based on Windows are not actively maintained. Let’s see how this can be done.

Solution

We can enable the nested virtualization advanced setting when we launch a Windows Server 2025 instance on Amazon EC2. Then, we install the Docker Desktop. Further, nested virtualization is the support for second level virtualization on an EC2 instance, which itself is a virtual machine.

In this article I explain how to run SQL Server 2025 on Docker in Windows Server 2025 running on Amazon EC2. Further, we can use the Linux based Docker image for SQL Server 2025 even on Windows Server.

Setting the Environment

We need to set up the following environment:

Launching a Windows Server 2025 on Amazon EC2

Login to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Management Console and select the EC2 service link. Navigate to Instances table and click Launch Instances. Provide an instance name and click on Windows under Quick Start to launch a Windows Server. Select the Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Base AMI.

Select Windows Server 2025 Base image

Select Instance Type as m8i.large, a general-purpose 8th generation Intel-based EC2 instance that supports nested virtualization, allowing users to run hypervisors like Hyper-V directly.

Select Instance type as m8i.large

Next, select a Key pair for login or create a new one. We’ll need this to connect to the Windows Server from a local machine.

Select Key pair for login

Click Edit for Network settings. Select a VPC, and a Subnet; you may need to create a new VPC/Subnet if not already. Set Auto-assign public IP to Enable so that a public IP address is automatically assigned to the instance for connecting directly from a local machine.

Network settings: Select a VPC, a subnet, and auto-assign IP

Select an existing security group or create a new one; it should allow Inbound/Outbound traffic to be able to connect to an SQL Server running on the Windows Server. Configure 60 GB of storage.

Configure storage

Expand Advanced details, and select Enabled for Nested virtualization.

Enable nested virtualization

Scroll down and click Launch Instance.

Launch instance

A new instance should be provisioned shortly thereafter. Verify that Nested virtualization is Enabled for the new instance because without it we can’t run Docker on it.

Esure nested virtualization

Connecting to the Windows Server 2025

To connect to the Windows Server, click Connect in the Instances table with the checkbox for the instance selected. However, the Status check should be 3/3 checks passed, and not Initializing or other. This is because even though the Instance state may be Running, we can’t connect to it until it has initialized completely.

Connect button

Select RDP Client as the connection method.

Select RDP Client tab

With Connection Type as Connect using RDP client, click Download remote desktop file. This downloads a Remote Desktop Connection (.rdp) file that we use to connect to Windows Server.

Download .rdp file

However, before we can connect, we need to obtain the password for connecting. For this, click Get password.

Get password

Click Upload private key file.

Upload private key

Upload the Key pair .pem file that you configured before launching the instance from your local machine. Then, click Decrypt password.

Decrypt password

Copy the password it decrypts and lists.

Copy password

Right-click the RDP file, and select Connect.

RDP File > Connect

Click Connect in the Remote Desktop Connection dialog. For authentication, the user is Administrator. Copy and paste the password in the Password field and click OK. Click Yes in the dialog regarding overlooking a security certificate warning in order to connect. It starts to configure a remote session.

Establishing Remote Desktop Connection

Once connected, it displays a PowerShell prompt to the Windows Server.

Verifying Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service

We can enable the Hyper-V role and run Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL2) on the Windows Server EC2 instance owing to the nested virtualization we enabled. Let’s ensure that the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service is running with the following command.

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-Service vmms
Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  vmms               Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management

Indeed, it is Running.

Installing Docker Desktop on Windows Server 2025

Run the following command to download the Docker Desktop installer.

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://desktop.docker.com/win/main/amd64/Docker%20Desktop%20Installer.exe" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\DockerInstaller.exe"

Thereafter, let’s run the installer with the following command:

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Start-Process "$env:TEMP\DockerInstaller.exe" -ArgumentList "install", "--quiet", "--accept-license" -Wait

Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Core Components

We need to set up the core components for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). To do this, run this command.

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> wsl --install --no-distribution
Downloading: Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.6.3
Installing: Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.6.3
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.6.3 has been installed.
The operation completed successfully.
The operation completed successfully.

Then, we need to restart the Windows Server instance. Navigate to the AWS Management Console, select the Windows Server EC2 instance, and click Reboot instance.

Reboot Instance

Click Reboot in the dialog shown.

Reboot

When the Status check shows all 3/3 checks passed, the Windows Server has been rebooted successfully.

Instance running and rebooted

This command and the subsequent restart do three things:

  1. Turns on the Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux and VirtualMachinePlatform features in Windows.
  2. Downloads and installs the latest version of the Linux kernel.
  3. Configures your system to use the WSL 2 architecture as default.

We have completed the setup we need to run Linux based Docker containers on Windows Server 2025.

Verifying Docker

Let’s verify the Docker version.

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker version
Client:
 Version:           29.3.1
 API version:       1.54
 Go version:        go1.25.8
 Git commit:        c2be9cc
 Built:             Wed Mar 25 16:16:33 2026
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

At this point we should be able to launch Docker Desktop.

Docker Desktop

Running a Docker Container for SQL Server 2025

Let’s run a Docker container for SQL Server 2025. To do this, run the following docker run command in PowerShell.

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
docker run -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" `
    -e "MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD=YourStrongPassword123!" `
    -p 1433:1433 `
    --name mssql2025 `
    -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest

This downloads the latest Docker image for SQL Server and runs a Docker container created from this image.

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker run -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" `
>>    -e "MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD=YourStrongPassword123!" `
>>    -p 1433:1433 `
>>    --name mssql2025 `
>>    -d mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest
Unable to find image 'mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest' locally
2025-latest: Pulling from mssql/server
67e5582d1d96: Pull complete
901cdc4e17f1: Pull complete
2d1cbbf6c62a: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:ca62ad2d75975074cbc9ac39a1329cd88af9cd3ea2ffb59d6302579a97cf32f4
Status: Downloaded newer image for mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest
D472a95814bc473d1a6e0064e970e0df3822457d1f7b5b91bc89b7054dd3dba4

It’s best to run this command in PowerShell because it provides color highlighting and formatting.

Run command in powershell

Listing Docker Container

Then, we can list the running Docker containers with the docker ps command:

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS         PORTS                                         NAMES
d472a95814bc   mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest   "/opt/mssql/bin/laun…"   12 seconds ago   Up 9 seconds   0.0.0.0:1433->1433/tcp, [::]:1433->1433/tcp   mssql2025

Again, it’s best to run this command in PowerShell.

List containers in powershell

Verifying SQL Server within Docker Container

Furthermore, we should run a docker exec command to ensure we can connect to the SQL Server within the container.

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker exec -it mssql2025 /opt/mssql-tools18/bin/sqlcmd `
>>    -S localhost -U sa -P "YourStrongPassword123!" -C -Q "SELECT @@VERSION"
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft SQL Server 2025 (RTM-CU3) (KB5077896) - 17.0.4025.3 (X64)
        Feb 25 2026 20:54:27
        Copyright (C) 2025 Microsoft Corporation
        Enterprise Developer Edition (64-bit) on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS) <X64>
(1 rows affected)

Exploring Docker Desktop

We can use Docker Desktop to run a Kubernetes cluster for SQL Server as well. The Images tab lists the latest Docker image for SQL Server.

Docker Image in Desktop

Turning Off Windows Firewall

Turn off the Windows firewall on the Windows Server with this command.

--MSSQLTips.com (PowerShell) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Public,Private -Enabled False

Then, we can connect to the Windows Server and the SQL Server running in Docker on it.

Obtaining Connection Parameters for SQL Server

We need the connection parameters to connect to SQL Server. Use the sa password, and port 1433 that we set in the docker run command. We need one more connection parameter, the public IP address, or the public DNS of the Windows Server instance. Navigate to the Details tab for the Windows Server instance and copy the Public DNS.

Copy Public DNS

Alternatively, we can copy the Public Ipv4 address.

Copy Public IPv4 address

Connecting to SQL Server with SQL Server Management Studio

Launch SQL Server Management Studio, and select File > Connect Object Explorer …

File > Connect Object Explorer

Provide/select the connection details in the Connect window:

  • Server Name: The Public DNS, or Public IPv4 address
  • Authentication: SQL Server Authentication
  • User Name: sa
  • Password:
  • Database Name: master
  • Encrypt: Optional
  • Trust Server Certificate

Click Connect.

Connect window

It adds a connection to the SQL Server running on Docker.

New connection added in SQL Server Management Studio

Running an Example Query

Let’s run an example SQL query on the SQL Server.

Right-click tempdb, and click New Query.

tempdb>New Query

Copy and paste the following script in the query editor:

--MSSQLTips.com (T-SQL) 
CREATE TABLE Employee (empid INT NOT NULL IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, lname VARCHAR(35), fname VARCHAR(35), dept INT, age INT, since INT, INDEX idx1(dept,age,lname) );
INSERT INTO Employee(lname,fname,dept,age,since) VALUES ('abbot','john',1,26,2020), ('smith','jon',30,45,2017), ('branch','bob',4,34,2019), ('smith','bob',15,55,2018), ('carlyle','joe',10,35,2021);
SELECT * FROM Employee;

Click Execute to run the query.

Execute script

We can install AdventureWorks sample databases with the procedure in article Install SQL Server AdventureWorks Database in Docker or Kubernetes. Run a query on an AdventureWorks table.

--MSSQLTips.com (T-SQL)
SELECT * FROM Production.ProductInventory WHERE ProductId=2;

It lists the results.

AdventureWorks query

Stopping and Restarting Docker Container

We can stop the Docker container when we are not using it. We do this with the docker stop command.

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker stop mssql2025
Mssql2025

Then, it lists the container as Exited with the docker ps –a command.

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD)
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps -a
--MSSQLTips.com (CMD)
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS
           PORTS     NAMES
d472a95814bc   mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest   "/opt/mssql/bin/laun…"   33 minutes ago   Exited (137) 8 seconds ago             mssql2025

We can start a stopped container with the docker start command and relist running containers:

--MSSQLTips.com (CMD) 
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker start mssql2025
mssql2025
PS C:\Windows\system32> docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS         PORTS                                         NAMES
d472a95814bc   mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2025-latest   "/opt/mssql/bin/laun…"   33 minutes ago   Up 5 seconds   0.0.0.0:1433->1433/tcp, [::]:1433->1433/tcp   mssql2025

Stopping Windows Server Instance

To stop the Windows Server instance, select Stop Instance.

Stop Windows Server instance

Summary

In this article, we showed how to run SQL Server 2025 on Docker Desktop that is installed on a Windows Server 2025 instance running on AWS EC2. Notably, running Docker Desktop on Windows Server is not supported by default. However, we enable one nested virtualization feature on a Windows Server EC2 instance. Nested virtualization is available on 8th-generation Intel-based instances (C8i, M8i, and R8i and their Flex variants). Then, we install Docker Desktop on the Windows Server, and run a Docker container for SQL Server 2025. We connect to the SQL Server with SQL Server Management Studio from a local machine.

Next Steps

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