---
# source: blog-content: posts/en/dsm-9-0-mssql-support.md
# route:  /en/insights/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/
title: DSM 9.0 – MS SQL as a Service
date: 2025-06-26
author: yannick-gerber
locale: en
summary: VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 brought VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) 9.0 with it. Alongside many improvements, the largest new feature is support for Microsoft SQL Server (tech preview).
capabilities: [cloud, virtualization]
vendors: [vmware]
hero: /blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/hero.webp
migrated: 2026-08-24
translationReviewed: false
draft: false
---

The release of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 brought VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) 9.0 with it. Alongside a lot of improvements, the biggest new feature is support for Microsoft SQL Server (tech preview).

## DSM in brief

Data Services Manager provisions databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and now MS SQL on a vSphere cluster. Installing DSM is straightforward; all it needs is a vSphere cluster.

We covered the DSM installation in an earlier post: [https://soultec.ch/vmware-data-services-manager/](https://soultec.ch/vmware-data-services-manager/)

What DSM gives you, in short:

-   **Database deployment**, highly available with an HA setup and across several vSphere clusters (a 3-node PostgreSQL cluster across two vSphere clusters, for example)
-   **Database monitoring**, alerting included
-   **Database lifecycle** (version upgrades)
-   **Support for PostgreSQL and MySQL specific problems**: VMware is there not only for provisioning issues but for database-specific errors too
-   **LDAPS integration**
-   **Certificate management**
-   **Simple database cloning** (cloning a production database, for example)
-   **Database encryption** through storage policies or VM encryption
-   **Integration into VCF Operations and Automation**
-   **A Kubernetes operator**
-   **Terraform support** through the Kubernetes Terraform provider

## MS SQL as a service

DSM 9.0 provisions MS SQL instances as well as individual databases. DSM MS SQL is based on SQL Server for Linux with Ubuntu container images.

## Installation

First, the official MS SQL Server Docker image has to be added to DSM, by connecting a Microsoft image (container) registry.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/01.webp)

-   Name: mssql
-   Endpoint: mcr.microsoft.com
-   Repository: mssql
-   Auth type: none
-   Data services: SQL Server

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/02.webp)

Check the connection status to confirm the registry is reachable.  
![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/03.webp)

Now the SQL Server data service can be enabled.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/04.webp)

The container image, based on 2022-CU16-ubuntu-22.04, is shown here.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/05.webp)

## Provisioning MS SQL from the DSM UI

Besides the DSM UI there is also a Kubernetes operator and VCF Automation.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/06.webp)

Below, an MS SQL instance (standard) is provisioned.  
![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/07.webp)

In the tech preview only single server is supported. AlwaysOn cluster support is planned.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/08.webp)

Next you pick the infrastructure policy and storage policy. Depending on how MS SQL is licensed, you can define an infrastructure policy so that MS SQL workloads only run on a particular vSphere cluster, which matters for MS SQL licensing.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/09.webp)

Once provisioning succeeds, the instance can be reached with SSMS or another tool. Copy the admin password or the connection string. Careful: choosing "copy connection string" gives you escaped characters. For access with SSMS you need the unescaped special characters, or the admin password.

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/10.webp)

Access with SSMS:

![](/blog-assets/dsm-9-0-mssql-support/11.webp)

## Optional configuration

The MS SQL instance can optionally be integrated with Active Directory.

## Further reading

-   [https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-infrastructure/data-services-manager](https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-infrastructure/data-services-manager)
-   [https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalog/lab/13929](https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalog/lab/13929)