SQL Configuration step issue in Ubuntu Instance

Hi Pratik ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

You can follow below troubleshooting steps-
1.Check if SQL Server Installed Correctly-
dpkg -l | grep mssql-server

2.Check Service Status
systemctl status mssql-server
If its not running :
sudo systemctl start mssql-server
sudo systemctl enable mssql-server

3.Connect to SQL Server
Install the SQL command-line tools:
sudo apt install -y mssql-tools unixodbc-dev

Then connect:
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd -S localhost -U SA -P 'YourPassword'
If the configuration step fails repeatedly, you can reset and re-run:
sudo systemctl stop mssql-server sudo rm -rf /var/opt/mssql/* sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf setup.

You can also refer troubleshooting guides-
https://dori-uw-1.kuma-moon.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-troubleshooting-guide?view=sql-server-ver17#connection
https://www.sqlshack.com/sql-server-installation-troubleshooting-on-ubuntu/

I hope this helps!
Let me know how did that go for you.
Thank You

Here’s a polished version of your text with corrected grammar and improved clarity:

Hi Shruti,

Thank you for your comment. As per your recommendation, I have checked all the steps, and they worked. However, I have a concern: in the first step, when I start configuring mssql-server for the first time, it sometimes takes a long time to configure or even hangs at that step. Then, suddenly, I get a pop-up with the error message below, and I have no idea why it takes so long at times, while other times it is quick.

We are using a pre-installed SQL Server instance. Instance Information:

• AMI: Ubuntu_22.04-x86_64-SQL_2022_Standard-2025.08.28
• Location: amazon/Ubuntu_22.04-x86_64-SQL_2022_Standard-2025.08.28

Error Message:

Broadcast message from root@ip-* (Thu 2025-12-04 05:03:42 UTC):

The system is going down for reboot at Thu 2025-12-04 05:04:42 UTC!

Session terminated, killing shell...  Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py
  Function: _try_wait
  Line number: 1917
    Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py
    Function: _wait
    Line number: 1959
      Filename: /usr/lib/python3.10/subprocess.py
      Function: wait
      Line number: 1209
 ...killed.
Terminated

Hangup 

Would you like me to make this more formal and professional for email communication, or keep it conversational for internal chat?

Hi Pratik,

Thank you for sharing the error details.
The instance broadcasted a system-wide reboot “The system is going down for reboot…” which forcibly terminated your interactive Python process, hence the subprocess.py … killed / Hangup).
This usually happens due to unattended upgrades.

According to the documentation, Ubuntu will apply security updates automatically, without user interaction. This is done via the unattended-upgrades package, which is installed by default.
If for some reason the package is not present, it can be installed with the following command-
sudo apt install unattended-upgrades

Refer- https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/how-to/software/automatic-updates/
For more information on Automatic Security Updates, please refer-
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AutomaticSecurityUpdates
This will help you get some clarity on the issue.

Thank You. Let me know if that helps!