Docker Sail with MSSQL and PDO_SQLSRV

This guide walks you through setting up a Laravel environment using Docker Sail with MSSQL support via sqlsrv and pdo_sqlsrv PHP 8.4 extensions.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Composer

Setting Up Laravel with Sail

1. Create a new Laravel project:

   composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
   cd example-app

2. Require Laravel Sail:

   composer require laravel/sail --dev

3. Publish Sail’s Docker configuration:

   php artisan sail:publish

Configuring Docker for MSSQL Support

Navigate to the docker/8.4 directory and open the Dockerfile. Replace its contents with the following:

FROM ubuntu:24.04

LABEL maintainer="Taylor Otwell"

ARG WWWGROUP
ARG NODE_VERSION=22
ARG MYSQL_CLIENT="mysql-client"
ARG POSTGRES_VERSION=17

WORKDIR /var/www/html

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
ENV TZ=UTC
ENV SUPERVISOR_PHP_COMMAND="/usr/bin/php -d variables_order=EGPCS /var/www/html/artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80"
ENV SUPERVISOR_PHP_USER="sail"

RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone

RUN echo "Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth 0;" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom && \
    echo "Acquire::http::No-Cache true;" >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom && \
    echo "Acquire::BrokenProxy true;" >> /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99custom

RUN apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y \
    && mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings \
    && apt-get install -y gnupg gosu curl ca-certificates zip unzip git supervisor sqlite3 libcap2-bin libpng-dev python3 dnsutils librsvg2-bin fswatch ffmpeg nano \
    && curl -sS 'https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xb8dc7e53946656efbce4c1dd71daeaab4ad4cab6' | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/ppa_ondrej_php.gpg > /dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/ppa_ondrej_php.gpg] https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu noble main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ppa_ondrej_php.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y php8.4-cli php8.4-dev \
       php8.4-pgsql php8.4-sqlite3 php8.4-gd \
       php8.4-curl php8.4-mongodb \
       php8.4-imap php8.4-mysql php8.4-mbstring \
       php8.4-xml php8.4-zip php8.4-bcmath php8.4-soap \
       php8.4-intl php8.4-readline \
       php8.4-ldap \
       php8.4-msgpack php8.4-igbinary php8.4-redis php8.4-swoole \
       php8.4-memcached php8.4-pcov php8.4-imagick php8.4-xdebug \
    && curl -sLS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/bin/ --filename=composer \
    && curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource-repo.gpg.key | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/nodesource.gpg] https://deb.nodesource.com/node_$NODE_VERSION.x nodistro main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y nodejs \
    && npm install -g npm pnpm bun \
    && curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/yarn.gpg >/dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/yarn.gpg] https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list \
    && curl -sS https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | gpg --dearmor | tee /etc/apt/keyrings/pgdg.gpg >/dev/null \
    && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/pgdg.gpg] http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt noble-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y yarn $MYSQL_CLIENT postgresql-client-$POSTGRES_VERSION \
    && apt-get -y autoremove \
    && apt-get clean \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/*

# Install ODBC dependencies for SQL Server
RUN apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y unixodbc-dev gcc g++ make libgssapi-krb5-2

# Install SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV extensions
RUN pecl install sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv \
    && echo "extension=sqlsrv.so" > /etc/php/8.4/mods-available/sqlsrv.ini \
    && echo "extension=pdo_sqlsrv.so" > /etc/php/8.4/mods-available/pdo_sqlsrv.ini \
    && phpenmod sqlsrv pdo_sqlsrv

RUN setcap "cap_net_bind_service=+ep" /usr/bin/php8.4

RUN userdel -r ubuntu
RUN groupadd --force -g $WWWGROUP sail
RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash --no-user-group -g $WWWGROUP -u 1337 sail

COPY start-container /usr/local/bin/start-container
COPY supervisord.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/supervisord.conf
COPY php.ini /etc/php/8.4/cli/conf.d/99-sail.ini
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start-container

EXPOSE 80/tcp

ENTRYPOINT ["start-container"]

Running the Docker Environment

To build and run the Docker containers, execute the following commands:

docker-compose build --no-cache
sail up -d

Additional Resources

• Laravel Sail Documentation