System requirements for the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server

Download PHP driver

This article lists the components that you must install on your system to access data in SQL Server or Azure SQL Database by using either the SQLSRV or PDO_SQLSRV driver.

For more information about support life cycles and requirements of the PHP drivers, see the support matrix. The SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV drivers in each release have the same PHP, operating system, architecture, thread-safety, and ODBC requirements.

How the driver stack fits together

A PHP application doesn't connect directly to the database server. Each layer must be compatible with the layer next to it:

SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV provide different PHP APIs over the same ODBC driver. Install both when your application uses both APIs. Installing one extension doesn't automatically install or enable the other.

The extensions can be installed independently. PDO_SQLSRV also requires PDO to load before PDO_SQLSRV.

Choose a compatible set

Before you download or build a driver, complete these checks:

1. Identify every PHP runtime that serves the application. A scheduled task, command-line worker, IIS site, Apache module, and PHP-FPM pool can use different PHP executables and configuration files.

2. Run the following command with each PHP executable:

   php -i | findstr /I "PHP Version Architecture Thread Safety extension_dir"
   

   On Linux or macOS, use:

   php -i | grep -E "PHP Version|Thread Safety|extension_dir"
   file "$(php -r 'echo PHP_BINARY;')"
   

   The file command reports the executable's architecture. If it reports a universal macOS executable, explicitly select the intended architecture, such as arch -arm64 php --version or arch -x86_64 php --version. Use the same architecture selection when building, loading, and testing the extensions.

3. Select a PHP driver release that supports the PHP minor version, operating system, and database target.

4. Select a supported Microsoft ODBC Driver version from the compatibility table in this article.

5. Match the extension file or PIE build to the PHP architecture and thread-safety mode. Don't copy an extension from another PHP installation unless all of these values match.

6. Configure and verify the CLI and web-server runtimes separately. A successful php -m command proves only that the CLI runtime loaded the extension.

PHP

Download PHP binaries from the PHP website. Choose a PHP version listed in PHP version support.

• Enable the driver file that matches your PHP version. For filenames, see Driver versions. Download the files from Download the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server. For configuration instructions, see Load the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server.

• Choose a web server and PHP integration method supported by PHP and your application framework. Follow the PHP installation documentation and your framework's deployment instructions to configure the web server to run PHP. Verify extension loading in the web-server runtime separately from the CLI.

Thread safety and architecture

The PHP build and extension file must agree on both values.

The CLI can use either a thread-safe or non-thread-safe PHP build. Select the extension by the reported value, not by assuming that every CLI build is non-thread-safe.

ODBC driver

Install a supported Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on the computer that runs PHP. Download the driver from Download ODBC Driver for SQL Server.

If you're downloading the Windows version of the driver on a 64-bit version of Windows, the ODBC 64-bit installer installs both 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC drivers. If you use a 32-bit version of Windows, use the ODBC x86 installer. On non-Windows platforms, only 64-bit versions of the driver are available.

The table includes historical combinations for upgrade planning. Use the current PHP driver release and its listed ODBC versions for a new installation. Compatibility with an older release doesn't extend its support lifecycle. Check both the PHP driver support lifecycle and PHP's supported versions.

A blank cell doesn't mean the PHP driver necessarily rejects that ODBC version. Individual features can require newer ODBC versions than the base combination.

If you're using the SQLSRV driver, sqlsrv_client_info returns information about which version of SQL Server Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server is being used by the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server. If you're using the PDO_SQLSRV driver, you can use PDO::getAttribute to discover the version.

SQL Server

For supported SQL Server versions, see Supported database versions.

Evaluate target support separately for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Synapse Analytics, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric, and Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric. Installation requirements are client-side requirements and don't establish that every authentication method, connection option, Transact-SQL (T-SQL) feature, or data type is available on every target. Use the support matrix and the target product's documentation for the scenario your application uses.

Operating systems

For supported operating systems, see Supported operating systems.

Driver versions

Each release of the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server ships SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV driver files in thread-safe and non-thread-safe variants. On Windows, each variant is also built for 32-bit and 64-bit PHP. Match the driver file to your PHP version, thread-safety mode, and architecture. To enable a driver file after you download it, see Loading the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server.

On Linux and macOS, install the drivers with PIE, the PHP Installer for Extensions, as described in the Linux and macOS installation instructions. PIE replaces the deprecated PHP Extension Community Library (PECL) package system and names the installed extension sqlsrv.so or pdo_sqlsrv.so. The following tables list the filenames for the prebuilt binary packages that you manually download from the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server releases page.

The following tables list the files in the 5.13 release packages. In filenames, ts and TS mean thread-safe, and nts and NTS mean non-thread-safe.

Windows driver files

The Windows_5.13.xRTW.zip package contains these files.

Use a non-thread-safe driver file with a non-thread-safe PHP build, and a thread-safe driver file with a thread-safe PHP build. The command-line interface (CLI) can use either build. To confirm which build you have, run php -i and check the Thread Safety value.

Linux and macOS driver files

The Linux_5.13.xRTW.tar.gz and Mac_5.13.xRTW.tar.gz packages contain these files. The Linux archive contains x64 binaries, and the macOS archive contains Arm64 binaries.

Prebuilt files must also match your operating system's native libraries. The Linux 5.13.3 binaries require glibc 2.38 and later versions and a C++ runtime that provides GLIBCXX_3.4.32. The macOS 5.13.3 binaries declare macOS 26 as their minimum deployment target. These binary requirements are separate from operating-system support for source builds.

Use PIE when the archive's architecture or native-library requirements don't match your PHP installation. PIE builds for the installed PHP and native libraries. Don't replace system libraries manually to load a prebuilt extension.

Copy each file you need into your PHP extension directory. You can keep the package filename and write extension=SQLSRV_8.4_NTS.so, or rename the file to sqlsrv.so and write the short form extension=sqlsrv. Apply the same naming choice to PDO_SQLSRV. To find the extension directory, run php -i | grep extension_dir. Follow Load the drivers on Linux and macOS to enable the extensions in the correct configuration file and load PHP Data Objects (PDO) before PDO_SQLSRV.

Earlier releases

For the driver files included in releases before 5.13, download the package for that release from the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server releases page and list its contents. Releases before 5.12 publish a separate package for each operating system and PHP version instead of a single package per platform.

Verify the selected environment

Run these checks after installing the PHP extensions and ODBC driver, but before configuring a web server:

php --version
php --ini
php --ri sqlsrv
php --ri pdo_sqlsrv

The last two commands must display separate module-information sections. If either command reports that the extension isn't present, finish the platform installation and loading procedure before testing a database connection.

Create verify-php-drivers.php to check both PHP APIs without requiring credentials:

<?php
$failures = [];

if (!extension_loaded('sqlsrv') || !function_exists('sqlsrv_connect')) {
    $failures[] = 'SQLSRV is not loaded.';
}

if (!extension_loaded('pdo_sqlsrv') || !in_array('sqlsrv', PDO::getAvailableDrivers(), true)) {
    $failures[] = 'PDO_SQLSRV is not loaded.';
}

echo $failures === []
    ? "SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV are loaded." . PHP_EOL
    : implode(PHP_EOL, $failures) . PHP_EOL;

exit($failures === [] ? 0 : 1);

Run it with the PHP executable that serves the application:

php verify-php-drivers.php

Expected output:

SQLSRV and PDO_SQLSRV are loaded.

This check verifies extension loading. It doesn't verify ODBC connectivity, authentication, certificate trust, network access, or database permissions.

Delete verify-php-drivers.php after you record the result.

Diagnose requirement failures

Related content

• Getting Started with the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
• Programming Guide for the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server
• SQLSRV Driver API Reference
• PDO_SQLSRV Driver Reference