Can I disable the spyware in SQL Server?

Question

There are two titles for the spyware in SQL Server,

• Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)
• Telemetry

I'm wondering how I disable them. You can see them referenced here,

My SQL Server says in their new license_Eval_Linux.txt

We collect data about how you interact with this software. This includes data about the performance of the services, any problems you experience with them, and the features you use. This also includes data about your device and the network you use to connect to our services, including IP address, device identifiers, regional and language settings. It includes information about the operating systems and other software installed on your device, including product keys. By using this software, you consent to Microsoft’s collection of usage and performance data related to your use of the software.

The text in the new license_Std_Linux.txt reads,

IMPORTANT NOTICE: AUTOMATIC UPDATES TO PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF SQL SERVER. If this software is installed on servers or devices running any supported editions of SQL Server prior to SQL Server 2017 (or components of any of them) this software will automatically update and replace certain files or features within those editions with files from this software. This feature cannot be switched off. Removal of these files may cause errors in the software and the original files may not be recoverable. By installing this software on a server or device that is running such editions you consent to these updates in all such editions and copies of SQL Server (including components of any of them) running on that server or device.

The software enables Microsoft to collect telemetry by default. You may turn off telemetry at the Server and client levels by following the instructions at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=733886. There are separate controls to turn off telemetry at the Server level and the client level.  If you turn off telemetry at the Server level only, Microsoft will collect telemetry through the client level unless you also turn off telemetry at the client level.

Older versions of v.Next, had the following text (/usr/share/doc/mssql-server/LICENSE.TXT.gz)

Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) This software uses CEIP. CEIP automatically sends Microsoft information about your hardware and how you use this software. We do not use this information to identify or contact you. To learn more about CEIP, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=733654&clcid=0x409. That link seems to be dead. I got into looking through the docs on what exactly is being sent, and I can't find any information about it or how to disable it.

Answer 1

I don't think Microsoft refers to it as "CEIP" in the official docs. I believe Microsoft is refering to "Customer Feedback for SQL Server on Linux". You can disable it like this,

sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set telemetry.customerfeedback false
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server.service

Additionally you can block the Telemetry Servers at the network layer

You can verify this by checking the conf file.

Answer 2

@Denis Nikolaenko: on WinNT platform, MSSQL server has two "phone home" related settings - the "customer feedback" and the "enable error reporting". I'd assume the same applies to the DBMS on *NIX platforms as well. Chances are that the SQL connection to Microsoft servers was related to the second "feature". Try to check (now probably logrotated) SQL server logs for any warnings/errors (I would expect to find these logs in /var/log by default, but the exact location for logs should be specified in the mssql-conf file).