Tools Prerequisites

Before processing certain file formats, you may need to install additional tools and dependencies. PyForge CLI provides automated installers to set up these prerequisites with minimal effort.

Overview

Some file formats require specialized software or services to process effectively. Rather than requiring manual setup, PyForge CLI includes automated installers that handle the complete setup process.

Available Tool Installers: - MDF Tools: Docker Desktop + SQL Server Express for SQL Server MDF files - Future Tools: Additional installers will be added for other specialized formats

MDF Tools Installation

What are MDF Tools?

MDF Tools provide the infrastructure needed to process SQL Server Master Database Files (.mdf). This includes:

• Docker Desktop: Container runtime for SQL Server
• SQL Server Express 2019: Database engine for MDF file processing
• Container Management: Lifecycle management tools for the database

Quick Installation

# Install MDF processing tools
pyforge install mdf-tools

# Verify installation
pyforge mdf-tools status

# Test connectivity
pyforge mdf-tools test

System Requirements

Minimum Requirements: - Operating System: Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, or Ubuntu 18.04+ - Memory: 4GB RAM total (1.4GB for SQL Server + 2.6GB for host) - Storage: 4GB free space (2GB for Docker + 2GB for SQL Server) - Network: Internet connection (~700MB download)

Recommended Requirements: - Memory: 8GB RAM (for optimal performance) - Storage: 20GB free space (for multiple databases) - CPU: 4+ cores (SQL Server Express limited to 4 cores max)

Installation Process

The MDF Tools installer follows a 5-stage automated process:

Stage 1: System Requirements Check

✓ Operating System: macOS 14.5.0 (supported)
✓ Docker Desktop: Installed
✓ Docker SDK for Python: Available

Stage 2: Docker Setup (if needed)

[2/5] Docker Installation Required
Docker Desktop is required for MDF file conversion.

Would you like to:
  1. Install automatically using Homebrew (recommended)
  2. Get installation instructions
  3. Skip (I'll install manually)

Stage 3: Docker Startup

[3/5] Starting Docker Desktop...
✓ Docker Desktop is running

Stage 4: SQL Server Express Setup

[4/5] Setting up SQL Server Express...
📥 Pulling SQL Server image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest
🚀 Creating SQL Server container...
⏳ Waiting for SQL Server to start (this may take a minute)...
✓ SQL Server is ready

Stage 5: Configuration Complete

[5/5] Installation Complete!
              SQL Server Connection Details              
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Property    ┃ Value                                   ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ Host        │ localhost                               │
│ Port        │ 1433                                    │
│ Username    │ sa                                      │
│ Password    │ PyForge@2024!                           │
│ Container   │ pyforge-sql-server                      │
│ Config File │ /Users/username/.pyforge/mdf-config.json│
└─────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Container Management

After installation, manage the SQL Server container with these commands:

Check Status

pyforge mdf-tools status

Shows comprehensive status of all components:

                      MDF Tools Status                       
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Component             ┃ Status ┃ Details                  ┃
┡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ Docker Installed      │ ✓ OK   │ Docker command available │
│ Docker Running        │ ✓ OK   │ Docker daemon responsive │
│ SQL Container Exists  │ ✓ OK   │ Container created        │
│ SQL Container Running │ ✓ OK   │ Container active         │
│ SQL Server Responding │ ✓ OK   │ Database accessible      │
│ Configuration File    │ ✓ OK   │ Settings saved           │
└───────────────────────┴────────┴──────────────────────────┘

✅ All systems operational - ready for MDF processing!

Lifecycle Management

# Start SQL Server (if stopped)
pyforge mdf-tools start

# Stop SQL Server (when finished)
pyforge mdf-tools stop

# Restart SQL Server
pyforge mdf-tools restart

# View SQL Server logs
pyforge mdf-tools logs

# Test connectivity
pyforge mdf-tools test

# Show configuration
pyforge mdf-tools config

Complete Removal

# Remove everything (with confirmation)
pyforge mdf-tools uninstall

SQL Server Express Limitations

Important Constraints to Consider:

Limitation	Value	Impact
Database Size	10 GB maximum	Large MDF files (>10GB) cannot be processed
Memory	1.4 GB buffer pool	Performance limited with large datasets
CPU Cores	4 cores maximum	Cannot utilize high-core systems fully
Parallelism	Disabled (DOP=1)	Single-threaded query execution

When to Consider Upgrading: - MDF files larger than 10 GB - Need for high-performance processing - Multiple concurrent users - Advanced SQL Server features

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Docker Desktop Not Starting:

# Check Docker status
docker info

# Restart Docker Desktop manually
# macOS: Click Docker in menu bar → Restart
# Windows: Right-click Docker in system tray → Restart

SQL Server Connection Failed:

# Check container status
pyforge mdf-tools status

# View detailed logs
pyforge mdf-tools logs -n 20

# Restart SQL Server
pyforge mdf-tools restart

Port Already in Use:

# Use custom port during installation
pyforge install mdf-tools --port 1434

Getting Help

For detailed troubleshooting, see: - MDF Tools Installer Documentation - Troubleshooting Guide

Platform-Specific Notes

macOS

• Docker Installation: Automatic via Homebrew
• Permissions: May require admin privileges for Docker
• Performance: Excellent on both Intel and Apple Silicon

Windows

• Docker Installation: Automatic via Winget
• WSL2 Required: Docker Desktop requires WSL2 for containers
• Restart Required: Computer restart may be needed after Docker installation

Linux

• Docker Installation: Manual via package manager (apt/yum)
• User Groups: Add user to docker group: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
• Service Management: Enable Docker service: sudo systemctl enable docker

Configuration Files

MDF Tools Configuration

Location: ~/.pyforge/mdf-config.json

{
  "sql_server": {
    "container_name": "pyforge-sql-server",
    "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2019-latest",
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 1433,
    "username": "sa",
    "password": "PyForge@2024!",
    "data_volume": "pyforge-sql-data",
    "mdf_volume": "pyforge-mdf-files"
  },
  "docker": {
    "installed_version": "Docker version 20.10.17",
    "installation_date": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
  },
  "installer_version": "1.0.0"
}

Customization Options

Custom Password:

pyforge install mdf-tools --password "YourSecurePassword123!"

Custom Port:

pyforge install mdf-tools --port 1434

Non-Interactive Mode:

pyforge install mdf-tools --non-interactive

Future Tools

PyForge CLI will continue to add automated installers for other specialized file formats that require additional software dependencies.

Planned Tool Installers: - Oracle database tools (for .dbf files from Oracle) - SAP tools (for SAP data formats) - Legacy database tools (for older database formats)

Security Considerations

Password Security

• Default passwords meet SQL Server complexity requirements
• Custom passwords should be strong (8+ characters, mixed case, numbers, symbols)
• Passwords stored locally in configuration files (not transmitted)

Network Security

• SQL Server only accessible on localhost by default
• Container isolated in Docker bridge network
• No external network exposure unless explicitly configured

Container Security

• Uses official Microsoft SQL Server images
• Automatic security updates through image updates
• Container runs with minimal privileges

Best Practices

Resource Management

1. Monitor System Resources: Check available memory and disk space
2. Stop When Not Needed: Stop SQL Server container when not processing MDF files
3. Regular Cleanup: Remove old containers and images periodically

Performance Optimization

1. Adequate RAM: Ensure 8GB+ RAM for optimal performance
2. SSD Storage: Use SSD for Docker volumes when possible
3. Close Other Applications: Free up resources during large file processing

Maintenance

1. Keep Docker Updated: Regularly update Docker Desktop
2. Update SQL Server Image: Periodically pull latest SQL Server image
3. Backup Configuration: Save configuration files before major changes

Related Documentation

• MDF Tools Installer - Complete installation guide
• Database Files - Database conversion overview
• CLI Reference - All command documentation
• Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions