SQL Server migration

Migrating from some other database system or from legacy data storage structure to Microsoft® SQL Server^TM frequently gives organizations benefits that range from lowered costs to a more feature-rich environment. But migration from one database system to another is often a high-risk, expensive, and time-consuming process.

A migration effort would typically be accompanied by reengineering of the software that accesses the data, and would be intimately tied to the approaches used to do this reengineering. Moreover, database migration often requires a full or partial conversion of the database structure, transformation of the stored data types and rebuilding SQL code. Basically, most of the database conversion tasks can be performed manually. However, because of differences in database systems, migration of the data between them may not be a simple table copying, since the new table structures may be somewhat different from the old ones and, as a result, some cases of migrating may require certain efforts unless effective migration tools are used. Such tools for legacy database migration are often used as a part of the system migration or reengineering effort. They are intended to enhance understandability and portability issues by providing an easy control over migration process.

GUI Tool for Migrating to SQL Server

EMS Data Pump for SQL Server is a powerful utility for converting databases and importing table data from any ADO-compatible source (e.g. MS Access, MySQL, Oracle or any other database with OLE DB support) to SQL Server databases. This tool allows you to automate the migration of a database from one DBMS to another and provides sufficient time and cost savings to enable IT executives to migrate to SQL Server in the way that best meets their needs. The program has the ability to convert database structure and stored information from data sources and databases having an ADO provider. Furthermore, because there is an OLE DB provider that wraps ODBC (an even older data-access technology), EMS Data Pump for SQL Server can work with virtually all legacy data, regardless of the source.

The utility has a user-friendly graphical interface so you can view the tree of the source objects and select them for pumping using the corresponding interface elements. You can set conversion preferences between the data types of the DB Provider being used and the target SQL Server database data types; browse the estimated content of the target database in a tree of objects; view definitions of the corresponding source objects and edit the target SQL Server object definitions; create a new target database or connect to the existing one; view, edit and save SQL script for generating target database and much more.

Additionally to the GUI version which is implemented in the form of a wizard application, the installation package of EMS Data Pump for SQL Server includes the console version which is intended for running from the command line with a template file name used as an execution parameter. This utility can simplify and automate SQL Server migration tasks by performing the migration on the schedule basis according to the predefined settings.

SQL Server Database Backup

Indeed, many RDBMS users are still running old versions of SQL Server because of the hard migration and testing which are required to move from one version to the next. EMS DB Extract for SQL Server is a very impressive and easy-to-use utility for creating database backups in a form of SQL scripts. It allows you to save metadata of all database objects as well as table data in a SQL dump file. These program capabilities may be useful for migration process while switching from one version of a database or database system to another, or even may be considered as a good solution for creating SQL Server database backup. The ability of flexible customization of the entire extract process allows you to select SQL Server database objects and data tables for extraction and to define a number of extraction options, such as constraints on extracted table data, statements for emptying tables before inserting extracted data and others. Also, you can setup scheduled execution of the extraction task with DB Extract command-line service used to automate database extraction process.

Modern database systems are becoming increasingly large and complex. Databases store complicated data types like audio, video, images and compound documents. With the growing complexity of database systems, the requirements for efficient administration environment are also increasing. EMS SQL Management Studio for SQL Server is a complete solution for Microsoft SQL Server database administration and development. SQL Management Studio is a set of necessary tools to deal with everyday database related tasks, such as SQL Server management, database comparison and migration, data import and export and many others.