Sql server to migration tool

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Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this documentation does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property. The most recent releases of the migration assistant contain a few more specific features that may be of particular interest as you plan your migration.

Here is an overview of a few:. Version 4. Agent job assessments for Azure SQL Database managed instances as a target became available in this version.

The ability to ignore certain assessment rules was introduced. Assessment of T-SQL queries in job activity steps with appropriate recommendations was new in this version, along with improved performance for handling a large number of schema objects or complicated schemas. The extended events assessments became public preview in this version completing the list of improvements. This was the first version to provide a comprehensive set of recommendations, and alternative approaches available in Azure along with mitigating steps to that customers can use for planning migrations.

It is designed specifically for the migration of multiple database sources. The service is a combination of the Data Migration Assistant that generates assessments and a migration service to performs the steps needed to migrate the data to the cloud. This is a service with a pricing tier, however, even the premium tier that allows for both online and off-line migration is free for days after the creation of the service. This makes it a great tool for one-time migrations and to get you started.

Using Azure Database Migration Service to perform an online migration requires creating an instance based on the Premium pricing tier. DMS performs both online continuous sync and offline migrations. It is recommended that if you are doing a homogenous migration, you should access your existing database s using DMA. For heterogenous migration from complete sources, access your existing database with SSMA. With an offline migration, the downtime begins at the time the migration begins.

To limit your down time, it is recommended that you use the online migration options to keep things in sync for the time between migration completion and cut over. The online option allows for the down time to be limited to just the time to cut over at the end of the migration. The Data Migration Service takes just a few steps to complete the migration.

A typical simple migration consists of the following steps:. Create a migration project specifying the source database s , target database s and the tables to migrate. Perform a manual switchover of your production environment to the new cloud-based database. Regardless of the migration method used for the live cut over, it is recommended that an offline migration be done during testing to determine the approximate length of time for the migration.

This rough estimate will also help you determine if an offline migration is possible for your scenario. To improve your performance, you can also consider using the multi CPU General Purpose Pricing Tier when you create your service instance to allow the service to take advantage of multiple vCPUs for parallelization and faster data transfer during the migration period and change tiers when complete.

This is a relatively new service that is expanding regularly. For example, as of the writing of this chapter, a hybrid option for this service was in private preview. This service uses a migration worker hosted on-premises together with an Azure hosted worker to manage the migration lifecycle. This hybrid model of DMS is recommended for situations where the ground to cloud connectivity may be challenging.

Each of these sources has very different requirements and processes for migration. For the most current information it is recommended that you review the Microsoft documentation directly, which can be found here:. Support for online migrations to Azure SQL Database using Azure Database Migration Service extends only to the Enterprise, Standard, and Developer editions, so ensure you are using a supported edition before beginning.

The majority of additional causes for migration failures come with the online migration. The most common are outlined here. Certain datatypes are not supported. Hierarchyid datatypes are supported but cannot be migrated. Exclude any tables with these datatypes from the configuration migration settings blade, where you specify tables for migration. Alternatively, if it is an option, change the datatype before migration or migrate these datatypes offline.

You can use this code to determine which if any of your tables have columns that have an unsupported data type. Click here to view code image. Temporal tables are not supported for online migration. Exclude these tables from the configuration migration settings blade, where you specify tables for migration.

You can use this code to determine which if any of your tables are temporal:. Active triggers are not supported for online migration. All triggers must be disabled before the migration. Use this code to determine if you have any active triggers. Large Object data types will require special handling. In this context, large-value data types are those that exceed the maximum row size of 8 KB. Columns larger than 32 KB may get truncated at the target. You can use this code to determine which if any of your columns will be affected.

Azure generates a new value in the target table. If you need the source value migrated instead, contact the engineering team at AskAzureDatabaseMigrations service. Post-migration changes for migrations to Azure. When the migration of the data is complete, it is not the last step. There are a few items you want to include in your migration plan as it relates to connectivity error handling and security for the database and the application.

The most important thing once your data has migrated is to be able to connect to it. You can filter the list as needed to find the database you want to connect to. Click the database and it will take you to an overview screen where you have a list of settings. In the resource specific menu under the Settings group, choose Connection Strings to find the details you need based on the connection type you want. Options include ADO. Each of these options provides a link to download the associated driver for SQL Server as well.

The connection string does not come with the password in the connection string. All of the connection strings except for ADO. NET come with the userid filled in. Be sure to always verify what information to leave in the connection strings based on your security requirements. It is recommended to not store either the userid or password if possible. This is an offline migration option. If you want an online migration you still only have the Data Migration Services option.

For this offline migration process, Azure PowerShell controls and manages the Azure resources, and dbatools initiates the migration of the logins, and agent jobs.

This process requires that you have version SqlManagementObjects, and that the location you are running the commands from has access to both the source SQL Server and the target managed instance. The process using this open source solution requires you to ensure you have loaded the Az.

Resources, Az. Storage, and dbatools modules. Change these parameters depending on your needs. This example uses an Azure public endpoint to connect to Managed Instance. This can be set up for a point-to-site connection or run the script from a virtual machine that is placed in the same subnet as your managed instance. Make sure that you use the same region where your managed instance is placed, which makes a significant difference in the speed of the database restore process.

In order to move your databases, you need a temporary Azure Blob Storage account. If you already have one, you can skip this step. The following PowerShell script creates an Azure Blob Storage account that will be used in this example:. The simplest way is to backup directly to a URL.

Here is where dbatools comes in. To migrate multiple databases, place them in the Database parameter value in a comma separated list. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback?

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