On previous occasions I have reviewed SwisSQL SQL Server
to Oracle Migration Edition and SwisSQL Sybase to SQL
Server Migration Tool. Now its time to look at yet another
new product from SwisSQL called "Data Migration
Tool 3.0". Good thing about this tool is that,
it is more like a simple wizard, that takes you through
the migration process in a clearly defined step by step
approach. Compared to the previously reviewed tools,
the user interface provided by this tool is much more
appealing and is easy to use.
This is a complete Data Migration Tool that helps the
migration and transfer of database schemas and data
across leading databases such as Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft
SQL Server, Sybase, SAP DB, and MySQL. It supports the
recently released Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as well,
also known as Yukon.
You can download a trial version of this software from
SwisSQL website. You can also get technical support
during this free evaluation. For this, you just need
to fill in a simple form (on the download page) with
your contact information.
Now lets get straight to the review. The evaluation
version is good for 30 days and will let you migrate
10 tables, 10 indexes, and 5000 rows of data per table.
Make sure you download the installation which includes
the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Though the installation
with JRE is bulky (16 MB, compared to 5.5 MB of installation
file without JRE), it is worth downloading, as it'll
save you time configuring the required JRE settings
manually.
Installation is pretty straight forward, apart from
the following issues. If you are running the setup on
a Windows XP SP2 machine, XP will warn you saying the
publisher for this software is 'Unknown'. This product
is based on Java, and requires Java Runtime Environment.
But Windows XP SP2 firewalls blocks Java from running.
For this product to work, you have to make sure you
are not blocking Java.
Here's how the product looks like, when you first open
it:
Now I will walk you through the steps of migrating
tables, indexes and data from one RDBMS to another RDBMS.
As you can see from the first screen shot, this tool
provides a wizard based user interface. And you can
clearly see on the left hand side of the window that
there are 7 steps involved in the migration process.
In the first screen you either have to create a new
migration project or select an existing project file,
and click the Next button.
This leads you to step 2, where you select your source
database management system. From the 'Select source
database' combo box, select your database server instance,
which can be either Oracle 8i, 9i, 10g or SQL Server
7.0, 2000, 2005 or Sybase ASE 11.x, 12.x or DB2 UDB
7.x, 8.x or MySQL 3.23.x, 4.x, 5.x or MaxDB 7.5. The
screenshot of this screen is shown below:
After selecting your source database management
system, click Next button. This leads you to step 3. In
this step lets you specify the connectivity information
for your source database. Here, you will specify information
like the database server name, login and password for
connecting to your database server, the database name,
and an optional port number. The wizard automatically
picks the default port number for the specified database
system. Screenshot for Step 3 is shown below:
Specify the required connectivity information
for your source database system and click Next button.
This leads you to step 4. In this step, you have to select
your target database management system. Pick the target
database management system from the 'Select target database'
combo box, which provides a list of support RDBMSs. Screenshot
of step 4 is shown below:
Select your target database system, and
click the Next button to go to step 5, where you specify
the connectivity information for your target database.
Here you will provide the server name, database name,
login, password, port number etc. Screenshot of step 5
is shown below:
Provide the required connectivity information
and click the Next button to go to step 6.This step lets
you select the tables, data and indexes from your source
database connection, that you want to migrate to your
target database system. Here you can specify whether you
want to drop the object if it already exists on the target
system. This screen also lets you specify the criteria
for data to be transferred. Basically you will provide
the WHERE clause for the table to specify which rows qualify
for migration. In the criteria dialog box, you can press
Ctrl + Space to get a list of comparison operators like
>, <, = etc. Screenshots for this screen and provided
below:
Select the tables, indexes and specify
the required data filtering criteria in the above screen.
Click the Next button to go to step 7. In this step, the
wizard summarizes your selection of source and target
servers and databases and the tables and data that you
have chosen to migrate. Click Next button on this screen
to perform the migration. In step 7, the wizard looks
as shown below:
When you press the Next button on the above
screen, the actual migration takes place. The last screen
shows the progress of migration as it happens, along with
success/failure of individual object transfers, and the
total time taken by the process. This screen has a Details
button. When clicked, it shows you information about your
source and target servers and the objects that you've
chosen to migrate. The Summary button shows you details
of the transfer of individual objects. This screen is
pasted below:
Now you can connect to your target database
server and check to make sure all the objects are transferred
correctly. I checked my target server, and all the objects
that I selected, got transferred correctly.
This product is a big step forward by SwisSQL, as it
simplifies the process of migration, with much better
user interface, compared to its previous products. The
user interface looks very much similar to the well known,
SQL Server DTS data transfer wizard. Well, this is it
for now. You can download a free evaluation version
of SwisSQL Data Migration Tool 3.0 from here.
Note that SwisSQL provides free technical support during
the evaluation period.
