Thread: MSSQL/ASP migration

I have a customer who is wants to migrate his MSSQL database to
PostgreSQL and we'll replace his application ASP with PHP. The issues
should be limited as there are no stored procedures or triggers in
MSSQL, just structure and data should be all that is needed to migrate.
I have never migrated from MSSQL or to PostgreSQL, but have handled
database migration in the past for other DB's. I know there is
mssql2pgsql script out there somewhere and I find lots of info on the
subject. Of course, when we rebuild his application, some db structure
will change, I was planning to do all the changes to structure after a
successful migration of his current structure now w/o data. After the
new application is done, then create a migration path for the data. Is
that the best way to handle these types of migrations? The customer will
want to continue working on the old system during the several months of
development in the new. Any docs or other helpful info is welcome, just
looking for some advise.

Thanks in advance,
--
Robert

On Mon, 2007-01-22 at 16:32 +0000, Peter Rosenthal wrote:
> Wanting to do something similar I recently submitted a large patch to
> the mysql2pgsql project. It will now handle conversion of a mysqldump
> file complete with data for the quite large and diverse DB I was using
> it with. I'm sure there are still corner cases, but you should give it
> a try:
>
> http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/mysql2psql/projdisplay.php
>

Thanks, but my project has to do with Microsoft SQL server.


--
Robert

Is the original application ASP or SP.NET?  It makes a difference,
particularly if it was developed to take advantage of ASP.NET 2.  It might
conceivably be ASP.NET 3, but since that is brand new I can't see anyone
paying to replace an ASP.NET 3 application that was just created.  If it is
ASP.NET 2, and you can't find a PostgreSQL provider class, your simplest
approach after migrating the data might be to write your own provider (check
a recent, decent reference on ASP.NET 2 for details - there are several).
OTOH, if it is ASP.NET 1.x or the earlier ASP, your planned conversion to
PHP might be worth comparing to developing it de novo with ASP.NET 3.

I am not an MS advocate, and I don't like tying myself to one vendor, but
for obvious commercial reasons I have to be aware of the options including
MS options.  I recently, therefore, started studying all things .NET, and
comparing to other application frameworks I've worked with, MS seems to have
done a decent job with ASP.NET 2 and 3.  Therefore, if I have a client
running mostly MS software, and time is of the essence, I would probably
make .NET, ASP.NET3 or a Windows .NET app, as the case may be, my first
choice; that is unless I find a public domain framework in Perl or PHP that
is competitive with .NET.  That said, I've not had an opportunity to see how
it performs in a production setting, so YMMV.

HTH

Ted

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Fitzpatrick" <lists@webtent.net>
To: "PostgreSQL" <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 11:05 AM
Subject: [GENERAL] MSSQL/ASP migration


>I have a customer who is wants to migrate his MSSQL database to
> PostgreSQL and we'll replace his application ASP with PHP. The issues
> should be limited as there are no stored procedures or triggers in
> MSSQL, just structure and data should be all that is needed to migrate.
> I have never migrated from MSSQL or to PostgreSQL, but have handled
> database migration in the past for other DB's. I know there is
> mssql2pgsql script out there somewhere and I find lots of info on the
> subject. Of course, when we rebuild his application, some db structure
> will change, I was planning to do all the changes to structure after a
> successful migration of his current structure now w/o data. After the
> new application is done, then create a migration path for the data. Is
> that the best way to handle these types of migrations? The customer will
> want to continue working on the old system during the several months of
> development in the new. Any docs or other helpful info is welcome, just
> looking for some advise.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> --
> Robert
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
>       subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your
>       message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
>

Robert Fitzpatrick wrote:
>  Any docs or other helpful info is welcome, just
> looking for some advise.
>
>
One think I would recommend is to make sure when creating the new table
structure that you make
sure not to use capitalized object names.  Because MS SQL server can be
case insensitive I have found there is always
caps somewhere, and the caps make things in Postgresql a PITA because
you have to quote everything in your application code.

You could also take a look at Lightning Admin, we have some nice import
and export wizards that can import
data from any ADO or ODBC source.

--
Tony Caduto
AM Software Design
http://www.amsoftwaredesign.com
Home of PG Lightning Admin for Postgresql
Your best bet for Postgresql Administration

On Mon, 2007-01-22 at 12:13 -0500, Ted Byers wrote:
> Is the original application ASP or SP.NET?  It makes a difference,
> particularly if it was developed to take advantage of ASP.NET 2.  It might
> conceivably be ASP.NET 3, but since that is brand new I can't see anyone
> paying to replace an ASP.NET 3 application that was just created.  If it is
> ASP.NET 2, and you can't find a PostgreSQL provider class, your simplest
> approach after migrating the data might be to write your own provider (check
> a recent, decent reference on ASP.NET 2 for details - there are several).
> OTOH, if it is ASP.NET 1.x or the earlier ASP, your planned conversion to
> PHP might be worth comparing to developing it de novo with ASP.NET 3.
>

Thanks for the response, the existing app is completely in just ASP,
done several years ago. The current app only handles one division of the
company and is still small and simple enough to migrate inexpensively.
There are several divisions now, the security needs to be re-written to
allow for more diverse access levels, etc. They are interested in
PostgreSQL/PHP first so they can run it on basically any platform with
relative ease and second, because we are more experienced and already
have lots of tools to support the rapid development under PHP, we're old
Perl hackers.

> I am not an MS advocate, and I don't like tying myself to one vendor, but
> for obvious commercial reasons I have to be aware of the options including
> MS options.  I recently, therefore, started studying all things .NET, and
> comparing to other application frameworks I've worked with, MS seems to have
> done a decent job with ASP.NET 2 and 3.  Therefore, if I have a client
> running mostly MS software,

They have the MS SQL server (SMB 2003) also running the IIS web
application and a file sharing server (W2K), that's it. No current major
commitment to MS. We have loaded Linux on a third server now being used
for some mail duties where we can build the new application and decide
on its production server specs later.

>  and time is of the essence, I would probably
> make .NET, ASP.NET3 or a Windows .NET app, as the case may be, my first
> choice; that is unless I find a public domain framework in Perl or PHP that
> is competitive with .NET.  That said, I've not had an opportunity to see how
> it performs in a production setting, so YMMV.

Yeah, so far, time has not been the main concern, more of a concern that
they have lots of options going forward and scalability and availability
using any browser.

--
Robert