Migration from MS-SQL to MySQL?

GuardianKnight asks: "I am working for an organization who is going from WinNT to Linux. They have a fairly large database and I was wondering is there a way or does anyone know how to convert an Microsoft Access database to a MySQL database (other than retyping all the data)? Is there any software that can do this?" How difficult would it be to create a program for all SQL based databases that would create export scripts that you could import into any engine that would recognize INSERT statements? Does something like this exist?

Comments

Watch out with SQL logic when moving to mySQL

[dave_aiello]

Putting on my Sybase/MS SQL Server DBA hat for a moment, be very careful that you understand the differences between Transact-SQL and NmySQL's SQL language implementation. If you are using a lot of server side logic in MS SQL Server -- stored procedures, for example -- you ought to consider moving to Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise on Linux.

I realize that Sybase costs money when it is implemented in production, and I mean no disrespect to mySQL, which I consider an unbelievable value. I just want to suggest that the analysis of your existing application needs to be quite thorough before making this move.

I think the O'Reilly mySQL book does a fairly credible job pointing out some of the issues associated with going to mySQL from a traditional, enterprise-class RDBMS. So, check that out, if you don't know what all the issues are.

However, if there is no server side logic at all, or if the logic that does exist executes equally well in Access as it does in MS SQL Server, I think the path is clear to go to mySQL. My advice to anyone that wants to scale up from Access would be to consider mySQL and Sybase ASE on Linux first.

FWIW, I have not used PostgreSQL, so I have no opinion on that. The competing Enterprise-class RDBMSes, Oracle and Informix are quite good, but they are not similar enough from SQL dialect and tools perspective to satisfy someone with an investment in understanding MS SQL / Sybase.

--

Dave Aiello

Why not PostgreSQL?

[Megaweapon]

Not that I have anything against MySQL, but depending on your needs, PostgreSQL may be a better choice for an RDMS. It is open source, and has transactions, triggers, a procedural language, and API's for languages like C, C++, perl, and python (and MySQL may have some of these as well). Of course, your mileage may vary.

Exportsql - that litle script...

[PolKa]

I use a script thats very usefull if you need to convert MS Access Data to MySQL.. http://www.cynergi.net/exportsql/

that's my 2 cents