August 27, 2008 at 1:38 am
Would anybody be able to comment on the amount of effort it would take to migrate a Sybase database to SQL Server 2005? The database in question has about 800 tables and a total of about 50,000,000 rows of data.
Where I work we've had a quote from a vendor for such a task but I feel that the cost and project duration they are quoting are completely ridiculous. Obviously the vendor has to be diligent and, therefore, perform tasks such as Test Planning, Testing, etc.
August 27, 2008 at 5:13 am
This is going to probably be a big job. Does the sybase database include a lot of stored procedures?
There are syntax differences that will take some time to resolve. You will also find that they need to spend a lot of time performance tuning everything. Sybase is a cursor-based database system - so unlike MS SQL Server, tons of cursor loops will often perform reasonably. Do they have to migrate an application as well?
August 27, 2008 at 5:24 am
Thanks for the response.
I could not say how many stored procedures and/or user defined functions are involved here as I have very limited access to the Sybase database.
Also, I was not aware that Sybase was a cursor-based database system and, therefore, cursors would perform reasonably. This is interesting because the vendor has stated that the project will not entail any post-migration tuning of the SQL Server 2005 database. However, this could be because they are simply not using stored procedures.
There is an application to "migrate" as well. How much work is involved here will depend on how well a back-end change has been isolated in the code. Again, hard to say as I don't have access to the code.
August 27, 2008 at 5:40 am
Without the detail, it is really impossible to give you any time estimates. I think it will be big and expensive and ultimately end up costing more than it is worth. Is there a pressing need to move to MSSQL Server? What has prompted the need for the migration?
August 27, 2008 at 5:54 am
Basically the vendor intend that future versions of their application will only support a SQL Server backend. Therefore, if we wish to take advantage of new features in future releases of their application then we must first pay for a backend migration. And I'd imagine that support for the existing version of their application will only be available for a finite amount of time.
I know its difficult to provide a fine-tuned answer to a vague question, but would this type of migration be fairly straightforward if stored procedures were not involved. And, again I'm asking you to generalize, how different is T-SQL to the Sybase equivalent?
August 27, 2008 at 6:13 am
So the vendor for the application is telling you that you have to migrate? Unless you have a highly customized version, I would assume they have done this migration before and have all of the necessary code written for MSSQL.
I would expect that this should only involve copying the data from Sybase to Oracle and that is would be quick and cheap. Something sounds fishy - I think you have left out a lot of information.
August 27, 2008 at 6:45 am
Well, they're not exactly telling us we have to migrate, however, they're not going to support the current version of the application for ever. The application is provided to a small number of clients (I'm guessing no more than about 20, tops) -- Each client has a slightly modified version of a core product but I doubt than any of them could reasonably be described as "highly customized". I believe that their upgrade path leads to a unified version developed in .NET.
The thing is the vendor say that they have performed this migration for about 5 or 6 clients already and, therefore, I would expect them to possess the necessary conversion techniques, routines, etc.
I'm not aware that I've left out any information, and if I have it's not intentional. The management at this place seem happy with the migration path -- I'm just trying to get a grip on the amount of effort/cost required to migrate a Sybase database to SQL Server 2005.
If you think I might have left out any information that would impact the effort/cost then please feel free to fire back the questions. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
May 1, 2010 at 12:33 am
To the OP. Where you able to complete your sybase migration to SQL 2005?
I have the same requirements and I wonder how you handled the stored procedures and UDFs?
What were the steps? thanks
July 12, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Hi,
I am just about in the same process. I have 4000 SPs, 700 tables, 400 views etc. Only had issues with SPs. This will be an impossible task without the SSMA tool. Search for sybase migration to sql server or below
Run the MS tool. In my case it converted 98.7% of the code so very pleased with this. The majority of problems are with (non-ansi) outer joins ie =*. The rest is not a big number. The outer joins have to be converted manually, so have around 600 to do but should be easy. What looked like impossible looks very possible now. It also migrates the actual data so perfect. I have already done performance tests and SQL Server was faster. Does anyone have any comments on performance? Thanks.
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