SQL Azure - Options For Migrating an Existing SQL Database To Cloud

In this series of articles we are going to see how to migrate an existing database to the cloud

Introduction:

In this series of articles we are going to see how to migrate an existing database to the cloud and the options available to do that such as using the traditional approach of migrating using scripts, some 3rd party tools and the migrations wizards.

Overview:

Migrating a database from the local server to the Azure cloud is something we require on a daily basis to synchronize the servers and make it available to all the users and the developers in full phase. We have options available to do that, where Microsoft provides some real-time inbuilt options, also we have some 3rd party tools available for the migration using some nice and cool wizards.

In this article we are going to see the options available with some overview on each option, in the later series of articles we will see in-depth each option for migrating to the SQL Azure server. Let us jump-start to see the available options.

Option 1 - Migrate by generating Script

Use of this option is straight forward, like creating a schema of the database locally and migrating the database by running the script to the destination SQL Azure server. We can use the SQL Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard to do this by simply selecting the options and doing the publish online.

Also we need to take some steps to carry out this operation since some specific tasks are not available with the SQL Azure online database. Since SQL Azure supports only some subsets of the database options we need to modify the script before we run it on the server.

Option 2 - Migrating by using Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1

This option is used to do a migration for an On-Premises database to be available online by synchronizing and also do a sync between 2 or more SQL Azure databases  with in the same servers or to the other servers in multiple data centers. We need to use the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.1 to use the sync process between the servers. Let us see this option in detail in future articles.

Option 3 - Migrating by using SQL Azure Migration Wizard

This option is a small Wizard tool built by the Community to migrate between the server and do a complete sync by creating scripts for the objects. This tool was developed and maintained by Codeplex, the official code place for Microsoft tools. Let us see this option in detail in future articles.

Conclusion:

So in this article we have seen the options available for doing a migration and a synchronization of data between on-premises and existing databases to the new server or to the old server for synchronization. We will see in-depth the step by step process of how to do these in future articles.