When business organizations want to move their data to the cloud platform, their first impression is that the cloud is only supposed to save files and documents. But it is not entirely true. You can keep your database files in cloud-based applications.
Microsoft SQL Server is the best on-premises database management tool which organizations use to save their business data. When they wish to migrate the on-site resources to the cloud, they hesitate to migrate the SQL data to the cloud. But there is Azure Database Migration Service which you can use and migrate the SQL data to Azure cloud server.
In the present article, we will go through the step-by-step migration of on-premises SQL Server database to the online Azure database. There are following steps which you need to perform the migration sequentially –
Before starting the migration, first evaluate the on-premises data of your SQL server. There is a separate utility tool called Data Migration assistant which does the analysis for you and checks for any possible error or bottleneck.
Here are its steps –
The Data Migration Assistant tool will run an assessment check and provide a complete report. The report will provide information about compatibility issues, and other migration-related details.
After running the assessment and getting the satisfactory results, you can go for creating migration project for a small specimen of the database schema. To migrate the database schema, follow the upcoming steps –
NOTE – By default, all the objects are selected.
You need to create an instance of the Azure Database Migration Service to create a migration project. Here are the required steps –
When you have successfully created a new migration service, you can create a migration project at the Azure Portal.
When you click the Run migration, and the migration activity starts.
There is a separate migration activity screen where you can click the Refresh button and see the Status of the migration. You can click on any specific database to get the status of Incremental data sync and Full data load operations.
After the completion of the initial Full load, you can perform migration cutover.
Kernel Migrator for SQL Server is a simple SQL Migration tool to migrate offline MDF and NDF file from your SQL Server to the Microsoft Azure cloud server. Let’s see the easy steps to complete the migration –
Step – 1. Start the software, and the Select SQL Database will pop up. Click the Browse button.
Step – 2. After browsing the database, the second step requires selecting the scan mode and clicking the Recover button.
NOTE – The Recover option works to remove the corruption from the database file. It does not affect the normal file.
Step – 3. After retrieving the database, the database objects are displayed in a tree structure. Here, you can get a clear preview of the objects. Select the required objects and click the Migrate button.
Step – 4. Select the first option of Azure SQL. Then input the server name and its complete credentials. Then click the Connect Now button.
Step -5. After a successful connection, the tool will provide a successful message. Click OK.
Step – 6. Now, select the destination database from the drop-down list.
Step – 7. After selecting the database, click the OK button.
Step – 8. The tool has successfully migrated the database, and it gives a successful message. Click OK.
Both the manual and the automated methods are suitable for SQL database to Azure SQL migration. However, while using the Kernel Migrator of SQL Server, you can perform the migration within minutes.