2. Getting Started

This chapter describes the key concepts in migration, how to use Migration Center in GUI and CLI modes, and tools provided for user convenience.

This chapter consists of the following sections:

• Understanding Migration Center
• Understanding User Interface
• Tools

Understanding Migration Center

This section explains the terminology and overall process of Migration Center.

• Terms
• Basic Concept

Terms

Project

The Migration Center project is a basic work unit that describes all aspects of migration. This includes what to migrate, where from and where to migrate (namely, the database or datafile type), and how to migrate database objects and table data. For more detailed information about migration options, please refer to Appendix A: Migration Options. Only one project can be open at any time.

Basic Concept

The overall process of Migration Center consists of five steps: Prepare, Build, Reconcile, Run, and Data Validation.

Prepare Step

The Prepare step is an implicit step in the migration project. This step ends with an open project that has all database connections established. To get there, the user may need to add connection information of the running database, open an existing migration project, or create a new migration project by either using preconfigured database connections or establishing database connections.

Build Step

The Build step performs initial surveys on the current status of the source and destination databases. This step retrieves information about database objects in the source and destination databases through database connections, and saves this information in the project directory. Since this information is used in other steps, it must reflect the most recent status. If any metadata is changed in the source database prior to the Run step, the Build, Reconcile, and Run steps must be re-executed to integrate changes.

Reconcile Step

The Reconcile step builds a complete migration plan on the current status. This step is mostly Migration Center User's Manual about making adjustments for differences between source and destination databases (namely, data types and tablespaces). This step enables the user to edit SELECT statements for fetching data from the source database and DDL statements to be executed on the destination database. For example, the user can specify which source database table is to be copied to which destination database tablespace.

Please remember that if changes are made to "Migration Options", this step must be re-executed.

Run Step

The Run step executes the plan built in the Reconcile step. This step migrates schema and data either directly or indirectly.

If the migration type in "Migration Options" is set to "DB to DB", Migration Center creates database objects in the destination database (schema migration). Then, it copies data from the source database to the destination database (data migration).

If the migration type in "Migration Options" is set to "DB to File," SQL script files are created during migration. Nevertheless, the basic migration process is the same.

Data Validation Step

The Data Validation step runs a check on migrated data. This step checks whether the data of a table that has a primary key and was migrated in the Run step is identical in the source and destination databases. If build step is performed as "Build User", this step checks the data validity of all tables that have a primary key. If build step is performed as "Build Table", this step checks the data validity of only migrated tables with a primary key.

Data that differs between the source and destination databases is stored to CSV files during this step. The user can apply data of this file to the destination database with the "FILESYNC" menu or command. To shorten the duration of this step, the data sampling feature is enabled by default. To disable the data sampling feature and run a data validation check on all data, select the "Data Validation Options" submenu from the "Migration Options" menu, and change "Data Sampling" to "No".

Understanding User Interface

This section briefly describes GUI mode and CLI mode provided by the Migration Center. The details of two mode usages are discussed at "GUI Mode Quick Guide" and "CLI Mode Quick Guide".

Graphic User Interface(GUI) Mode

GUI mode is a user-friendly interface and is the basic interface of Migration Center. GUI mode allows you to perform the entire migration process easily, and can be fine-tune "Reconciling the Project" step and changing the options. If the platform supports Java Swing from client computer to server, it can be executed in GUI mode.

The Migration Center GUI consists of the four panes shown below. Starting from the top left corner and moving clockwise, the four panes are Project, Information, Log, and DB Properties.

Project Pane

The Project pane offers a project-centric view. This pane displays the open project, and its source and destination database connections. Only one project can be open at a time.

Information Pane

The Information pane offers a simple view of the project. This pane displays the current progress and remaining steps.

Log Pane

The Log pane displays the results of tasks performed by Migration Center in chronological order. This pane chooses information that might be of interest to the user from logs stored in the log subdirectory under the Migration Center directory.

DB Properties Pane

The DB Properties pane displays information about the source and destination databases configured for the project.

Command Line Interface (CLI) Mode

The primary reason for using the CLI mode is to perform a fast "run" step. The "run" step, which takes the most time during the migration, creates the converted schema in the "Reconcile" step and migrates the data from the source database into the target database. Performing the "run" step in the CLI mode on the server where the database is installed, can increase the data transfer speed by reducing the communication cost compared to executing the "run" step in the GUI mode on the client computer.

Users can take advantage of both the convenience of GUI mode and the fast performance of CLI mode when you execute only the "Run" and "Validate" steps are performed in CLI mode after executing from "Start" to "Reconcile" in GUI mode.

Another reason to use in CLI mode is to perform the migration in an environment where GUI mode is not allowed. Although the entire migration process can be performed in CLI mode, it also has limitations of character-based interface. For example, user is allowed to perform "Reconcile" step only with the default value in CLI mode.

Tools

This section introduces how to use two types of utilities included in the Migration Center.

PSM Converter for File

"PSM Converter for File" converts Oracle PL/SQL to Altibase PSM in independent file units. This tool reads a SQL file that contains Oracle PL/SQL statements, converts it into Altibase PSM, and then writes the results in a predefined SQL file. This file is provided with an HTML formatted report file. This tool's functionality is equivalent to the PSM Converter in the Reconcile step. For more detailed information about conversion rules, please refer to PSM Converter Rule List.

To execute this tool, select "PSM Converter for File" from "Tools" in the main menu.

Generate Migration Error Report

"Generate Migration Error Report" reports problems that arise in Migration Center. If a project is opened, and this tool is executed, it collects problem tracking information (namely, log files and revision number information) and creates it as a zip file. The user only needs to attach the zip file to an email and send it to Altibase's Customer Support with the user's client registration information.

To execute this tool, select "Generate Migration Error Report" from "Tools" in the main menu.