A Brief Look at Resources, Products and Tools available from SAP for Migrating Custom Applications from Oracle to Sybase ASE or IQ
Migrating between database products can be a challenging undertaking. Databases tend to be ‘sticky’ – they may offer ‘ANSI Standard SQL’, but few systems have been developed using ANSI standard code (and for good reasons).
So what do SAP have on offer to assist?
SAP have produced an‘Oracle to ASE Migration Guide’. This covers in detail the differences between Oracle and ASE. It’s a good starting point, as well as being an invaluable reference guide through the migration process.
Schema migration. SAP PowerDesigner can be utilized to migrate schemas from Oracle to SAP Sybase ASE & IQ (as well as numerous other database products from multiple vendors). ‘Migrating an Oracle Database to SAP Sybase ASE with PowerDesigner and ECDA (A Step-By-Step Practical Guide)’ - details this process.
Migrating database code. This is generally the most time consuming part of any migration process. Vendors, and third parties, have made database code migration tools available over the years. SAP has now joined them with the Exodus tool. This was made available to SAP Partners in late 2013. It’s important to note that this tool is not available for download or direct use by customers. Exodus is available via direct engagement with SAP or a qualified SAP D&T partner.
What does Exodus offer?
- Pre-migration complexity assessment and migration cost estimation
- Migrating server-side SQL objects (stored procedures, functions, etc.) to ASE or IQ
- Identifying SQL features that cannot be automatically migrated
- Provide guidance to migration project consultants where to focus efforts
We’ve spent sometime using this tool at Maximal BA. First thoughts are very positive. We were able to very quickly deliver a ‘first cut’ of transformed code and provide estimates of effort of complete code migration. The tool has been designed to be flexible, allowing the development of scripted migration solutions that will facilitate easy integration into a customer’s project.