February 15, 2025

Kirtas Tech

Tech Blog

Database Migration from SQL Server to MySQL

When comparing MS SQL and MySQL it is not possible to state that any of these DBMS is better than another one. Both databases management systems are suitable for building efficient and reliablehuge scaled data warehouses. SQL Server and MySQL both have their own cons and prostoward each other. It is all depended on someone needs which of these two DBMS should be used. However, nowadays many businesses are looking for an opportunity to convert MS SQL to MySQL due to the following advantages:

Cost Effectiveness

Open Source Software is usually distributed for free according to the General Public License (GPL). At the same time commercial licenses are also available at very reasonable and inexpensive prices. The saved cost can be spent on needs of development and support.

Reliability

Being an open source software with rich history, MySQL offers good reliability and stability due to efforts of huge worldwide group of developers who help to improve the software product. After MySQL became a part of Oracle, its quality is under control of high quality corporate standards.

Transparency

Since the source code of MySQL is freely available, every software engineer can find out how the DBMS is working and explore any core algorithm. This opportunity enables unlimited tuning and improvement of MySQL. It also makes allows porting the source code to new hardware platforms and increase performance for changing conditions of an existing system.

Migrate database to MySQL

Manual migration from SQL Server to MySQL is a complicated task especially for large databases containing a lot of indexes, constraints, views, etc. For those who does not have database administration and development skills it is reasonable to use special conversion tools designed for this purpose.

One of such powerful yet easy to use tools is MSSQL-to-MySQL developed by Intelligent Converters. The product can help migrate a database from Microsoft SQL or Azure SQL to MySQL, MariaDB or Percona with just a few clicks of mouse button.

Capabilities

  • Supports all versions of Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL
  • Supports all versions of MySQL running on Linux/Unix and Windows platforms
  • Supports MariaDB and Percona variations of MySQL
  • Can exportMS SQL database to MySQL script file (SQL statements to create tables, indexes, veiws and data)
  • Can merge SQL Server data into an existing MySQL database
  • Converts indexes and foreign keys with appropriate attributes
  • Allows changing name, type and other attributes for any column in the resulting table
  • Can storeall settings into profile for next conversions
  • Can filter data to convert through SELECT-queries
  • Can synchronize MySQL database with MS SQL data (primary key is required for both source and target tables)
  • TranslatesMS SQL views according to MySQL dialect of SQL queries
  • Supports command line in order to automate, script and schedule the conversion process
  • Easy-to-use interface and full install/uninstall support