Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Difficulty With Performing An Oracle To Postgres Database Migration

By William I. Morcena


When it comes to migrating databases, Oracle to Postgres is one of the most common kinds that individuals and businesses look for. This can be a very hard and expensive task if not done properly or if you don't have the right person for the job. Several companies will not want to take on this type of project due to the increased number of problems that may occur. There are three main complications that may come up which can influence the success of this migration.

One the primary problems that people will face with this conversion is the difficulty in translating Oracle's PL/SQL source code to Postgres' PL/pgSQL. The conversion between the two source codes can be very expensive and can require a lot of time due to needing to be completely recoded. Additionally, the changes will need to be tested and retested many times to make sure that the translation was correct and will be functional with the PL/pgSQL source code.

An additional problem that people may face deals with the fact that once the translation is done, it is not always operable. PL/SQL and PL/pgSQL both have comparable compositions, but they are known to behave in very different ways. The new code will have to be written completely different from the original code and a direct conversion between the two may nor achieve the wanted outcome. A person will have to be very well versed in both source codes to know which changes need to be made to make sure that they act like they are supposed to.

The last major issue that will arise during the process is that the client code interfaces will be affected with the conversion. An exact conversion between the two codes is nearly impossible to accomplish because they are so different. It is hard to make the Oracle to Postgres translation without losing some of the existing information.

Tools are offered to help make the process of Oracle to Postgres migration easier by allowing for a large scale conversion and testing/retesting in a shorter amount of time. Generic migration tools are available directly from Oracle, but it is often best to have a tool designed specifically for the system to minimize the loss of data.

Because of all of the issues that may arise during the database migration, it is greatly recommended that a specialist is called upon to complete the process. This will help to keep the problems to a minimum as well as help to avoid lost information. Professionals will design a data migration tool that is specific to your system and will both take care of the conversion as well as the testing for functionality. The transition should occur efficiently and with few errors if it is completed properly.




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