SQL Server to MySQL conversion and synchronization.

Migrating from proprietary database engines into open-source engines is a growing trend in the industry. One of the most popular cases is to convert SQL Server databases to MySQL.

Why convert from MSSQL to MySQL?

Directly comparing SQL Server and MySQL is difficult, although you often hear ones who claim that SQL Server is better than MySQL or vice-versa.

Comparing them, especially in terms of their performance, is very subjective. Choosing between these databases should depend on developer or DBA experience and architectural or implementation requirements. You can use either of these products to build highly reliable and efficient systems. MS SQL Server and MySQL have their advantages over each other.

• Usually, the first reason to migrate from SQL Server to MySQL is the cost.

  Microsoft has SQL Server Express edition, which is free. But it has a 10 GB maximum database size and other essential limits.

  This fact prevents SQL Server free version from being used in production.

  The MySQL community edition is free and has no limitations.

• MySQL historically is cross-platformed. It runs on virtually all platforms, including UNIX, Linux, Windows, and macOS.

  Initially, MSSQL Server, as a proprietary database, supported Windows Operating systems only. But starting from SQL Server 2019, it can also be run on Linux and from Docker container.

However, migrating data between heterogeneous databases is not straightforward. It is not something to be taken lightly.

Datatypes Require Conversion

Data types in MySQL and SQL Server are alike but not the same.

The following table shows SQL Server data types that don’t map in 1-to-1 relationship to MySQL:

Our Types Mapping feature assists in matching target MySQL data types with their closest and relative MS SQL Server equivalent.

Find more information about mapping between MySQL and SQL Server

SQL Syntax is not the same.

While both SQL Server and MySQL are SQL based Databases, their SQL language syntax differs considerably. So valid SQL Server statements fail when executed against MySQL database.

For instance, look at the following example:

SELECT TOP 3 WITH TIES *
FROM car
ORDER BY price ASC
                

SELECT price
FROM car
ORDER BY price ASC
LIMIT 3                    
                

Eight reasons for using DBConvert/ DBSync to transfer data from SQL Server to MySQL.

MySQL Workbench migration tool serves data migration tasks from various databases to MySQL. But conversion from a database to MySQL is possible in ONE direction only.

As an alternative to MySQL Workbench, we offer DBConvert products that migrate and sync MSSQL to MySQL.

1. In any combination, data migrations between the following databases are possible:

   • Microsoft SQL Server,
   • MariaDB,
   • Percona,
   • Windows Azure SQL Databases/ Azure SQL Data Warehouse,
   • AWS RDS/ Aurora,
   • SQL Cloud for SQL Server.

   Please refer to the list of available conversion and sync directions in product info cards on the right.

2. DBConvert tool minimizes the challenges mentioned above you can meet when migrating from SQL Server to MySQL. Your database schemas, tables, views, and relations will be migrated accurately and rapidly according to the target database's requirements, preserving database consistency.
3. Parallel migration engine of DBConvert takes full advantage of modern multi-core processors. It speeds up data migration by splitting database tables into multiple parts and processing them in parallel.

4. You don't need to know how to write scripts to convert views from SQL Server to MySQL. Our Converter does that for you automatically.

   NOTE: We don't convert MSSQL stored procedures to MySQL.

5. DBSync software keeps your databases in Sync with Update, Insert, and Drop synchronization features.
6. Bi-directional synchronization helps to update data in both source and destination databases simultaneously.
7. Trigger-based Synchronization algorithm is developed for accurate analysis of the destination database data and instantly tracking changes in both databases. Trigger-based sync method increases recurrent synchronization speed in times.
8. Move data directly from SQL Server to MySQL or take advantage of Dump files and PHP scripts, when you don't have direct access to a target database server.

Try All-in-one DB migration and Sync software.