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Overview

This chapter introduces the Migration Workbench. It includes information on the following:

• Introduction
  
  
• Product Description
  
  
• Features
  
  
• Glossary

Introduction

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). It uses a client/server architecture and is a multi-threaded, multi-user database server. It was designed specifically to be a fast server; therefore, it does not provide many of the features provided by other relational database systems, such as subselects, foreign keys, referential integrity, stored procedures, triggers, or views. In addition, it contains a locking mechanism that is not adequate for tables containing many write actions occurring simultaneously from different users. It is also lacking in reference to support for software applications and tools.

The Oracle RDBMS is a modern, scaleable, high performance database server that can run on a wide range of computers from PCs to mainframes. Oracle operates in a network, client/server environment. It can support tens, hundreds, or thousands of users, depending on the server.

This guide explains how to migrate from MySQL to Oracle using the Migration Workbench. It also provides guidelines on how to modify the MySQL applications to work with the new Oracle database. If you have an investment in MySQL applications, you can retain this investment while adding the advanced features of Oracle to the application architecture.

Product Description

The Migration Workbench is a tool that simplifies the migration of data and applications from a MySQL 3.23 environment to an Oracle9i, Oracle8i, or Oracle8 destination database. The Migration Workbench allows you to migrate an entire application system in an integrated, visual environment. This involves migrating the database schema including default values and indexes.

The Migration Workbench provides an intuitive and informative user interface (UI) and a series of wizards to simplify the migration process. To ensure portability, all components of the Migration Workbench are written in Java.

The Migration Workbench uses a repository to store migration information. This allows you to query the initial state of the application before migration. By initially loading the components of the application system that you can migrate into a repository, you can work independently of the production application. You can use the Migration Workbench to migrate the following:

• Users
  
  
• Tables
  
  
• Databases
  
  
• Primary keys
  
  
• Indexes
  
  
• Column data

Features

The Migration Workbench is a wizard-driven tool. It is composed of core features and MySQL migration specific features. The Migration Workbench allows you to:

• Migrate a complete MySQL database to an Oracle9i, Oracle8i, or Oracle8 database.
  
  
• Display a representation of the source database and its Oracle equivalent.
  
  
• Migrate users, tables, table level privileges, indexes, and primary keys.
  
  
• Migrate data types, such as text, date, and ENUM.
  
  
• Migrate MySQL databases with MySQL tables.
  
  
• Display a representation of the source database and its Oracle equivalent.
  
  
• Generate and view a report of the migration.
  
  
• Customize users, tables, indexes, and tablespaces.
  
  
• Customize the default data type mapping rules.
  
  
• Create ANSI-compliant names.
  
  
• Resolve conflicts, such as Oracle reserved words, automatically.
  
  
• Delete and rename objects in the Oracle Model.
  
  
• Migrate individual table data.
  
  
• Use the offline data loading capability when migrating the data to Oracle9i and Oracle8i.

Glossary

The following terms are used to describe the Migration Workbench:

Application System is the database schema and application files that have been developed for a database environment other than Oracle, for example, MySQL.

Capture Wizard is an intuitive wizard that takes a snapshot of the data dictionary of the source database, loads it into the Source Model, and creates the Oracle Model.

Dependency is used to define a relationship between two migration entities. For example, a database view is dependent upon the table it references.

Destination Database is the Oracle database to which the Migration Workbench migrates the data dictionary of the source database.

Migration Component is part of an application system that can be migrated to an Oracle database. Examples of migration components are tables and stored procedures.

Migration Entity is an instance of a migration component. The table EMP would be a migration entity belonging to the table MIGRATION COMPONENT.

Migration Wizard is an intuitive wizard that helps you migrate the source database to Oracle.

Migration Workbench is the graphical tool that allows migration of an application system to an Oracle database environment.

Navigator Pane is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that contains the tree views representing the Source Model and the Oracle Model.

Oracle Model is a a series of Oracle tables that is created from the information in the Source Model. It is a visual representation of how the source database will look when generated in an Oracle environment.

Properties Pane is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that displays the properties of a migration entity that has been selected in one of the tree views in the Navigator Pane.

Progress Window is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that contains informational, error, or warning messages describing the progress of the migration process.

Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of well-defined application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide services that a software developer can use.

Source Database is the database containing the data dictionary of the application system being migrated by the Migration Workbench. The source database is a database other than Oracle, for example, MySQL.

Source Model is a replica of the data dictionary of the source database. It is stored in the Oracle Migration Workbench Repository and is loaded by the Migration Workbench with the contents of the data dictionary of the source database.

Workbench Repository is the area in an Oracle database used to store the persistent information necessary for the Migration Workbench to migrate an application system.