Which is better? SSIS or SSMA?

  • Hi,

    I need to migrate data from Sybase db to SQL2005 db.

    Which is better to use, SSIS or SSMA? Since i am not going to do any transformations on the data, can i go for SSMA instead of SSIS? Does SSMA create the destination tables or do we have to create the tables in the destination table manually?

    Thanks in advance

  • Slightly confused. What are you attempting to accomplish and what is SSMA?

  • Hi,

    I assume you mean Migration Assistant? I haven't used it personally but I am sure someone on here will have an opinion once its clear.

    You would need an ODBC driver if you wanted to use SSIS to connect to your sybase database. Quickly looking at Migration Assistant it does have a Sybase variant so designed for the job and will create the objects for you.

    As SSMA is free I would give it a go. It has all the client tools you need in one package!

    Good luck,

    Steve.

  • This past year we converted multiple instances of Sybase servers having eleven integrated databases on each to MS SQL, and we used the Migration Assistant as one of tools to convert stored procedures and triggers. I don't particularly care for the formatting/look of the code it creates when I was accustomed to the previously human formatted code. That being said, it does a decent job and it is free. I have years of Sybase experience but was new to MS SQL and it helped me learn about the differences in the SQL syntax. We were able to convert large amounts of code quickly. Later as we went through the testing/QA process, I manually converted the code that had issues starting with the original Sybase code. I do not know what SSIS stands for so I am unable to comment on it.

  • tamie.mcdonald (6/23/2009)


    This past year we converted multiple instances of Sybase servers having eleven integrated databases on each to MS SQL, and we used the Migration Assistant as one of tools to convert stored procedures and triggers. I don't particularly care for the formatting/look of the code it creates when I was accustomed to the previously human formatted code. That being said, it does a decent job and it is free. I have years of Sybase experience but was new to MS SQL and it helped me learn about the differences in the SQL syntax. We were able to convert large amounts of code quickly. Later as we went through the testing/QA process, I manually converted the code that had issues starting with the original Sybase code. I do not know what SSIS stands for so I am unable to comment on it.

    SSIS = SQL Server Integration Services

    It is an ETL tool. It does not convert code but is exteremly good for Extracting, Transforming, and Loading data between systems.

  • We did not use SSIS. We found that bcp worked best to transfer data from Sybase to MS SQL with our thousands of tables and many being quite large, and having a small window to convert production use servers. Plus our conversion was a one-time effort since we are eliminating our Sybase server instances.

  • I would go for an hybrid of the two.

    Do you know you can trig SSMA from command line? This way you can execute the SSMA migration as a part of the SSIS solution.

    Once migrated keep doing the extra work with SSIS.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply