Overview
This tutorial guides you through the process of migrating your on-premises SQL Server databases to Azure SQL Database. Azure SQL Database offers a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) database engine that handles most database management functions, such as upgrading, patching, and backups, without administrative intervention.
Migrating to Azure SQL Database can provide benefits such as:
- Reduced operational overhead.
- Scalability and performance options.
- Enhanced security and compliance.
- High availability and disaster recovery.
Prerequisites
Before you begin the migration, ensure you have the following:
- An Azure subscription.
- An Azure SQL Database server and database created.
- Permissions to access your on-premises SQL Server instance.
- The Azure Data Migration Assistant (DMA) installed. You can download it from the Microsoft Download Center.
- Network connectivity between your on-premises environment and Azure.
Migration Steps
The migration process is typically divided into three main phases: Discover and Assess, Migrate, and Post-Migration.
Discover and Assess
Use the Azure Data Migration Assistant (DMA) to assess your on-premises SQL Server databases for compatibility with Azure SQL Database. DMA identifies potential compatibility issues and provides recommendations for remediation.
- Launch DMA.
- Create a new assessment project.
- Select your source server type (SQL Server) and target server type (Azure SQL Database).
- Specify the databases to assess.
- Review the assessment report, focusing on feature parity, breaking changes, and recommended database features.
For more detailed guidance, refer to the DMA assessment documentation.
Migrate
Once your databases are assessed and any compatibility issues are addressed, you can proceed with the migration. Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) can be used for a seamless migration experience, especially for larger or mission-critical databases.
Using Azure Data Migration Service (DMS):
- Create an Azure DMS instance in your Azure subscription.
- Create a migration project within DMS, specifying your source (on-premises SQL Server) and target (Azure SQL Database).
- Configure migration settings, including connection details and the databases to migrate.
- Choose an online or offline migration strategy based on your downtime tolerance.
- Start the migration task and monitor its progress through the Azure portal.
Alternatively, you can use DMA for smaller migrations or specific tasks like schema migration.
Refer to the DMS online migration tutorial for detailed steps.
Post-Migration
After the data has been migrated, you need to perform post-migration tasks to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
- Update connection strings in your applications to point to the new Azure SQL Database.
- Perform thorough testing of your applications against the migrated database.
- Monitor performance and optimize as needed.
Post-Migration Validation
It is crucial to validate the migrated database to ensure data integrity and application functionality.
- Data Integrity Checks: Run queries to compare row counts and critical data points between the source and target databases.
- Application Functionality Testing: Execute all critical application workflows and test various user scenarios.
- Performance Benchmarking: Compare the performance of key queries and transactions against pre-migration benchmarks.
- Login and Permissions: Verify that all necessary logins, users, and permissions have been migrated correctly.
Cleanup
Once you are confident that the migration is successful and your applications are running smoothly with Azure SQL Database, you can decommission your on-premises SQL Server instance.
- Ensure all applications are pointing to Azure SQL Database.
- Back up your on-premises SQL Server one last time.
- Stop and uninstall the on-premises SQL Server instance.
- Remove any redundant Azure resources that were created for the migration process.
Next Steps
Congratulations on successfully migrating your SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database! To further enhance your cloud database experience, consider exploring: