DB2 backup and migration

arien · New User Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 43 Location: London

Hi,

I am currently working on a migration project with DB2 where I have tables, views, SPs and batch programs that need to be migrated to SQL server.

How do I take backup of all these and work out this migration? Can someone help me with the UNLOAD statement too

Thanks,
Arien

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:36 am

honestly do not have any experience here,
but, (I will post my ideas anyway)

when you migrate to something,
often the something will have suggestions on how to migrate from other systems to the new.
Since the sellers of the new system want your firm to buy their stuff,
they will provide support (documentation at least)
to enable the customer to 'get off' that old stuff and
migrate to the new stuff with as little problem as possible.

I would not rely on the old stuff to be prolific about how you can easily migrate to other stuff

dbzTHEdinosauer · Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 1:19 am

google provided:

a link to a microsoft pdf download for migrating from db2 to sql server

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 1:47 am

Hello,

Moving the data and the meta-data should be rather straightforward - as long as the data is extracted properly on the sending system (for many years my primary involvement has been moving data and the supporting application inventory and batch processes between the 3 main platforms - IBM mainframe, UNIX, and Win-based systems).

The biggest challange that i've encountered is the movement of the application inventory (which includes utility functions that have been incorporated) and the batch processes. On many systems there are thousands of batch processes that run multiple times a day, daily, weekly, etc. These need to be re-implemented on the target platform.

If the application code is to be replaced with purchased code, a major effort is avoided, but the purchased code will not have exactly the same "rules" as the existing system. So some customization will be needed or someone will have to change the way they work (often not acceptable and not determined by the IT people).

If the existing code is to be re-implemented on the target, compatability may become an issue. While COBOL is COBOL, it is not exactly the same cross-platform. Collating sequence differences will also play a part.

Before this is a "go" hopefully, there will be or has been an investment if a "proof of concept" that would bring a few tables, that data, and some of the associated code to determine how big a task it will be.

The topic is rather too much to deal with as a forum topic. . .

arien · New User Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 43 Location: London

Thanks all for the pointers and your inputs.

Can we UNLOAD a table into a pipe-delimited flat file ? I think this will solve some part of my migration related query. Or do I need to write a program in order to do so ?

Also, I am working on the data type mapping between DB2 to SQL, so that I can migrate the table structure first.

Hope I am moving in the right direction..

cheers

dick scherrer · Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:27 am

Hello,

Creating a delimited file is the way to go (imho).

You need to make sure the data fields are all text fields. No packed-decimal, no signed zoned-decimal, no binary numbers, no bit-switches, etc. Also, it works best if you download punctuated quantity/amount/rate/etc fields (i.e. 12,456.00-).

Something i've done quite a few times is to take the CREATE sql from the sending system and simply try it on the target. Depending on what happens, go from there. Once you've done a few, the kinds of definitions that need to be changed will be identified.

arien · New User Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 43 Location: London

Thanks d. sch.