So you want to move one or more of your applications
and their databases to the cloud. It's a noble idea. More than likely,
you're in the same category as countless others who are looking into
moving applications into the cloud: you don't want to start from
scratch. You'd rather migrate an existing application to the cloud, but
you aren't sure about the steps necessary to do so, or the technologies
available to help in the process. This section discusses three tools
from Microsoft and come with SQL Server:
In addition to these
three tools, we will also briefly mention a free utility found on
CodePlex called the SQL Azure Migration Wizard which provides a
wizard-driven interface to walk you through migrating your database and
data to SQL Azure.
The examples in this article use SQL Server 2008 R2 Community Technology Preview (CTP), which at the
time of this writing is available from Microsoft's MSDN site. These
examples also work with SQL Server 2008, although some the screens may
be a bit different.
You may wonder why the SQL
Server Import and Export Wizard isn't listed here. The answer is that
the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard isn't supported for SQL Azure
yet. Microsoft is working on it. No timeframe has been given as to when
the Import/Export Wizard will support SQL Azure, but support is
definitely in the works.
The database you use in these
examples is TechBio, which you can download from the Apress web site for
this book. This sample database is a mini version of the TechBio
database that is behind the TechBio application found in the download
for this book.
1. Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard
The Generate and Publish
Scripts Wizard is used to create T-SQL scripts for SQL Server databases
and/or related objects within the selected database. You have probably
used this wizard, so this section doesn't walk through it step by step;
instead, the section briefly highlights a few steps in the wizard and
points out the options necessary to effectively work with SQL Azure.
SQL Server 2008 R2 comes
with the ability to script an on-premises database for the SQL Azure
environment. Because many haven't moved to SQL Server 2008 R2, the
examples in this section use the version prior to R2, which is the
original release of SQL Server 2008.
One of the
differences between SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 (pertaining
to object scripting) is a setting in the Advanced Scripting Options
dialog as you go through the wizard. This dialog includes two properties
you can set regarding the version of SQL Server for which you're
scripting database objects: Script for Server Version and "Script for
the database engine type." The Script for Server Version option lists
the version of SQL Server that the Generate and Publish Scripts wizard
supports, which ranges from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008 R2.
The "Script for the
database engine type" property has two options you can choose from:
"Stand-alone instance" and "SQL Azure database." The "SQL Azure
database" option only works with the SQL Server 2008 R2 Server version.
For example, if you set the Script for Server version to SQL Server 2008
(non R2) and then set the "Script for the database engine type"
property to "SQL Azure database," the Script for Server version property
value automatically changes to SQL Server 2008 R2.
The Generate and Publish
Scripts Wizard does a really nice job of appropriately scripting
objects for SQL Azure. The wizard checks for unsupported syntax and data
types, and checks for primary keys on each table. Thus, the following
example sets SQL for Server Version to SQL Server 2008 (non R2) for
several reasons. First, many people aren't using SQL Server 2008 R2 and
therefore don't have the option to script for SQL Azure. Second, this
exercise shows you what steps are needed to get a script ready to run in
SQL Azure.
1.1. Starting the Wizard
To start the Generate and
Publish Scripts Wizard in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), open
Object Explorer and expand the Databases node. Select a database,
right-click it, and then select Generate Scripts from the context menu.
On the wizard's Introduction
page for SQL Server 2008 R2, you're informed that you must follow four
steps to complete this wizard:
Specify scripting or publishing objects.
The following sections work through these steps.
1.2. Choosing Target Objects
To select your target database objects, follow these steps:
On the Introduction page of the Generate and Publish Scripts Wizard, click Next.
On the Choose Objects page (see Figure 5-1),
select the "Select specific database objects" option, because for the
purposes of this example, you simply want to select a few objects to
migrate.
In the list of objects in Figure 1, expand the Tables and Stored Procedures nodes, and select the following objects:
Tables: Docs, UserDoc, and Users
Stored procedures: proc_CreateProfile, proc_GetDocument, and proc_UpdateDocFile
Click Next on the Choose Objects page.
On the Set Scripting Objects page, select the "Save to new query window" option shown in Figure 2, and then click the Advanced button.
