CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-serverpostgresqlmigration
Fred
Fred

Reputation: 4076

migrate data from MS SQL to PostgreSQL?

I've looked around and can't seem to find anything that answers this specific question.

What is the simplest way to move data from an MS SQL Server 2005 DB to a Postgres install (8.x)?

I've looked into several utilities like "Full Convert Enterprise", etc, and they all fail for one reason or another, ranging from strange errors that make it blow up to inserting nulls rather than actual data (wth?).

I'm looking at a DB with all table except for a single view, no stored procs, functions, etc.

At this point I'm about to write a small utility to do it for me, I just can't believe that's necessary. Surely there's something somewhere that can do this? I'm not even too worried about cost, although free is preferable :)

Upvotes: 37

Views: 79403

Answers (6)

Agasi Mkhitaryan
Agasi Mkhitaryan

Reputation: 180

I had a problem with SSMS and bit values (1/0 in SqlServer, but in PostgreSql it is true/false) so I searched and stopped on DBeaver, it's free and pretty much maps the tables and columns all by himself so it's very easy. On a relatively small values (~100 tables, ~20mil rows) it performs fine, under 30min.
However, on large tables (~10mil+ rows) with significant amount of columns it may struggle. I ended up using DBeaver for everything except the big table which I exported via SSIS in CSV format and imported in PostgreSql via COPY command. Also dropping PK, Contraints, indexes on the large table and re-adding them after the migration helped a lot.
If you're running PostgreSql on linux, you may consider using FDW which can import schema and data without much effort.

Upvotes: 0

Mario Ariyanto
Mario Ariyanto

Reputation: 326

This answer is to help summarize current connection string because someone may overlooked the comment.

Current version of ODBC connection string is:

For 32-bit system

Driver={PostgreSQL UNICODE};Server=192.168.1.xxx;Port=5432;Database=yourDBname;Uid=postgres;Pwd=admin;

For 64-bit system

Driver={PostgreSQL UNICODE(x64)};Server=192.168.1.xxx;Port=5432;Database=yourDBname;Uid=postgres;Pwd=admin;

You can check the driver name by typing ODBC in windows search. And open ODBC Data Source Administrator

Upvotes: 0

Ehsan Mirsaeedi
Ehsan Mirsaeedi

Reputation: 7592

I don't know why nobody has mentioned the simplest and easiest way using robust MS SQL Server Management Studio.

Simply you just need to use the built-in SSIS Import/export feature. You can follow these steps:

  1. Firstly, you need to install the PostgreSQL ODBC Driver for Windows. It's very important to install the correct version in terms of CPU arch (x86/x64).

  2. Inside Management Studio, Right click on your database: Tasks -> Export Data

  3. Choose SQL Server Native Client as the data source.

  4. Choose .Net Framework Data Provider for ODBC as the destination driver.

  5. Set the Connection String to your database in the following form:

    Driver={PostgreSQL ODBC Driver(UNICODE)};Server=;Port=;Database=;UID=;PWD=

  6. In the next page, you just need to select which tables you want to export. SQL Server will generate a default mapping and you are free to edit it. Probably you`ll encounter some Type Mismatch problems which take some time to solve. For example, if you have a boolean column in SQL Server you should export it as int4.

Microsoft Docs hosts a detailed description of connecting to PostgreSQL through ODBC.

PS: if you want to see your installed ODBC Driver, you need to check it via ODBC Data Source Administrator.

Upvotes: 50

Magnus Hagander
Magnus Hagander

Reputation: 25088

You can use the MS DTS functionality (renamed to SSIS in the latest version I think). One issue with the DTS is that I've been unable to make it do a commit after each row when loading the data into pg. Which is fine if you only have a couple of 100k rows or so, but it's really very slow.

I usually end up writing a small script that dumps the data out of SQLServer in CSV format, and then use COPY WITH CSV on the PostgreSQL side.

Both those only take care of the data though. Taking care of the schema is a bit harder, since datatypes don't necessarily map straight over. But it can easily be scripted together with a static load of the schema. If the schema is simple (just varchar/int datatypes for example), that part can also easily be scripted off the data in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.

Upvotes: 5

Milen A. Radev
Milen A. Radev

Reputation: 62573

Take a look at the Software Catalogue. Under Administration/development tools I see DBConvert for MS SQL & PostgreSQL. Probably there are other similar tools listed.

Upvotes: 9

Matthew Talbert
Matthew Talbert

Reputation: 6048

Well there are .NET bindings for MS SQL Server 2005 (obviously) and also for PostgreSQL. So it would only take a few lines of code to code up a program that could transfer data safely from one to the other. The view would probably have to be done manually as Postgres doesn't use the same language for views as SQL Server.

Upvotes: 0

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