Upgrade with Data Migration Assistant 2.0 and Database Experimentation Assistant Preview
This week as part of Joseph Sirosh’s PASS Summit 2016 keynote, Microsoft announced general availability of Data Migration Assistant v2.0 and the first public preview for Database Experimentation Assistant. Both tools are part of Microsoft’s strategy to make upgrade and migration from earlier versions of SQL Server as seamless and low risk as possible. Database Migration Assistant is a free tool that reduces the effort required to upgrade SQL Server by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality after an upgrade. Database Experimentation Assistant technical preview is a new free tool that enables customers to gather performance insights for upgrades by conducting experiments across two SQL Server versions using production workloads.
Database Migration Assistant automates the potentially overwhelming process of checking database schema and static objects for breaking changes from prior versions. It also recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment. New in this version of Data Migration Assistant is the migration workflow: the capability to move your schema, data, and uncontained objects including user logins from a source server to a SQL Server 2012, 2014 or 2016 target server, either on-premises or in an Azure VM. Database Migration Assistant replaces the previous SQL Server Upgrade Advisor tool.
Database Experimentation Assistant is a new A/B testing solution for SQL Server upgrades. Customers who are upgrading from SQL Server 2005 and above to any new version of the SQL Server can capture key performance insights using a real-world workload. The tool performs statistical analysis on traces captured from two versions of SQL Server and offers the ability to visualize potential performance regressions and errors via analysis reporting. These insights can help build confidence about upgrade among database administrators, IT management and application owners by minimizing upgrade risks.
Together these two tools can help you identify upgrade opportunities, minimize risk, and execute database migrations for a faster, smoother upgrade process. You can get started with your upgrade assessment now by downloading a copy of Data Migration Assistant from the Microsoft Download Center. To preview the new A/B test tool, download a copy of Database Experimentation Assistant. To learn more about SQL Server 2016’s capabilities for building intelligent, mission critical applications you can start a trial evaluation of SQL Server 2016 from the TechNet Evaluation Center.
Learn more about tools for upgrading and migrating SQL Server databases with these additional resources:
