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Database Migration Guide

This guide describes a typical process of database migration using Ispirer SQLWays Wizard page by page. The guide is based on a particular example of sample of migrating an Informix database to Microsoft SQL Server 2012. For another database migration, the DDL and Data options may differ depending on the chosen source and target database management systems, but the configuration and migration process remain the same.

This guide is also applicable to the case when SQLWays Wizard is called from Ispirer Migration Studio to compose a project of the corresponding type (described in the “Database Migration Project” chapter).

The first page of SQLWays Wizard contains information about the license and allows you to select the project directory where the results of the conversion of your database objects and some other intermediate and auxiliary files will be located.

If your version of Ispirer Toolkit is not yet registered or no longer actual, you will see the corresponding text in the “License Information” field (e.g. “This software is not registered.”). Please go to the Enter License Information chapter and follow the instructions to register the toolkit. If your license has expired, please request a new one on the Ispirer website.

For the toolkit that has already been successfully registered with a license that is still actual, you can specify the project directory. In this directory SQLWays Wizard will generate project file that will store information about the current migration process. It is also possible to use the default project path. If you want to pick up ready migration project configurations and redo the migration for the same set of database objects, you can choose the corresponding existing project folder. Additionally, you can modify your previous migration project configuration and save it for future needs. Please take into account that there might be other, no longer actual/needed files in previously used projects folders. Ispirer recommends using different project folders for different migration projects.

Also on this page you need to specify the Export Directory. In this directory the tool puts all the generated files, such as sql files with converted code, txt files with data, bat or sh files with commands, into the native database utilities. The folder name can also be edited right in the corresponding text-editing field. If you are OK with the export directory click “Next >”.


You can find additional information on the Welcome Page.

On the second page, you need to choose the source database that contains objects you want to migrate. For that, please select or create a corresponding ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) that will allow to connect to the database intended for migration. You also need to specify the user and password for that connection, which will be tested after clicking the “Next >” button. To proceed to the following pages and further migration steps, the connection must be successful.

Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The developers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. ODBC is a low-level, high-performance interface designed specifically for relational data stores.

NOTE: SQLWays Wizard works only via an ODBC connection to the source database. This means that before using the tool, you need to install the ODBC driver and tune the ODBC connection to the source database. Some additional information about the ODBC driver installation and configuration can be found on the Database: Setup and Troubleshooting page.

NOTE: The user specified on that page must have enough rights to successfully execute SELECT statements from system tables of the source database. More information about the source database user privileges can be found on the Database: Setup and Troubleshooting page.


You can find additional information on the Source Options page.

On the third page you need to fill the fields identifying the target database: its DBMS, the server and the name of the database itself, as well as the user and password. This information will be used by SQLWays Wizard to generate the correct commands for the target database native utilities.

NOTE: The specified target database and its schemas must already exist and be available by the time the import operations are performed. This wizard does not create a target database. The target database is populated with newly converted objects.

Also here you need to specify a path to the Bin Directory. This is the folder where the target database native utilities are stored on your computer where Ispirer Toolkit is installed. It means that to perform the import to the target database, you need to have the native utility installed on the computer where you run the conversion.


You can find additional information on the Target Options page.

At this step you need to specify the objects to convert by selecting them from the tree of objects extracted from the source database. To select objects for migration you can drag-and-drop them from the left panel to the right one (and backwards) or do that using the buttons at the bottom of the page. After all the needed objects are in the target tree, please click “Next >”.

NOTE: In SQLWays Wizard it is possible to go back and modify the object selection for migration and other options later until the conversion project is started on the Migration Execution Page.


You can find additional information on the Objects Selection page.

On the Conversion Options Page it is possible to modify the DDL and Data options. You can specify different options that can be used to customize the conversion process. In the objects tree, items (database objects) of different levels and types have different available options (e.g. mappings for data types and column names, formats, files, schemas and different types of database objects, etc.).


You can find additional information on the Conversion Options page.

On this page you can view the selected configuration. If you want to change something, you can go back and do it using the Page Navigation Panel or the “< Back” button. An example of what this page looks like is shown below:


You can find additional information on the Summary Page.

After the configuration is complete, you can run the migration. The Toolkit migration process consists of 2 phases: Conversion and Import. During the conversion phase, the tool extracts information about the objects chosen for this migration, converts them and generates the appropriate set of files. During the import phase, the tool tries to create all the converted objects and data in the target database.

In order to run the conversion process, please click the “Start Conversion” button. Information about the conversion output is displayed dynamically in the “Conversion output” text field. After the conversion process is complete, you can run the import process to create the converted objects in the target database. To do this, click the “Start Import” button. If you want to view information about the import output, please switch to the “Import output” tab.

You can enable the “Start Import Automatically” check box before running the conversion, if you see that it may take much time due to the large number of objects and their complexity, and you are not going to monitor the entire conversion phase.

After the migration process, you can view all the generated files in the export directory by clicking the “Export Folder…” button. This button will open a folder with all conversion results along with log files: sqlways.log and sqlways_imp.log. The sqlways.log file stores detailed information about the conversion phase and the sqlways_imp.log file stores information about the import phase. These log files can be helpful for the Ispirer support team to understand the reasons for some issues you may face during the migration, if you provide a corresponding feedback.

Additionally, you can view the migration report by clicking the “Open Report…” button.


You can find additional information on the Migration Execution page.

On the last page of SQLWays Wizard, you can view the reports that provide general information about the migration process:

  • Export/import information;
  • Information about each object and a list of all errors that occurred during the migration process;
  • Recommendations for error resolution and support contact information in case of other technical issues.

After clicking the “Finish” button the migration configuration will be saved for future launches, and SQLWays Wizard will be closed.


An example of the SQLWays Wizard conversion report:


You can find additional information on the Migration Reports page.