Migrating SQL Server Databases to Amazon RDS for SQL Server - Database Migration Guide
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Migrating SQL Server Databases to Amazon RDS for SQL Server

This walkthrough gets you started with homogeneous database migration from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server. This guide provides a quick overview of the data migration process and provides suggestions on how to select the best option to use.

Customers looking to migrate self-managed SQL Server databases to Amazon RDS for SQL Server, can use one of the three main approaches.

  • Use a native database migration method such as backup and restore.

  • Use a managed service such as Amazon DMS.

  • Use a native tool for full load and a managed Amazon DMS service for ongoing replication. We call this strategy the hybrid approach.

The following diagram shows the hybrid approach. Here, we use one of the three native tools for full load, and Amazon DMS for ongoing replication.

Hybrid approach for SQL Server to Amazon RDS for SQL Server migration

The hybrid approach provides the simplicity of the native tools with additional built-in capabilities of Amazon DMS. These include:

  • Data validation

  • Customizable source object selection rules

  • Data filtering

  • Renaming target tables or columns

  • Data transformations

  • Data partitioning

This document describes in detail the three full load migration methods. This guide helps you evaluate each method for your migration requirements. In the end, you can find a brief description of how to use Amazon DMS for ongoing replication.

Topics