Precautions and limits for migrating data from an SQL Server database - Data Transmission Service

This topic describes the precautions and limits that apply when you migrate data from an SQL Server database, such as a self-managed SQL Server database or an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server database. To ensure that your data migration task runs as expected, read the precautions and limits before you configure the task.

Scenarios of migrating data from an SQL Server database

The following list provides the scenarios of migrating data from an SQL Server database. The precautions and limits in the scenarios may vary. You can go to the related section to view the precautions and limits in a specific scenario.

Migrate data between SQL Server databases
Migrate data from an SQL Server database to an AnalyticDB for MySQL cluster
Migrate data from an SQL Server database to an AnalyticDB for PostgreSQL instance

Migrate data between SQL Server databases

Category	Description
Limits on the source database	Bandwidth requirements: The server to which the source database belongs must have sufficient outbound bandwidth. Otherwise, the data migration speed is affected. The tables to be migrated must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records. If you select tables as the objects to be migrated and you need to edit the tables in the destination database, such as renaming tables or columns, you can migrate up to 1,000 tables in a single data migration task. If you run a task to migrate more than 1,000 tables, a request error occurs. In this case, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the tables in batches, or configure a task to migrate the entire database. You can run a single data migration task to migrate up to 10 databases. If you want to migrate more than 10 databases, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the databases in batches. Otherwise, the performance and stability of your data migration task may be compromised. If you need to migrate incremental data, make sure that the following requirements are met: The data logging feature must be enabled. The backup mode must be set to Full and full physical backup must be performed. If you perform only incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for more than 24 hours. If you perform both full data migration and incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for at least seven days. Otherwise, Data Transmission Service (DTS) may fail to obtain the data logs and the task may fail. In exceptional circumstances, data inconsistency or loss may occur. After full data migration is complete, you can set the retention period to more than 24 hours. Make sure that you set the retention period of data logs based on the preceding requirements. Otherwise, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of DTS does not guarantee service reliability or performance. If the change data capture (CDC) feature needs to be enabled for the tables that you want to migrate from the source database, the following conditions must be met. Otherwise, the precheck fails. The value of the srvname field in the sys.sysservers view is the same as the return value of the SERVERPROPERTY function. If the source database is a self-managed SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sa user. If the source database is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sqlsa user. If the source database is of Enterprise Edition, you must use SQL Server 2008 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition, you must use SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition and its version is SQL Server 2017, we recommend that you update the version. DTS uses the fn_log function to obtain logs of the source database. However, this function has performance bottlenecks. We recommend that you do not clear the logs of the source database before the task is complete. Otherwise, the task may fail. Limits on operations to be performed on the source database: During schema migration and full data migration, do not perform DDL operations to change the schemas of databases or tables. Otherwise, the data migration task fails. If you perform only full data migration, do not write data to the source database during data migration. Otherwise, data inconsistency may occur between the source and destination databases. To ensure data consistency, we recommend that you select schema migration, full data migration, and incremental data migration as the migration types. If the source database is a read-only instance, you cannot migrate DDL operations. In hybrid log-based parsing mode, you cannot perform multiple operations to add columns to or remove columns from the source database within 10 minutes. For example, if you execute the following SQL statements within 10 minutes, an error is reported for the task. `ALTER TABLE test_table DROP COLUMN Flag; ALTER TABLE test_table ADD Remark nvarchar(50) not null default('');`
Other limits	DTS does not migrate data of the following types: TEXT, CURSOR, ROWVERSION, SQL_VARIANT, HIERACHYID, and GEOMETRY. If you set the SQL Server Incremental Synchronization Mode parameter to Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database in the Configure Objects and Advanced Settings step, the tables to be migrated must have clustered indexes that contain primary key columns. In addition, the tables to be migrated cannot be heap tables, compressed tables, tables without primary keys, or tables with computed columns. Ignore the preceding limits if the hybrid log-based parsing mode is used. Note For more information about how to view table information, see the How do I view the information about heap tables, tables without primary keys, compressed tables, and tables that contain computed columns in an SQL Server database? section of the "FAQ" topic. If you want to migrate data between different versions of databases, make sure that the database versions are compatible. In Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history in the source database to ensure that the latency of data migration is accurate. In hybrid log-based parsing incremental synchronization mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history and enables CDC for the source database and specific tables. We recommend that you set the maximum number of records per second to 1,000 for the tables for which CDC is enabled in the source database. Before you migrate data, evaluate the impact of data migration on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you migrate data during off-peak hours. During full data migration, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads on the database servers. During full data migration, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. After full data migration is complete, the size of used tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database. Make sure that the precision settings for columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type meet your business requirements. DTS uses the `ROUND(COLUMN,PRECISION)` function to retrieve values from columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type. If you do not specify a precision, DTS sets the precision for columns of the FLOAT data type to 38 digits and the precision for columns of the DOUBLE data type to 308 digits. DTS attempts to resume data migration tasks that failed within the last seven days. Before you switch workloads to the destination database, you must stop or release the failed tasks. You can also execute the `REVOKE` statement to revoke the write permissions from the accounts that are used by DTS to access the destination database. Otherwise, the data in the source database overwrites the data in the destination database after a failed task is resumed. If the data migration task involves incremental data migration, DTS does not allow you to perform the reindexing operation. If you perform the reindexing operation, the data migration task may fail, or even data loss may occur. Note DTS cannot migrate DDL operations related to the primary key of a table for which CDC is enabled. If the number of CDC-enabled tables to be migrated in a single migration task exceeds 1,000, the precheck fails. To perform incremental data migration, you must disable the trigger and foreign keys in the destination database. Otherwise, the data migration task fails.
Special cases	If the source instance is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance, DTS automatically creates an account named `rdsdt_dtsacct` within the ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. This account is used for data migration. Do not delete this account or change the password of this account when your data migration task is running. Otherwise, the task may fail. For more information, see System accounts. If the destination instance is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance, DTS automatically creates a destination database in the ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. However, if the name of the database to be migrated does not conform to the naming convention of ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instances, you must manually create a database in the destination ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance before you configure a data migration task. For more information, see Create a database.

Migrate data from an SQL Server database to an AnalyticDB for MySQL cluster

Category	Description
Limits on the source database	Bandwidth requirements: The server to which the source database belongs must have sufficient outbound bandwidth. Otherwise, the data migration speed is affected. The tables to be migrated must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records. If you select tables as the objects to be migrated and you need to edit the tables in the destination database, such as renaming tables or columns, you can migrate up to 1,000 tables in a single data migration task. If you run a task to migrate more than 1,000 tables, a request error occurs. In this case, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the tables in batches, or configure a task to migrate the entire database. You can run a single data migration task to migrate up to 10 databases. If you want to migrate more than 10 databases, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the databases in batches. Otherwise, the performance and stability of your data migration task may be compromised. If you need to migrate incremental data, make sure that the following requirements are met: The data logging feature must be enabled. The backup mode must be set to Full and full physical backup must be performed. If you perform only incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for more than 24 hours. If you perform both full data migration and incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for at least seven days. Otherwise, Data Transmission Service (DTS) may fail to obtain the data logs and the task may fail. In exceptional circumstances, data inconsistency or loss may occur. After full data migration is complete, you can set the retention period to more than 24 hours. Make sure that you set the retention period of data logs based on the preceding requirements. Otherwise, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of DTS does not guarantee service reliability or performance. If the change data capture (CDC) feature needs to be enabled for the tables that you want to migrate from the source database, the following conditions must be met. Otherwise, the precheck fails. The value of the srvname field in the sys.sysservers view is the same as the return value of the SERVERPROPERTY function. If the source database is a self-managed SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sa user. If the source database is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sqlsa user. If the source database is of Enterprise Edition, you must use SQL Server 2008 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition, you must use SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition and its version is SQL Server 2017, we recommend that you update the version. DTS uses the fn_log function to obtain logs of the source database. However, this function has performance bottlenecks. We recommend that you do not clear the logs of the source database before the task is complete. Otherwise, the task may fail. Limits on operations to be performed on the source database: During schema migration and full data migration, do not perform DDL operations to change the schemas of databases or tables. Otherwise, the data migration task fails. If you perform only full data migration, do not write data to the source database during data migration. Otherwise, data inconsistency may occur between the source and destination databases. To ensure data consistency, we recommend that you select schema migration, full data migration, and incremental data migration as the migration types. If the source database is a read-only instance, you cannot migrate DDL operations. In hybrid log-based parsing mode, you cannot perform multiple operations to add columns to or remove columns from the source database within 10 minutes. For example, if you execute the following SQL statements within 10 minutes, an error is reported for the task. `ALTER TABLE test_table DROP COLUMN Flag; ALTER TABLE test_table ADD Remark nvarchar(50) not null default('');`
Other limits	DTS does not migrate data of the following types: TIMESTAMP, CURSOR, ROWVERSION, HIERACHYID, SQL_VARIANT, SPATIAL GEOMETRY, SPATIAL GEOGRAPHY, and TABLE. If DDL statements fail to be executed in the destination database, the DTS task continues to run. You can view the DDL statements that fail to be executed in the task logs. For more information about how to view the task logs, see View task logs. If you set the SQL Server Incremental Synchronization Mode parameter to Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database in the Configure Objects and Advanced Settings step, the tables to be migrated must have clustered indexes that contain primary key columns. In addition, the tables to be migrated cannot be heap tables, compressed tables, tables without primary keys, or tables with computed columns. Ignore the preceding limits if the hybrid log-based parsing mode is used. Note For more information about how to view table information, see the How do I view the information about heap tables, tables without primary keys, compressed tables, and tables that contain computed columns in an SQL Server database? section of the "FAQ" topic. In Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history in the source database to ensure that the latency of data migration is accurate. In hybrid log-based parsing incremental synchronization mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history and enables CDC for the source database and specific tables. We recommend that you set the maximum number of records per second to 1,000 for the tables for which CDC is enabled in the source database. Due to the limits of AnalyticDB for MySQL clusters, if the disk space usage of the nodes in an AnalyticDB for MySQL cluster exceeds 80%, the performance of data writing to the destination database is compromised, and the DTS task is delayed. If the disk space usage of the node in the AnalyticDB for MySQL cluster exceeds 90%, data cannot be written to the destination database and error messages are returned. We recommend that you estimate the required disk space based on the objects to be migrated. You must make sure that the destination cluster has sufficient storage space. Before you migrate data, evaluate the impact of data migration on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you migrate data during off-peak hours. During full data migration, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads on the database servers. During full data migration, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. After full data migration is complete, the size of used tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database. Make sure that the precision settings for columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type meet your business requirements. DTS uses the `ROUND(COLUMN,PRECISION)` function to retrieve values from columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type. If you do not specify a precision, DTS sets the precision for columns of the FLOAT data type to 38 digits and the precision for columns of the DOUBLE data type to 308 digits. DTS attempts to resume data migration tasks that failed within the last seven days. Before you switch workloads to the destination database, you must stop or release the failed tasks. You can also execute the `REVOKE` statement to revoke the write permissions from the accounts that are used by DTS to access the destination database. Otherwise, the data in the source database overwrites the data in the destination database after a failed task is resumed. If the data migration task involves incremental data migration, DTS does not allow you to perform the reindexing operation. If you perform the reindexing operation, the data migration task may fail, or even data loss may occur. Note DTS cannot migrate DDL operations related to the primary key of a table for which CDC is enabled. If the number of CDC-enabled tables to be migrated in a single migration task exceeds 1,000, the precheck fails.
Special cases	If the source instance is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance, DTS automatically creates an account named `rdsdt_dtsacct` within the ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. This account is used for data migration. Do not delete this account or change the password of this account when your data migration task is running. Otherwise, the task may fail. For more information, see System accounts.

Migrate data from an SQL Server database to an AnalyticDB for PostgreSQL instance

Category	Description
Limits on the source database	Bandwidth requirements: The server to which the source database belongs must have sufficient outbound bandwidth. Otherwise, the data migration speed is affected. The tables to be migrated must have PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and all fields must be unique. Otherwise, the destination database may contain duplicate data records. If you select tables as the objects to be migrated and you need to edit the tables in the destination database, such as renaming tables or columns, you can migrate up to 1,000 tables in a single data migration task. If you run a task to migrate more than 1,000 tables, a request error occurs. In this case, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the tables in batches, or configure a task to migrate the entire database. You can run a single data migration task to migrate up to 10 databases. If you want to migrate more than 10 databases, we recommend that you configure multiple tasks to migrate the databases in batches. Otherwise, the performance and stability of your data migration task may be compromised. If you need to migrate incremental data, make sure that the following requirements are met: The data logging feature must be enabled. The backup mode must be set to Full and full physical backup must be performed. If you perform only incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for more than 24 hours. If you perform both full data migration and incremental data migration, the data logs of the source database must be stored for at least seven days. Otherwise, Data Transmission Service (DTS) may fail to obtain the data logs and the task may fail. In exceptional circumstances, data inconsistency or loss may occur. After full data migration is complete, you can set the retention period to more than 24 hours. Make sure that you set the retention period of data logs based on the preceding requirements. Otherwise, the Service Level Agreement (SLA) of DTS does not guarantee service reliability or performance. If the change data capture (CDC) feature needs to be enabled for the tables that you want to migrate from the source database, the following conditions must be met. Otherwise, the precheck fails. The value of the srvname field in the sys.sysservers view is the same as the return value of the SERVERPROPERTY function. If the source database is a self-managed SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sa user. If the source database is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server database, the database owner must be the sqlsa user. If the source database is of Enterprise Edition, you must use SQL Server 2008 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition, you must use SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later. If the source database is of Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition and its version is SQL Server 2017, we recommend that you update the version. DTS uses the fn_log function to obtain logs of the source database. However, this function has performance bottlenecks. We recommend that you do not clear the logs of the source database before the task is complete. Otherwise, the task may fail. Limits on operations to be performed on the source database: During schema migration and full data migration, do not perform DDL operations to change the schemas of databases or tables. Otherwise, the data migration task fails. If you perform only full data migration, do not write data to the source database during data migration. Otherwise, data inconsistency may occur between the source and destination databases. To ensure data consistency, we recommend that you select schema migration, full data migration, and incremental data migration as the migration types. If the source database is a read-only instance, you cannot migrate DDL operations. In hybrid log-based parsing mode, you cannot perform multiple operations to add columns to or remove columns from the source database within 10 minutes. For example, if you execute the following SQL statements within 10 minutes, an error is reported for the task. `ALTER TABLE test_table DROP COLUMN Flag; ALTER TABLE test_table ADD Remark nvarchar(50) not null default('');`
Other limits	DTS does not migrate data of the following types: TIMESTAMP, CURSOR, ROWVERSION, HIERACHYID, SQL_VARIANT, SPATIAL GEOMETRY, SPATIAL GEOGRAPHY, and TABLE. If you select tables as the objects to be migrated, you can modify the mapping relation between columns. If column mapping is used for non-full table migration or if the schemas of the source and destination tables are inconsistent, the data in the columns of the source database that are not contained in the destination database will be lost. The table cannot be an append-optimized (AO) table. If you set the SQL Server Incremental Synchronization Mode parameter to Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database in the Configure Objects and Advanced Settings step, the tables to be migrated must have clustered indexes that contain primary key columns. In addition, the tables to be migrated cannot be heap tables, compressed tables, tables without primary keys, or tables with computed columns. Ignore the preceding limits if the hybrid log-based parsing mode is used. Note For more information about how to view table information, see the How do I view the information about heap tables, tables without primary keys, compressed tables, and tables that contain computed columns in an SQL Server database? section of the "FAQ" topic. In Incremental Synchronization Based on Logs of Source Database mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history in the source database to ensure that the latency of data migration is accurate. In hybrid log-based parsing incremental synchronization mode, DTS creates a trigger named dts_cdc_sync_ddl, a heartbeat table named dts_sync_progress, and a DDL history table named dts_cdc_ddl_history and enables CDC for the source database and specific tables. We recommend that you set the maximum number of records per second to 1,000 for the tables for which CDC is enabled in the source database. Before you migrate data, evaluate the impact of data migration on the performance of the source and destination databases. We recommend that you migrate data during off-peak hours. During full data migration, DTS uses the read and write resources of the source and destination databases. This may increase the loads on the database servers. During full data migration, concurrent INSERT operations cause fragmentation in the tables of the destination database. After full data migration is complete, the size of used tablespace of the destination database is larger than that of the source database. Make sure that the precision settings for columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type meet your business requirements. DTS uses the `ROUND(COLUMN,PRECISION)` function to retrieve values from columns of the FLOAT or DOUBLE data type. If you do not specify a precision, DTS sets the precision for columns of the FLOAT data type to 38 digits and the precision for columns of the DOUBLE data type to 308 digits. DTS attempts to resume data migration tasks that failed within the last seven days. Before you switch workloads to the destination database, you must stop or release the failed tasks. You can also execute the `REVOKE` statement to revoke the write permissions from the accounts that are used by DTS to access the destination database. Otherwise, the data in the source database overwrites the data in the destination database after a failed task is resumed. If the data migration task involves incremental data migration, DTS does not allow you to perform the reindexing operation. If you perform the reindexing operation, the data migration task may fail, or even data loss may occur. Note DTS cannot migrate DDL operations related to the primary key of a table for which CDC is enabled. If the number of CDC-enabled tables to be migrated in a single migration task exceeds 1,000, the precheck fails.
Special cases	If the source instance is an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance, DTS automatically creates an account named `rdsdt_dtsacct` within the ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance. This account is used for data migration. Do not delete this account or change the password of this account when your data migration task is running. Otherwise, the task may fail. For more information, see System accounts.