Aug 16, 2010 13:50 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has released almost a handful of free tools designed to help customers streamline the migration from MySQL, Sybase, Access and Oracle to SQL Server.

The four tools are a part of the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) family of products, all of which are available for download and usage free of charge.

SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL v1.0 is designed to play nice with MySQL 4.1 and higher, supporting migrations to any edition of SQL Server, including SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Azure.

“The new tool converts or migrates MySQL control statements, cursors, DML statements, stored functions, stored procedures, tables, transactions, triggers and views,” revealed Microsoft’s Wilfried Schadenboeck.

Nest on the list is Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Sybase v4.2, which, as the label implies supports the transition from Sybase ASE version 11.9 and higher to including SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2.

However, unlike SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL v1.0, the tool focused on Sybase v4.2, does not offer customers the possibility to migrate their databases to SQL Azure. “There seems to be no SQL Azure migration option at this time,” Schadenboeck noted.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access v4.2 is designed to migrate customers from Microsoft Access (Access 97 and higher) to SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, but also to SQL Azure.

Users already familiar to the tool will undoubtedly notice that support for SQL Azure is a new addition.

“Access 2010 can connect transparently to SQL Azure data, opening up opportunities for Access users and technology providers to create rich experiences (using the familiar Access application environment they already use) while leveraging the benefits of the cloud on a 'pay as you grow' elastic basis," Schadenboeck added.

And last, but not least, is Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle v4.2. Customers will be able to migrate Oracle 7.3 and higher to any edition of SQL Server.

But once again, this only means SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2, and not the Redmond company’s Cloud database, SQL Azure.

“SSMA for Oracle lets you quickly convert Oracle database schemas to SQL Server schemas, upload the resulting schemas into SQL Server, and migrate data from Oracle to SQL Server. The Extension Pack emulates some of the Oracle functionality,” Microsoft explained. Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL v1.0 is available for download here.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Sybase v4.2 is available for download here.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Access v4.2 is available for download here.

Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle v4.2 is available for download here.