Access Migration Strategies Jeff Dumas Technical Specialist – SQL Server Microsoft Corporation Tim Langrave President 2 nd Genesis Software

Agenda Problem Overview Migration Options and Considerations Access Conversion Data Migration Application Migration Tools Access Conversion Toolkit SQL Upsizing 2 nd Genesis.Net Migration Tools Q&A

Problem Overview Key Business Concerns Access 97 files are a primary obstacle to organizational upgrades of Microsoft Office Access databases created by business units that are not in compliance with company and regulatory security guidelines Access databases have limited security options Access applications have grown beyond expectations and are pushing Jet capacity limits Desire to leverage web technologies and new technology (.Net) Need to prioritize resources and improve business performance and agility Need greater employee productivity Information is disconnected, requiring rudimentary analysis time-after-time Greater alignment organizational strategic and operational goals As of Dec. 31st 2003, Access 97 will no longer be supported by Microsoft Product Support Services

Problem Overview What we’ve heard from customers… Need a clear path to upsize Access databases to.Net when necessary Converting Access 9X databases to 200X can be difficult Best practices for migrating and converting databases need to be documented Customers need to operate in mixed mode with both Access 9X and 200X versions Sharing Access Databases across a network can result in bandwidth issues unless properly designed

Problem Overview Drivers and Objectives Drivers Unknown number and configuration of Access databasesUnknown number and configuration of Access databases No enforceable database security policyNo enforceable database security policy Business critical systems are managed by business unitsBusiness critical systems are managed by business units Systems frequently have overlapping functionality and data setsSystems frequently have overlapping functionality and data sets Systems are frequently corrupted and in need of maintenanceSystems are frequently corrupted and in need of maintenance ? Objectives Known number, configuration, owner, and purpose of Access databasesKnown number, configuration, owner, and purpose of Access databases Enforceable policy for security and designEnforceable policy for security and design Business critical systems are controlled by business units but under IT supervisionBusiness critical systems are controlled by business units but under IT supervision Systems can by easily linked and make use of existing functionalitySystems can by easily linked and make use of existing functionality Systems require less maintenance, have better performance, and scale to meet additional demandSystems require less maintenance, have better performance, and scale to meet additional demand

Migration Paths Migration paths include Eliminate (no longer in use, should be archived) Confine (leave the database in its existing format and schedule maintenance) Upgrade (to current version of Access) Split Database (migrate data to SQL Server/Access backend, leave the front end in Access) Consolidate (move multiple similar databases into one database and extract the front end from the data layer) Re-develop (to the.Net platform)

What Can We Do To Help? Access Upgrades Access Conversion Toolkit Split Database and Consolidation Access 2 SQL Server Migration Resource Kit Application Migration.Net Migration Tools

What Can We Do To Help? Access Upgrades Access Conversion Toolkit Split Database and Consolidation Access 2 SQL Server Migration Resource Kit Application Migration.Net Migration Tools

Customer conversion concerns Customers not deploying Access XP and Access 2003 Concerned about conversion problems Unknown number of databases How to handle mixed environment Do not know how to even start costing

Scoping the problem… Access 97 was a road block to customer deployments of Office XP and Office 2003 Driven by Customers and Microsoft field teams Action: Learn more about the problem Conducted 20 customer site visits Covered four countries: US, UK, Germany and France Surveyed over 1000 Access users Acquired details on Access conversion errors Result: Rolled up the findings to drive conversion toolkit requirements

Problem research Customers had no idea of the scope of the conversion problem Found that many of the conversion issues were false positives DAO 2.5/3.5 conversion library errors Compile errors from original database Unknown number of databases in the organization Customers needed better control of when/which databases get converted Need more documentation about conversion

Microsoft Office Access Conversion Toolkit Goal: Allow customers to complete their deployment of Office XP/2003 by reducing conversion pain associated with Access 97 conversions. Scope Access usage and change perception!

Conversion Toolkit Plan Fix Access EXE in XP SP3 and 2003 SP1 to not report false errors Build tools that help the customer understand the scope of the problem Have more comprehensive documentation about conversion

Microsoft Office Access Conversion Toolkit Scanning Tool Scans server share for MDB’s at the file level, DAO level and Access level properties Reporting Front End Canned reports that make sense of the data returned from the scanning tool Changes to the msaccess.exe Corrected top conversion errors eLearning and Documentation Best practices and guidelines to aid our customers through Access 97 conversion

MSACCESS.EXE Changes No longer record conversion errors for: DAO 2.5/3.5 compatibility layer reference Jet SQL help library reference Compile errors Added NoConvertDialog database property

Scanning tool

Goals Interactive and command line usage Simplify development and maintenance Results easily imported by Access

Data Collected File Properties Date Created Date Modified DAO Properties Count of Tables, Queries, Forms, etc. Connect Strings, Record Count Access Properties VBA References

Scanner Demo

Reporting tool

Reporting Tool Access application that contains pre-built forms and reports to facilitate the scanning

Reporting Tool Intake data Import XML files from the scanner tool Call scanning tool to analyze particular databases Surface scanning options in UI Scan for databases Search a server or share for databases to analyze Present user with list of databases to scan Identify possible conversion issues Searches properties for known Access conversion issues Missing / Bad references Reserved names as object names More… Charts / Reports Outline database complexity Allow user to see and interact with scanned information

Reporting Demo

Documentation Step by Step through entire processes Understanding the problem Deployment plans Mixed environments Splitting MDBs Conversion errors Best practices

Customer Site Visit Findings Perceptions of Conversion Issues Unidentified Scope of Number of Access Databases Corporate Wide IT versus Department Control Issues Specific Customer Requests “Comfort Factor” at the End of our Visits

Perception of Access Conversion Issues Universally, customers expected that the process of converting their Access databases was going to require intense manual user intervention on a database by database issue. IT and Departmental personnel could not articulate what any expected conversion issues might be Reputation and word of mouth seems to be the source of the customers conversion expectations.

Unknown Use of Databases Corporate-Wide Since the IT departments in most company do not regulate Access use, they do not have any idea of the number of databases they have corporate wide, what they are used for, and where they are located IT acknowledged the reason why Access was used and that it would continue to be used in the future Even with our tool to scan servers, tracking individual owners / users / developers of databases will be difficult even on a small scale

IT Versus Department Use Corporate Co-operation in providing tools to users to enable use of Access databases Individual user technical abilities dictate distribution methods and ‘clean’ upgrade scenarios

Specific Customer Requests Extensive and Complete Conversion Documentation Support During Scanning, Planning and Conversion Phases of Project Reporting Features Roll-Up Reports for Upper Management Graphical Representations of Usage, Quantities, and Locations Detailed IT information on individual database level Grouped Naming Detection Features

“Comfort” Factor Company X In Excess of 8,000 databases – we anticipate that less than 5 will require manual intervention with SP fixes Company Y The use of Access databases is far more extensive than they thought Of those servers we scanned – we anticipate that there we 0 databases that required manual intervention with SP fixes

What Can We Do To Help? Access Upgrades Access Conversion Toolkit Split Database and Consolidation Access 2 SQL Server Migration Resource Kit Application Migration.Net Migration Tools

Access to SQL Server Migration Reasons to consider Approaching 2GB file limit High concurrent user count Issues with database corruption Security considerations IT ownership Network bandwidth considerations

Access 2 SQL Server Migration Resource Kit Whitepapers Managing SQL Server after migrating multi Microsoft Access Databases to a single SQL Server Building a SQL Server System Architecture to support multiple migrated Microsoft Access Databases Migrating Microsoft Access Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services Migrating Access Applications to.NET and SQL Server Key differences between Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server Migrating from Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server – What you need to know Scanning and Categorizing you Microsoft Access Databases When to migrate from Microsoft Access to Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Access v Microsoft SQL Server, what's right in your Organization

What Can We Do To Help? Access Upgrades Access Conversion Toolkit Split Database and Consolidation Access 2 SQL Server Migration Resource Kit Application Migration.Net Migration Tools

Q & A

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