Need advise on migrating from mSQL/MySQL...

Hi there. I've been asked to look into migrating several of our websites from a mSQL backend (UNIX/Apache/Perl) to Informix Foundation.2000. While I'm far from an expert on mSQL, I was hoping some of you might have experienced such a transition and could offer some advice on what to expect. I'm leaning towards a MySQL solution but there's a possibility that we could get a very good deal on the Foundation.2000 licensing - thus the pressure is on me to come up with an "informed decision". I've gleaned as much info as possible from Informix' website, but I'm still uncertain as to how difficult a switchover it's going to be (considering I have nil experience with Informix db's). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Brian Tully

Brian Tully <btully@bestweb.net> wrote: > Hi there. I've been asked to look into migrating several of our websites > from a mSQL backend (UNIX/Apache/Perl) to Informix Foundation.2000. While > I'm far from an expert on mSQL, I was hoping some of you might have > experienced such a transition and could offer some advice on what to expect. > I'm leaning towards a MySQL solution but there's a possibility that we could > get a very good deal on the Foundation.2000 licensing - thus the pressure is > on me to come up with an "informed decision". I've gleaned as much info as > possible from Informix' website, but I'm still uncertain as to how difficult > a switchover it's going to be (considering I have nil experience with > Informix db's). > Well leaving aside the necessity to learn about installing and administering the Informix database the migration is basically a piece of piss. You will simply create tables with the same schema as your existing database in the new database then load the data into the new database - you can use mysqldump to get both the schema and the data from the MySQL database. You might need to fiddle with the schema and the data a little bit to make it work with Informix though. Things to watch for : * MySQL schema will have KEY blha blah in the table definitions - this is not standard SQL and will have to be changed to CREATE INDEX ... * DATE format differences - It might be necessary to create some Perl program to change the date format between the two platforms. If you are using DBD::MySQL in your Perl programs then there will be little that needs to be changed unless you are using MySQL specific functions in your SQL like REGEXP and so on. If you are using the non-DBI module then you are going to have to change it quite a bit in order to use DBD::Informix (and you've only got yourself to blame anyway :). Hope that helps /J\\ -- "Do you want to go to court today?" - BBC News Website