Handling Migrations and Turnovers with MAS

DBAs often face the task of object migrations and turnovers. These can be complicated as the processes for each may vary based on the database that the DBA has to work with and their level of familiarity with said database.

Additionally, these actions must be performed in a timely manner and most often occur at the end of a workday thanks to the wildly unpredictable and hectic nature of the DBA’s day. This can lead to great stress on the DBA as well as increasing the likelihood of human error and precluding the ability to perform proper testing thus leading to failures.

MAS can help with these challenges as well as facilitating the processes of migrations and turnovers themselves. Before we discuss the role that MAS can play, here’s a bit of information on what exactly a migration or a turnover is.

Migrations and Turnovers

Migrations are often recurring tasks such as copying objects from a QA to a production database. This can also involve moving objects from database to database for testing purposes and the end goal of creating a new database altogether (i.e. a testing database where processes are run and then applied to a new database and put into production). DBAs are often tasked with moving objects created by analysts and developers within a database. This process is known as object turnover.

Problems with Database Migrations and Turnovers

Oftentimes a DBA will have to move an object from on-prem to the cloud. These cloud databases can be either cloud Linux servers running a database server or even a “database as a service”.

An example of the latter includes Amazon Web Service RDS. In a DBAAS scenario, the database is available without any access to the operating system command-line interface.

These new platforms differ greatly from their on-prem counterparts and often use entirely different paradigms for migrations.

Another challenge that a DBA may face, aside from knowledge gaps is the need to split the requests for turnovers and migrations of large numbers of objects into multiple team members.

The MAS Solution to Database Migrations and Turnovers

MAS stores parameters for migration processes in forms that serve as input processes. MAS forms allow for repeat migrations. Additionally, MAS enables every member of a DBA team to have access to migration processes.

Regarding knowledge gaps, MAS has a library for Oracle on Amazon Web Services RDS. Included in this library are processes that facilitate the movement into and out of these databases. MAS also has the ability to migrate MS SQL databases, including those running on Microsoft Azure. All migration processes use the same user interface and have parameters documented, thus eliminating guesswork.

Finally, MAS allows automation of object turnovers by using logical move utilities or by extracting the DDL definitions of objects. MAS retains prior versions of objects, simplifying the reversal of failed turnovers. MAS retains the records of every turnover executed.

In Conclusion

If MAS sounds like something that would benefit you or your organization, we would love to talk and learn more about your environment.

We’re all ears and are here to help organizations and technologists meet and accomplish their goals. To get the conversation going, drop us a line here!