Upgrade from XE (AS/400) to E812 (Windows 2008 with SQL 2008)

kkwong

Member
I need some guide or documentation on how to convert/upgrade XE in AS/400 to change platform to E8.12 with Windows 2008 and SQL 2008.
 
The first question will be: since you are targeting Windows/SQL 2008, why aren't you upgrading to 9.0 instead of 8.12? Either way, you'll have to be on Tools Release 8.98.1.x.

The documentation for upgrades and installations is downloadable along with the 9.0 software at edelivery.oracle.com. However, you will find no official documentation on performing the platform switch.

Having done a few, my recommendation is to migrate a copy of your existing data to SQL Server first, then perform the version upgrade on Windows/SQL 2008. You have various ways of doing the platform change. The slowest, but surest way is to use R98403 to copy an entire data source from the AS/400 to SQL Server. The other way is to try using the SQL Server native tools to migrate the data.

The last point that others will likely bring up is that you hopefully have experience performing these kind of tasks in-house. Otherwise, you should look into finding a CNC implementation consultant to help you with this. (And yes, my company does this kind of thing.)
 
Thanks for the tips KLWong. I'm the implementation CNC Consultant. My plan is to use R98403 to copy from AS/400 to SQL 2008, but your suggestion to use SQL Server Tools to migrate the data is a good one. Do I just migrate the SYS7333, OL7333, DD7333, COPY7333, PY7333DNT, CRPDTA and CRPCTL to SQL Server 2008, then change the system table to register the new database server name? Appreciate your help.
 
Doing a platform change/Database migration AND an upgrade at the same time can be done in one step. Its not completely recommended - since you're making two large changes at the same time - but its completely possible, and I've migrated several companies from AS/400 to SQL Server while in the midst of an upgrade. We call these "sandbox" upgrades - since the new environment is separated from the existing environment - but its imperative to test thoroughly.

I've mentioned this before, the biggest issue isn't realistically the platform change, or necessarily the upgrade - but when you switch platforms, any third party process that is hardcoded to work on the AS/400 will be affected and needs to be re-coded to work on the new platform. JDE works wonderfully on any of the supported platforms - but the same cannot always be said of other applications !

As for the migration of data - certainly using R98403 is painfully slow - copying a large F0911 will take forever on a single-threaded Table Conversion - but using native database tools, especially going from AS/400 to SQL, will result in data corruption unless you are VERY VERY careful. It will take a LONG LONG time to identify all the different value changes between AS/400 and SQL Server.

However, there IS a way to utilize OneWorld/E1 - to use the built-in data dictionary - and to copy data as FAST as the database can write the data. I've copied across 100,000,000 row F0911's between remote locations between AS400 and Oracle in just a few hours - realistically you can actually create a process that will copy all your data in whatever realistic window you might have.

Of course, I don't just give out this information for free (it is my livelihood, after all) - but I'd gladly discuss this process with you offline. Send me a PM and we can chat.

Remember, you can spend MONTHS trying to develop external 3rd party tools outside of OneWorld - or you can spend DAYS waiting for processes like R98403 - but it only takes HOURS for a professional consultant to migrate data between platforms and create a valid and successful upgrade.
 
Should you decide to take this route, you will need to prepare the databases on SQL Server ahead of time. Please note that the native SQL tools won't get all the field types right, and tends to lose all the index information, so I find that having a database filled with empty tables helps the process a lot (think Load Production Data in an Installation Plan).

The databases you'll need will be every data source that is used in the environment you are upgrading.
 
For the a JDE AS/400 to SQL conversion portion I wrote a whitepaper on this a few years back. Its up on Microsoft site:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/6/7/867A7D31-5AAA-4C09-9DD7-E802459A0696/migrating_from_iseries_to_sql_server.pdf

I've done about 6 of these migration was their fairly smooth.

As for SQL 2008 we just brought a client up on it a few months back. Depending on the size of your database I'd recommend going to the Enterprise Edition so that you can take advantage of the compression feature. We achieved 80% compression. Performance is amazing.

-Paul
 
Paul - very good whitepaper. I also wrote a presentation which I presented at Quest in 2006 alongside Microsoft through The iConsortium (attached). Instead of copying data through the R98043 or any other "bundled" method - and instead of using 3rd party SQL tools like DTS, using built-in table conversions to copy data can be as fast as any native-data conversion process. Literally, the speed of converting data using OneWorld - correctly architected - can be almost as fast as your disk. By using OneWorld to convert your data, you are guaranteeing the data is clean.

I never, EVER recommend any company undertake a JDE platform conversion/migration using external SQL tools.

This presentation has always been available on my website, together with the corresponding white paper.
 
Back
Top