Re: MSSQL to PostgreSQL

On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Thom Brown<thombrown(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We're migrating the contents of an old MSSQL server to PostgreSQL 8.3.7, so
> a full conversion is required.  Does anyone know of any guides which
> highlight common gotchas and other userful information?

That's going to depend a lot on how many features of the database you
were using...especially higher level features like stored procedures.
Converting the schema and the data shouldn't be too bad -- there are a
number of relatively easy ways to do it including microsoft DTS
levering the pg odbc driver.

The biggest change is going to be getting used to the new tools...if
you haven't already, i'd highly recommend mastering psql (don't lean
too much on pgadmin) and learning basic administration tasks like
restarting the database while active, killing particular backends,
backup strategies, etc. If the sql server installation is 2000 or
older, you should be able to port most things pretty easily except for
any t-sql procedures. PostgreSQL supports functions which are a
little different so some of the things you used to do in t-sql you may
have to do in sql scripts and an external scheduler such as cron.

Many things in PostgeSQL are easier than you might be used to...it's
got superior concurrency handing and a much better type system. Good
luck!

merlin