ntroduction

One of the more common themes present on the various MySQL forums and mailing lists is that of data migration. Typically requests are made by users of Microsoft� Access and Microsoft SQL Server who are looking to migrate their data (and client applications) to a MySQL database. Developers often ask for tools that can be used to convert an Access database to MySQL (or convert an MSSQL database to MySQL), without realizing that there is more to migrating an application to MySQL than simply converting data.

In this article I will cover the basics of migrating an application from an Access or SQL Server database to MySQL. We'll start with various reasons why you should (or should not) migrate your existing Access or SQL Server database to MySQL, then cover the planning stages of an application migration. Next we will look at the tools and methods for migrating your actual data from Access/MSSQL to MySQL, followed by some general guidelines for modifying your client application from a Microsoft database to MySQL. Finally, we'll look at some considerations to make when deploying your new MySQL database and application.