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Overview

This chapter introduces the Oracle Migration Workbench (Migration Workbench). It contains the following sections:

• Introduction
  
  
• Product Description
  
  
• Features
  
  
• Glossary
  
  

Introduction

Products, such as Microsoft Access, allow developers and advanced users to build complete business systems. However, Microsoft Access is based on file sharing technology. Therefore, it lacks the speed, reliability, and robustness provided by an independent relational database management system (RDBMS) server.

Using an RDBMS server with Microsoft Access in a client/server architecture provides the strengths of both technologies. Microsoft Access provides excellent forms and reports systems, as well as a complete programming language (Microsoft Access Basic). An independent RDBMS provides reliable, robust, and secure high speed data management.

The Oracle RDBMS is a modern, scalable, high performance database server that can run on a wide range of computers from PCs to mainframes. Oracle operates in a networked, client/server environment. It can support thousands of simultaneous users, depending on the server.

This reference guide explains how to migrate from Microsoft Access 2.0, 95, 97, and 2000 to an Oracle9i, Oracle8i, Oracle8i Appliance, or Oracle8 database using the Migration Workbench. It also provides guidelines on how to modify Microsoft Access applications to work with the new Oracle database. If you have an investment in Microsoft Access applications, you can retain this investment while adding the advanced features of Oracle to the application architecture.

Product Description

The Migration Workbench is a tool that simplifies the process of migrating the table data from a Microsoft Access database to an Oracle database. The Migration Workbench allows you to seemlessly migrate an entire application system, that is the database schema including validation rules, default values, indexes and relations, in an integrated, visual environment.

The Migration Workbench employs an intuitive and informative user interface (UI) and a series of wizards to simplify the migration process. To ensure portability, all components of the Migration Workbench are written in Java.

The Migration Workbench uses a repository to store migration information. This allows you to query the initial state of the application before migration. You can work independently of the production application. To work independently, you must load the components of the application system that the Migration Workbench can migrate into a Migration Workbench repository.

Features

The Migration Workbench release 9.2.0.1.0 is a wizard-driven tool. It is composed of core features and Microsoft Access migration specific features. The Migration Workbench allows you to:

• Migrate a complete Microsoft Access database to an Oracle database.
  
  
• Migrate tables (including validation rules and default values), indexes, relations, and primary keys.
  
  
• Continue to use the Microsoft Access forms and reports with the destination Oracle database through an ODBC connection.
  
  
• Migrate Microsoft Access databases with single-level linked Microsoft Access tables.
  
  
• Display a representation of the source database and its Oracle equivalent.
  
  
• Generate and view a summary report of the migration.
  
  
• Customize users, tables, indexes, and tablespaces.
  
  
• Customize the default data type mapping rules.
  
  
• Resolve conflicts, such as Oracle reserved words, automatically.
  
  
• Remove and rename objects in the Oracle Model.
  
  
• Migrate individual table data.
  
  
• Use the offline data loading capability to migrate large amounts of data to Oracle.
  
  

Glossary

The following terms are used to describe the Migration Workbench:

Application System is the database schema and application files that have been developed for a database environment other than Oracle, for example, Microsoft Access.

Capture Wizard is an intuitive wizard that takes a snapshot of the data dictionary of the source database, loads it into the Source Model, and creates the Oracle Model.

Dependency is used to define a relationship between two migration entities. For example, a database view is dependent upon the table it references.

Destination Database is the Oracle database to which the Migration Workbench migrates the data dictionary of the source database.

Migration Entity is an instance of a migration component. For example, the table EMP is a migration entity belonging to the table MIGRATION COMPONENT.

Migration Wizard is an intuitive wizard that helps you migrate the source database to Oracle.

Migration Workbench is the graphical tool that allows migration of an application system to an Oracle database environment.

Navigator Pane is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that contains the tree views representing the Source Model and the Oracle Model.

Oracle Model is a a series of Oracle tables that is created from the information in the Source Model. It is a visual representation of how the source database will look when generated in an Oracle environment.

Properties Pane is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that displays the properties of a migration entity that has been selected in one of the tree views in the Navigator Pane.

Progress Window is the part of the Migration Workbench User Interface that contains informational, error, or warning messages describing the progress of the migration process.

Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of well-defined application programming interfaces (APIs) that provide services that a software developer can use.

Source Database is the database containing the data dictionary of the application system being migrated by the Migration Workbench. The source database is a database other than Oracle, for example, Microsoft Access.

Source Model is a replica of the data dictionary of the source database. It is stored in the Oracle Migration Workbench Repository and is loaded by the Migration Workbench with the contents of the data dictionary of the source database.

Workbench Repository is the area in an Oracle database used to store the persistent information necessary for the Migration Workbench to migrate an application system.