Seamless Operations with Minimal Downtime: Streamlining Progress OpenEdge Database Migration with OpenEdge Pro2

Downtime can mean disruption to your business operations and customers. But database migrations are a critical piece of keeping your tech current and performing well. Read on to learn why you should dump your “dump and load” approach and instead leverage Progress OpenEdge Pro2 to increase uptime of your mission-critical apps and take your database migration from days to hours.

Did you know you can use OpenEdge Pro2Pro to migrate your OpenEdge database with minimal planned downtime?

In today's ever-evolving business landscape, maintaining a competitive edge demands that your critical business apps operate seamlessly 24/7. Database migration is a crucial aspect of modernizing your business's IT infrastructure. Whether moving to a new platform, upgrading your database system or consolidating multiple databases, a well-executed migration can improve performance, scalability and efficiency.

Maintaining continuous availability can be a challenge, particularly when upgrading or migrating your Progress OpenEdge database. With OpenEdge Pro2, you can overcome these challenges and migrate your OpenEdge database with minimal downtime while optimizing performance and reliability.

The Power of Pro2Pro for Migration

Moving data from one database to another using "dump and load" technologies can take days for large to extensive databases, causing downtime both for your database and your application. Pro2Pro employs real-time data replication, ensuring that data changes are captured and transferred to the target database immediately as they occur. This minimizes downtime by keeping the source and target databases in sync.

Pro2Pro uses the replication technology built into Progress OpenEdge Pro2 to keep all data creation, modification and deletion between the two databases connected during migration. Then, a separate process is started to move all data from one database to another. The production database is unaffected during the migration process, and your application stays up and running.

OpenEdge Pro2 works excellent for these types of scenarios, limiting downtime to hours versus days:

• Dump and load a large or very large database to eliminate data fragmentation and scatter to improve performance.
• Migrate from one platform to another which requires a dump and load to move the data across different platforms.

Migration Process with Pro2Pro

Pro2Pro aids in migration and requires consulting to configure, run and make the final cutover. While a dump and load can take more than 48 hours, when we use Pro2Pro to migrate the data, there is only a small downtime window to start the migration and the data can be replicated in 30 days. After it completes, there will be another short outage of around four hours to verify the data and complete the switch to the new database. This translates to only two outages of eight hours or less instead of 48 hours or more over a long weekend.

With planning and strategic execution, the migration process can be accomplished in two brief downtime events. These carefully orchestrated events are essential to seamlessly transition from the old database to the new one.

• During the first downtime event, the focus lies on setting up the source database and configuring the mechanism for migrating historical data and recording changes to the database. This crucial step involves choosing between trigger based or Change Data Capture (CDC) methods, which are pivotal in tracking and managing data modifications.
• The second downtime event, often called the "cutover" event, marks a pivotal moment in the migration process. Until this point, the application continues to operate using the original database. However, the switch is made at the cutover, and the application utilizes the newly migrated database.

This meticulous planning helps minimize disruption to the ongoing operations. One of the significant advantages of adopting this approach is preserving the original database's integrity and functionality. Keeping the initial database unaltered until the project's successful completion is a fail-safe option in case unforeseen challenges arise or the migration project becomes nonviable for any reason.

The brief nature of the downtime events offers flexibility in scheduling, allowing the events to be strategically aligned with specific business priorities. For instance, they can be scheduled towards the end of the month or the end of a quarter when the workload is lighter. With meticulous preparation and execution, your organization will be well-prepared to harness the potential of your newly migrated database. Embracing this improved database infrastructure will elevate efficiency, performance and overall data management, empowering your operations to thrive in today's dynamic and competitive landscape.

Replication with Pro2SQL and Pro2Oracle

OpenEdge Pro2 can efficiently replicate data from an OpenEdge database to either a Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL) or Oracle Database. Pro2SQL and Pro2Oracle share a common objective: to replicate data from an OpenEdge database to external database systems. This replication process helps keep data synchronized and up to date across multiple database environments.

Replicating data from your production database to another, and running reports on the target database, relieves the burden of running reports on your production database. Moving data to an MSSQL or Oracle database allows the use of sophisticated Business Intelligence tools and reporting.

Why Migrate with OpenEdge Pro2?

• Data Integrity: OpenEdge Pro2 helps foster data consistency and integrity throughout migration. It validates data, handles schema changes and supports various transformation options, supporting the preservation of your data's accuracy.
• Minimal Downtime: Downtime can be costly for businesses. OpenEdge Pro2 offers a low-impact migration method, allowing you to minimize disruptions to your operations.
• Scalability: As your business grows, you may need to scale your database infrastructure. OpenEdge Pro2 supports migrations to larger databases or cloud-based solutions, ensuring your database can handle increased workloads.
• Compatibility: OpenEdge Pro2 is designed to work seamlessly with different OpenEdge versions, making it versatile for various migration scenarios. It supports both homogenous and heterogenous migrations, depending on your needs.
• Performance: If the purpose of the exercise is to reformat your database for best performance, Pro2Pro can be used on large databases to improve performance without the long downtime of a dump and load.

OpenEdge Pro2 empowers your business with a carefully crafted approach that facilitates minimal disruption and swift execution. By leveraging the power of Pro2Pro you can effectively plan and execute your database migration while keeping your applications up and running for almost the entire duration.

Ready to learn more about migrating your data with OpenEdge Pro2? Visit our features page.