Relational Migrator

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News From MongoDB.local NYC: Game-changing Migration Tool Now Available

This post is also available in: Deutsch , Français , Español , Português The database has always been the heart of an application. Teams recognize that the choice of a database is one of the most critical decisions in developing software, influencing not only the speed at which developers can build and iterate, but also an application’s performance, functionality, and overall user experience. Today, tens of thousands of organizations are being held back by their legacy systems built on relational databases. They struggle with the headaches, high costs, and poor developer agility caused by data silos and architecture sprawl built up over decades as they try to address new requirements and build transformative experiences. Modernizing the data infrastructure means reducing architectural complexity, and adopting flexible data platforms like MongoDB that can support a wider range of use cases and data types. But every IT leader knows that transitioning away from legacy databases is easier said than done, and that they are often overwhelming and time-consuming projects. This is even more true when trying to shake the relational database mindset and instead adopt a developer-first approach to data. MongoDB's Relational Migrator is now available to help organizations streamline their transition from relational databases to MongoDB by tackling some of the most common challenges we see in migration projects: effective data modeling, migrating data, and modernizing app code. Today, Relational Migrator supports migrations from Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL directly. By switching to MongoDB, companies can reap major rewards when it comes to modernizing an essential component of their software. Not only do they enjoy faster development and performance, but also improved reliability, scalability, and user experience. Additionally, MongoDB's advanced features, such as full-text search, time-series data support, and edge-to-cloud synchronization enable applications to take on more use cases on an efficient, easy-to-maintain data infrastructure. With Relational Migrator, teams preparing for app modernization projects can accelerate and reduce the risk of their relational database migrations so they can start taking advantage of everything MongoDB has to offer. Take the guesswork out of the migration process Data modeling in MongoDB is one of the most common barriers we see when organizations come over from a relational background. MongoDB can be treated like a relational database, but to unlock the full potential of the document model organizations need to change how they think about their data and model it for how their applications are going to use it. Relational Migrator takes the guesswork out of data modeling by analyzing an application's existing relational schema and proposing a recommended MongoDB schema based on best practices. As teams use the visual interface to compare and build their schema, Relational Migrator will continue to offer recommended mappings to further expedite schema design, but more importantly, help developers do it well. Not only does Relational Migrator visually compare schemas, but it also applies the transformations as it moves data into MongoDB in an efficient manner, providing users with the ability to run both systems in parallel and apply changes from the source database to MongoDB on an ongoing basis. Migrating data is only one part of application modernization. To give developers a head start, Relational Migrator even generates app code for various development languages and frameworks that reflects the new MongoDB schema they’ve designed. With the launch of Relational Migrator, MongoDB is unlocking the full potential of its powerful developer data platform , providing new implementation possibilities for customers and a wider range of applications. Learn more about what Relational Migrator can do for you. Head to the MongoDB.local hub to see where we'll be showing up next.

June 22, 2023

Migrate to MongoDB Atlas on AWS with Relational Migrator

Competitive advantage is directly tied to how well companies are able to build software around their most important asset: data. Rigid relational schemas often require downtime and significant application code updates in order to make even simple modifications, such as adding a new data attribute. In MongoDB, entities are modeled as documents that map naturally to the same objects that developers are used to working with in their programming languages. Additionally, legacy relational databases were not built to scale horizontally. Sharding data to handle large data volumes and ensure lower latency is typically a significant manual process that requires custom application logic to query across multiple shards and aggregate results. MongoDB Atlas is an effective solution for solving such problems, and MongoDB Relational Migrator streamlines the process of moving to MongoDB from a relational database. MongoDB Atlas on Amazon Web Services (AWS) MongoDB Atlas removes the need for a complex object-relational mapping layer and allows developers to build and release new features quicker. MongoDB Atlas is built to be distributed and to handle sharding transparently to the developer. With Atlas, no application code changes are necessary when an application needs to scale out from a 10MB to a 500TB dataset. MongoDB Atlas is well integrated into the AWS environment, and the document-based database works seamlessly with AWS products. To learn more about common integration and project requirements, refer to Managed MongoDB on AWS . Migrate to Atlas on AWS with Relational Migrator Some customers have successfully migrated their relational workloads to MongoDB Atlas on AWS. One example is Cox Automotive, whose system was hitting limitations on the relational database. The company migrated to Atlas on AWS and leveraged capabilities like Atlas Data Lake (powered by Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)) and Atlas App Services . Read our customer case study to learn more about how Cox Automotive uses MongoDB Atlas . At the same time, other companies have struggled with how to approach this challenge. When considering such a migration, it’s important to think carefully about data modeling. Although it’s possible to naively move a relational schema into MongoDB without any changes, this approach won’t deliver many of MongoDB’s benefits. A better practice is to design a new and better MongoDB schema that’s more denormalized and potentially to take the opportunity to revise the architecture of the application as well. To make this process easier, we’re developing MongoDB Relational Migrator . Relational Migrator streamlines the process of moving to MongoDB from a relational database and is compatible with Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. MongoDB Relational Migrator connects to a relational database to analyze its existing schema, then helps architects design and map to a new MongoDB schema. Migration support When you’re ready, Relational Migrator will perform the data migration from the source RDBMS to MongoDB. Migration can be a one-shot migration if you’re prepared for a hard cutover. And soon, we will also support a continuous sync in case you need to leave the source system running and continue pushing changes into MongoDB. With Relational Migrator, you can map your relational schema—or just a piece of it, if needed—to a new MongoDB schema. Relational Migrator helps the design and mapping process with common MongoDB schema design patterns built in. Based on this schema mapping, you can move data into a target MongoDB cluster. Relational Migrator will support both Snapshot (one-time) and continuous data migration. Get more details on Relational Migrator on the product page or in the deep dive presentation from MongoDB World. Get started with MongoDB Atlas in AWS Marketplace today.

November 3, 2022

Free your data with the MongoDB Relational Migrator

Nothing is more frustrating than data that is just out of reach. Imagine wanting to combine customer behavior data from your CRM and usage data from your legacy product to trigger tailored promotions in your new mobile app, but not being able to locate the required data in the sea of tables in your relational database. As MongoDB CTO Mark Porter explains in his MongoDB World keynote , the data that can make a difference might be locked up “somewhere that you can’t use.” Relying on his own hard-earned experience with data, Porter adds that this information can be trapped “in a schema with hundreds or thousands of tables that have built up over decades.” “Schema is a huge part of this problem,” MongoDB product manager Tom Hollander explains during a presentation on MongoDB Relational Migrator at MongoDB World 2022. “So we’ve spent a lot of time building out the tools to enable you to map your tabular relational schema into a document schema and make use of the full power of the MongoDB document model.” To see MongoDB Relational Migrator in action, check out this introduction and demo from MongoDB World 2022, featuring MongoDB product manager Tom Hollander. What is MongoDB Relational Migrator? MongoDB Relational Migrator streamlines migrations from legacy data infrastructure to MongoDB by helping developers analyze relational database schemas, convert them into MongoDB schemas, and then migrate data from the source database to MongoDB. Currently, Relational Migrator is compatible with four of the most common relational databases: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Migrator not only moves data from your relational database to MongoDB, but it also transforms it according to your new schema. As Hollander and MongoDB product marketing director Eric Holzhauer point out , developers often use a mix of software and tools (e.g., extract-transform-load pipelines, change data capture (CDC), message queues, and streaming) to execute migrations, which can be complicated, risky, and error-prone. Relational Migrator provides a single tool that can streamline the process while simultaneously ensuring that your data lands in an organized, logical manner. By simplifying schema translations — one of the most complex, difficult parts of any relational migration — Relational Migrator grants developers and other technical teams a greater degree of control over (and increased visibility into) their new MongoDB schema. The result is to make data more accessible for analysis and decision making. “Now I can get at the data in my program without going through a translation layer,” Porter explains. A visual representation of how Migrator maps relational schema to document schema. Migration mode: Snapshot or ongoing? Migrator provides two modes of data transfer: a one-time snapshot or a continuous sync (which will be available later this year). To help decide which mode you should use, consider whether you can move over to MongoDB and immediately decommission your previous database or whether you need to keep your existing relational database up and running. Organizations may wish to keep their relational database for various reasons, such as testing the effectiveness of your proposed document schema, running out the contract or licensing agreement to avoid expensive fees, or keeping old databases available for audits. In this situation, you can keep your relational database running so that Relational Migrator will continue to push data from your source to your new MongoDB clusters. The limits of Relational Migrator As Hollander points out, Relational Migrator is only a tool — one intended to facilitate schema mapping, providing many abilities and options for effective schema design. “It’s not a silver bullet that will immediately modernize your application portfolio,” Hollander says. “It’s not going to do everything for you. You still have to do the planning.” Furthermore, because database schema is a tricky topic even for seasoned experts, Hollander recommends that developers would benefit from working with architects, consultants, and partners — especially if they’re not familiar with MongoDB or schema design best practices. Relational Migrator does not yet support continuous replication, which would enable your relational database and MongoDB clusters to coexist for an extended period of time. However, Hollander says that work on this feature is ongoing and it will be available in the future, along with additional capabilities like schema recommendations, an integration for the MongoDB Atlas developer data platform, and more. MongoDB Relational Migrator is currently in private preview, for use on non-production workloads with assistance from our Product and Field Engineering teams. To learn more, get in touch with your MongoDB rep or contact us via our Migrator page to discuss your workload and next steps.

September 6, 2022