[NBLUG/talk] Transferring data from Oracle to an open-source database

[Walter Hansen]

I've heard good things about PostgreSQL, but have always used MySQL 
myself. I rather like it, and it's probably on par (although their still 
ironing out the topping) with Oracle as far as I can tell. Oracle won't 
let MySQL publish speed comparisons. I think PostgreSQL is probably a 
little better suited for not so serious databases where MySQL seems to 
be up to just about anything (and probably sucks down a lot more resources).

There should be some sort of command in oracle that will output the 
contents of the database into a huge SQL statement. Then you simply 
import this into the other database. There might be some adjustments for 
datatypes, but that's basically it. Or yes, you could just write a perl 
program to convert between, or maybe have a perl program that exports 
the data to a text file or something and another one to import the data. 
It's easier to just do the export/import though if you can make it work.

Lincoln Peters wrote:
> I have a project I've been working on for the database class at SSU.  
> It's starting to look like my project will be useful well beyond this 
> class, so I'd like to transfer it from the CS department's Oracle server 
> ("kirby") to my own server.  I'd rather not have to deal with the 
> licensing issues (not to mention cost) of running my own Oracle server, 
> so I'd like to migrate it to an open-source SQL database such as MySQL 
> or PostgreSQL.
> 
> What I'd like to find out is:
> 
> * Which open-source database is preferred?  As far as I can tell, MySQL 
> is the most popular, but I've heard good things about PostgreSQL as well.
> 
> * Based on my understanding of the Perl DBI (which I've studied but have 
> not yet used), it should be a simple matter to transfer all of the 
> existing records from the Oracle database into any other RDBMS supported 
> by the Perl DBI.  Assuming that I use either MySQL or PostgreSQL, will 
> this be a simple task?
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
>