Database Migration from Firebird to MySQL
Firebird is an open-source relational database management system distributed as freeware. It has lightweight engine demonstrating good performance on small and medium size databases with support for multi-user environments. However, Firebird doesn’t have some features of the most popular advanced DBMS: integrated replication, full-text search, point-in-time recovery, etc.
This may be a reason why a lot of companies migrate their databases from Firebird to more capable DBMS. For example, migration from Firebird to MySQL may give the original database more power having in mind essential benefits of target database management system:
- security of data (MySQL is known as one of the most secure and reliable DBMS)
- complete transactional support (atomic, consistent, isolated, durable transaction support and row-level locking)
- tight integration with web (LAML stack became the most popular open source web platform used for numerous web sites)
On the other hand, MySQL is open-source and free just like Firebird.
Manual database migration from Firebird to MySQL may be complicated and tedious procedure, especially for large corporate databases. Also, there are some differences between two database management systems that must be handles properly:
- special processing for Firebird specific types like “blob sub_type 1”
- different meanings of escaping strings inside INSERT clauses in these two DBMS
- Firebird string concatenation operator || must be converted into MySQL function CONCAT()
In order to simplify database migration task, avoid errors and data loss some special tools may be used. There are multiple database converters that can migrate from Firebird to MySQL with a bit of clicks of mouse button, available on the market.
One of these tools is Firebird to MySQL converter developed by Intelligent Converters. One of its top benefits is that the product reads Firebird database files directly and does not require Firebird or any other 3rd party installations. All versions of MySQL server installed on Linux/Unix/Windows platforms are supported, including MariaDB and Percona as well as could-based solutions. Other valuable features of Firebird to MySQL converter:
- tables, data, indexes and constraints are converted with all necessary properties
- option to modify structure of the destination table (change name, type and other attributes of any column, exclude it from conversion)
- all conversion settings are stored into profile for next runs
- option to synchronize MySQL database with Firebird data (only insert- and update-sync is supported)
- option to convert Firebird data into MySQL script (direct connection to MySQL server is not required for this approach)
- support of command line arguments in order to script, automate and schedule the migration
- intuitive user-friendly interface and full install/uninstall support
Visit official site of Intelligent Converters to learn more details about Firebird to MySQL converter.
