How to convert MS SQL tables to DynamoDB tables? - sql-server-2008

I am new to Amazon DynamoDB and I have eight(8) MS SQL tables that I want to migrate to DynamoDB.
What process should I use for converting and migrating the database schema and data?

I was facing the same problem a year back when I started migrating the app from SQL to DynamoDB. I am not sure if there are automated tools, but I can share what we had done for migration:
Check if your existing data types can be mapped/need to change in DynamoDB. You can merge some of the table which requires less updates into single item with List and Map types or use a Set if required.
The most important thing is to check all your existing queries. This will be the core information you will need when you will design DynamoDB tables.
Make sure you distribute Hash keys properly.
Use GSI and LSI for searching and sorting purposes (project only those attributes that will be needed; this will save money).
Some points that will save some money:
If your tables are read-heavy, try using some caching mechanism, otherwise be ready to increase throughput of the tables.
If your table is write-heavy, then implement a queuing mechanism, such as SQS.
Keep checking all of your important tables status in Management console. They have provided different matrices that will help you in managing the throughput of the tables.
I have written a blog which include all the challenges faced while moving from relational database to NoSQL database

Related

Pretend to be mysql server

For a project we are working with an several external partner. For the project we need access to their MySQL database. The problem is, they cant do that. Their databse is hosted in a managed environment where they don't have much configuration possibilities. And they dont want do give us access to all of their data. So the solution they came up with, is the federated storage engine.
We now have one table for each table of their database. The problem is, the amount of data we get is huge and will even increase in the future. That means there are a lot of inserts performed on our database. The optimal solution for us would be to intercept all incoming MySQL traffic, process it and then store it in bulk. We also thought about using someting like redis to store the data.
Additionnaly, we plan to get more data from different partners. They will potentialy provide us the data in different ways. So using redis would allow us, to have all our data in one place.
Copying the data to redis after its stored in the mysql database is not an option. We just cant handle that many inserts and we need the data as fast as possible.
TL;DR
is there a way to pretend to be a MySQL server so we can directly process data received via the federated storage engine?
We also thought about using the blackhole engine in combination with binary logging on our side. So incoming data would only be written to the binary log and wouldn't be stored in the database. But then performance would still be limited by Disk I/O.

Use the mongoDb and MySQL together

I have a application where I need to maintain the audit log operation performed on the collection. I am currently using the MongoDB for storage purpose which work well so far.
Now for audit log I am thinking to use the MySQL database where reasons are-
1. Using the mongo implicit audit filter degrade the performance.
2. Storage will be huge if I store the logs also in the mongoDB which will impact in replication of nodes in cluster.
Conditions to see the logs are not very often in application, so thinking to store logs out of main storage. I am confused to use mongoDB with MySQL, also is this a right choice for future perspective.
Also Is MySQL a good choice to store the audit log, or any other database can help me in storage and conditional query later.
Performance is not guaranteed to go to a completely different database system only for this purpose.
My first attempt for separation would be creating a new database in your current database system and forward to there or even using a normal text file.
Give your feedbacks.

SQLite3 database per customer

Scenario:
Building a commercial app consisting in an RESTful backend with symfony2 and a frontend in AngularJS
This app will never be used by many customers (if I get to sell 100 that would be fantastic. Hopefully much more, but in any case will be massive)
I want to have a multi tenant structure for the database with one schema per customer (they store sensitive information for their customers)
I'm aware of problem when updating schemas but I will have to live with it.
Today I have a MySQL demo database that I will clone each time a new customer purchase the app.
There is no relationship between my customers, so I don't need to communicate with multiple shards for any query
For one customer, they can be using the app from several devices at the time, but there won't be massive write operations in the db
My question
Trying to set some functional tests for the backend API I read about having a dedicated sqlite database for loading testing data, which seems to be good idea.
However I wonder if it's also a good idea to switch from MySQL to SQLite3 database as my main database support for the application, and if it's a common practice to have one dedicated SQLite3 database PER CLIENT. I've never used SQLite and I have no idea if the process of updating a schema and replicate the changes in all the databases is done in the same way as for other RDBMS
Is this a correct scenario for SQLite?
Any suggestion (aka tutorial) in how to achieve this?
[I wonder] if it's a common practice to have one dedicated SQLite3 database PER CLIENT
Only if the database is deployed along with the application, like on a phone. Otherwise I've never heard of such a thing.
I've never used SQLite and I have no idea if the process of updating a schema and replicate the changes in all the databases is done in the same way as for other RDBMS
SQLite is a SQL database and responds to ALTER TABLE and the like. As for updating all the schemas, you'll have to re-run the update for all schemas.
Schema synching is usually handled by an outside utility, usually your ORM will have something. Some are server agnostic, some only support specific servers. There are also dedicated database change management tools such as Sqitch.
However I wonder if it's also a good idea to switch from MySQL to SQLite3 database as my main database support for the application, and
SQLite's main advantage is not requiring you to install and run a server. That makes sense for quick projects or where you have to deploy the database, like a phone app. For server based application there's no problem having a database server. SQLite's very restricted set of SQL features becomes a disadvantage. It will also likely run slower than a server database for anything but the simplest queries.
Trying to set some functional tests for the backend API I read about having a dedicated sqlite database for loading testing data, which seems to be good idea.
Under no circumstances should you test with a different database than the production database. Databases do not all implement SQL the same, MySQL is particularly bad about this, and your tests will not reflect reality. Running a MySQL instance for testing is not much work.
This separate schema thing claims three advantages...
Extensibility (you can add fields whenever you like)
Security (a query cannot accidentally show data for the wrong tenant)
Parallel Scaling (you can potentially split each schema onto a different server)
What they're proposing is equivalent to having a separate, customized copy of the code for every tenant. You wouldn't do that, it's obviously a maintenance nightmare. Code at least has the advantage of version control systems with branching and merging. I know only of one database management tool that supports branching, Sqitch.
Let's imagine you've made a custom change to tenant 5's schema. Now you have a general schema change you'd like to apply to all of them. What if the change to 5 conflicts with this? What if the change to 5 requires special data migration different from everybody else? Now let's imagine you've made custom changes to ten schemas. A hundred. A thousand? Nightmare.
Different schemas will require different queries. The application will have to know which schema each tenant is using, there will have to be some sort of schema version map you'll need to maintain. And every different possible query for every different possible schema will have to be maintained in the application code. Nightmare.
Yes, putting each tenant in a separate schema is more secure, but that only protects against writing bad queries or including a query builder (which is a bad idea anyway). There are better ways mitigate the problem such as the view filter suggested in the docs. There are many other ways an attacker can access tenant data that this doesn't address: gain a database connection, gain access to the filesystem, sniff network traffic. I don't see the small security gain being worth the maintenance nightmare.
As for scaling, the article is ten years out of date. There are far, far better ways to achieve parallel scaling then to coarsely put schemas on different servers. There are entire databases dedicated to this idea. Fortunately, you don't need any of this! Scaling won't be a problem for you until you have tens of thousands to millions of tenants. The idea of front loading your design with a schema maintenance nightmare for a hypothetical big parallel scaling problem is putting the cart so far before the horse, it's already at the pub having a pint.
If you want to use a relational database I would recommend PostgreSQL. It has a very rich SQL implementation, its fast and scales well, and it has something that renders this whole idea of separate schemas moot: a built in JSON type. This can be used to implement the "extensibility" mentioned in the article. Each table can have a meta column using the JSON type that you can throw any extra data into you like. The application does not need special queries, the meta column is always there. PostgreSQL's JSON operators make working with the meta data very easy and efficient.
You could also look into a NoSQL database. There are plenty to choose from and many support custom schemas and parallel scaling. However, it's likely you will have to change your choice of framework to use one that supports NoSQL.

Best database model for saas application (1 db per account VS 1 db for everyone)

Little question, I'm developing a saas software (erp).
I designed it with 1 database per account for these reasons :
I make a lot of personalisation, and need to add specific table columns for each account.
Easier to manage db backup (and reload data !)
Less risky : sometimes I need to run SQL queries on a table, in case of an error with bad query (update / delete...), only one customer is affected instead of all of them.
Bas point : I'm turning to have hundreds of databases...
I'm hiring a company to manage my servers, and they said that it's better to have only one database, with a few tables, and put all data in the same tables with column as id_account. I'm very very surprised by these words, so I'm wondering... what are your ideas ?
Thanks !
Frederic
The current environment I am working in, we handle millions of records from numerous clients. Our solution is to use Schema to segregate each individual client. A schema allows you to partition your clients into separate virtual databases while inside a single db. Each schema will have an exact copy of the tables from your application.
The upside:
Segregated client data
data from a single client can be easily backed up, exported or deleted
Programming is still the same, but you have to select the schema before db calls
Moving clients to another db or standalone server is a lot easier
adding specific tables per client is easier (see below)
single instance of the database running
tuning the db affects all tenants
The downside:
Unless you manage your shared schema properly, you may duplicate data
Migrations are repeated for every schema
You have to remember to select the schema before db calls
hard pressed to add many negatives... I guess I may be biased.
Adding Specific Tables: Why would you add client specific tables if this is SAAS and not custom software? Better to use a Postgres DB with a Hstore field and store as much searchable data as you like.
Schemas are ideal for multi-tenant databases Link Link
A lot of what I am telling you depends on your software stack, the capabilities of your developers and the backend db you selected (all of which you neglected to mention)
Your hardware guys should not decide your software architecture. If they do, you are likely shooting yourself in the leg before you even get out of the gate. Get a good senior software architect, the grief they will save you, will likely save your business.
I hope this helps...
Bonne Chance

Converting Mysql to No sql databases

I have a production database server running on MYSQL 5.1, now we need to build a app for reporting which will fetch the data from the production database server, since reporting queries through entire database may slow down, hence planning to switch to nosql. The whole system is running aws stack planning to use DynamoDb. Kindly suggest me the ways to sync data from the production nosql server to nosql database server.
Just remember the simple fact that any NoSQL database is essentially a document database; it's really difficult to automatically convert a typical relational database in MySQL to a good document design.
In NoSQL you have a single collection of documents, and each document will probably contain data that would be in related rows in multiple tables. The advantage of a NoSQL redesign is that most data access is simpler and faster without requiring you to write complex join statements.
If you automatically convert each MySQL table to a corresponding NoSQL collection, you really won't be taking advantage of a NoSQL DB. This is because you'll end up loading many more documents, and thus make many more calls to the database than needed and thus loosing simplicity and speediness of NoSQL DB.
Perhaps a better approach is to look at how your applications use the MySQL database and go from there. You might then consider writing a simple utility script knowing fully well your MySQL database design.
As the data from a NoSQL database like MongoDB, RIAK or CouchDB has a very different structure than a relational database like MySQL the only way to migrate/synchronise the data would be to actually write a job which would write the data from MySQL to the NoSQL database using SELECT queries as stated on the MongoDB website:
Migrate the data from the database to MongoDB, probably simply by writing a bunch of SELECT * FROM statements against the database and then loading the data into your MongoDB model using the language of your choice.
Depending of the quantity of your data this could take awhile to process.
If you have any other questions don't hesitateo to ask.