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Data migration: Proceed with caution

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Migration management
The way a product manages the migration of the data should also be considered. The Softek and Symantec products give users some flexibility in executing and managing data migrations. An administrator may log on to the server locally and kick off the data migration or use a central console to initiate the migration. Topio's TDPS requires that users have a Windows host available to load the management component of their software. In instances where the migration is occurring on that Windows server or from one Windows server to another, no external workstation is needed; but when migrating data on Unix servers, a Windows host must be available to manage the data migration.

Choosing the right host-level, block-based data migration software tool for your migration objectives is complicated but vitally important (see "

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What are your migration objectives?"). For apps that need to be constantly running, block-based data migration tools are usually the best fit because they're agnostic to the source volume's file systems and database, yet maintain their integrity in the exact same state on the target volume. But application interruptions, from seconds to minutes or longer, do happen. It's imperative to have a tested and working back out plan in place before using any of these migration products.

This was first published in August 2006

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