Data and Object Transfer

The Data and Object Transfer screen allows you to choose upgrade options.

Export from 6.5 Server / Import

The objects and data check boxes indicate that the SQL Server Upgrade Wizard exports catalog data, objects, and user data from selected Microsoft® SQL Server™ version 6.5 databases and imports them into newly created SQL Server 2000 databases.

Data Transfer Method

You can perform an upgrade using either of the following data transfer methods:

• Named pipe (simultaneous import/export)

  A direct pipeline enables the SQL Server Upgrade Wizard to transfer data in memory from Microsoft SQL Server version 6.5. This data transfer method is the most reliable and provides the best performance. However, when performing a one-computer upgrade, you cannot reuse the disk space occupied by the SQL Server 6.5 devices until the version upgrade process is complete, so use this option only if you have disk space available.

• Tape (requires a Microsoft Windows NT® tape driver to be installed)

  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard backs up to tape all of the SQL Server 6.5 databases you have selected to upgrade. The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard then optionally deletes all of the SQL Server 6.5 devices, freeing disk space before new data files are created.

  Important  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard deletes all of the SQL Server 6.5 devices, not only those upgraded. You should upgrade all databases if you choose to delete the SQL Server 6.5 devices.

  The tape backup option should be used only when you want to upgrade on a single computer but there is not enough space on the hard disk to install SQL Server 2000 alongside SQL Server 6.5 and perform the version upgrade.

  Note  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard uses a named pipe, even when performing a tape backup upgrade. SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 2000 must be set to listen to the default named pipe, \\.\pipe\sql\query.

Verification

The transfer of objects and data by the SQL Server Upgrade Wizard is a very reliable process. If any objects could not be imported due to errors in those objects or compatibility problems with Microsoft SQL Server, they are noted in the output logs of the SQL Server Upgrade Wizard.

The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard also offers the following optional verification measures:

• Validate successful object data transfer

  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard examines the SQL Server 6.5 databases before the upgrade process and SQL Server 2000 databases after the upgrade. For each, the wizard prepares a list of all objects, including schema and stored procedures, and the number of rows in each table. The wizard then compares the two lists and reports any discrepancies.

• Exhaustive data integrity verification

  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard performs a checksum for each column of each table before and after the upgrade to verify that data values have not changed.

  Note  The SQL Server Upgrade Wizard does not report as errors any intentional differences in objects. If some objects, typically stored procedures, could not import due to errors in the objects or compatibility problems with SQL Server 2000, they are reported twice: once in the SQL scripts that show the source code of the objects and the error messages received from SQL Server 2000 when trying to create them, and then again in the output of the verification processes.