Migrate SQL Server to SQL Server
Certified — live-tested pathSame-engine SQL Server migrations are how you move between hosts, clouds, or versions — and they still fail in the boring ways: half-copied tables, stale sequences, missing indexes. DBShifts moves the schema and every row, defers constraints for speed, reseeds counters, and proves the result with row counts and checksums.
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How the migration works
Connect
Point DBShifts at your source and target. Credentials stay encrypted; SSH tunnels supported for private databases.
Analyze
Automatic schema introspection produces a migration plan: what converts automatically, what migrates with warnings, what needs human review.
Migrate
Schema is created on the target, data transfers in parallel batches with constraints deferred, indexes rebuilt after load.
Validate
Per-table row counts, type-aware checksums on both sides, FK integrity — plus a fidelity report listing anything lossy.
What DBShifts handles for SQL Server → SQL Server
Engine-specific rules baked into the conversion and transfer pipeline — verified by live certification of this exact pair.
- TINYINT is unsigned (0–255) in SQL Server — DBShifts widens it on signed targets so 128–255 don't clip.
- UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, DATETIMEOFFSET, MONEY and NVARCHAR(MAX) all have explicit conversion rules per target.
- Wrapped defaults like ((1)) and (N'foo') are unwrapped to portable literals.
Frequently asked questions
Is SQL Server to SQL Server migration production-ready in DBShifts?
Yes — SQL Server to SQL Server is a certified pair. It passed DBShifts's live certification suite (schema conversion, data transfer, row counts, type-aware checksums over an edge-case fixture) and is battle-tested in production use.
How does DBShifts verify the SQL Server to SQL Server migration was correct?
Three layers: per-table row counts on both sides, an order-independent type-aware checksum of row data (canonicalized so engine representation differences don't false-alarm), and FK integrity checks on the target. Rows that fail to insert are quarantined with the exact error — never silently dropped — and can be fixed and retried from the UI.
What happens to SQL Server types that SQL Server doesn't have?
They convert by deterministic rules with a recorded decision: a native equivalent where one exists, a portable fallback (TEXT/JSON/DECIMAL) where one doesn't. Every lossy conversion appears in the migration plan before you run and in the fidelity report after. You can override any mapping per column.
Can I keep SQL Server and SQL Server in sync after the initial migration?
Yes. DBShifts supports incremental sync (UPSERT-based delta transfers on a sync key) and, for supported sources, real-time change data capture so the target stays current until you cut over.
Do I need to write any SQL or scripts for SQL Server to SQL Server?
No. Connect both databases, review the generated migration plan (what's automatic, what migrates with warnings, what needs manual review — typically triggers and stored procedures), and run. Procedural code is transpiled best-effort and queued for human review rather than auto-applied.
What changes in a same-engine SQL Server migration?
Structurally nothing changes — types map one-to-one. The risks are operational: half-copied tables, sequences left pointing at 1, and indexes that never got rebuilt. DBShifts reseeds counters to MAX(id)+1, defers then rebuilds constraints and indexes, and proves the copy with row counts and checksums.
Go deeper
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