ETL mechanisms for MySQL to SQL Server over WAN

Question

I’m looking for some feedback on mechanisms to batch data from MySQL Community Server 5.1.32 with an external host down to an internal SQL Server 05 Enterprise machine over VPN. The external box accumulates data throughout business hours (about 100Mb per day), which then needs to be transferred internationally across a WAN connection (quality not yet determined but it's not going to be super fast) to an internal corporate environment before some BI work is performed. This should just be change-sets making their way down each night.

I’m interested in thoughts on the ETL mechanisms people have successfully used in similar scenarios before. SSIS seems like a potential candidate; can anyone comment on the suitability for this scenario? Alternatively, other thoughts on how to do this in a cost-conscious way would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

It depends on the use you have of the data received from the external machine.

If you must have the data for the calculations of the morning after or do not have confidence in your network, you would prefer to loose-couple the two systems and enable some message-queuing between them so that if something fails during the night like the DBs, the networks links, anything that would be a pain for you to recover, you can start every morning with some data.

If the data retrieval is not subject to a high degree of criticality, any solution is good :)

Regarding SSIS, it's just a great ETL framework (yes, there's a subtlety :)). But I don't see it as a part of the data transfer, rather in the ETL part when your data has been received or is still waiting in the message-queing system.

Answer 2

In terms of actually getting your data from MySQL into SQL Server, you can use SSIS to import the data using a number of methods. One would be to connect directly to your MySQL source (via an OLEDB Connection or similar) or you could do a daily export from MySQL to a flat file and pick this up using a FTP Task. Once you have the data, SSIS can perform the required transforms before loading the processed data to SQL Server.

Answer 3

First, if you are going to do this, have a good way to easily see what has changed since the last time. Every field should have a last updatedate or a timestamp that changes when the record is updated (not sure if mysql has this). This is far better than comparing every single field.

If you had SQL Server in both locations I would recommend replication, is it possible to use SQL server instead of mySQL? If not then SSIS is your best bet.