Migrating SQL Server databases to the cloud is a critical part of a cloud journey and requires planning and architectural considerations. In this session, we cover best practices and guidelines in migrating and/or architecting a hybrid SQL Server architecture on AWS. We compare and contrast various migration methods, including SQL export, backup and restore, and using AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS). We also provide guidance on how to migrate products that have approached their end of life, such as SQL Server 2008.

1. P U B L I C S E C T O R
S U M M I T
WASHINGTON, D C

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S U M M I T
Microsoft SQL Server Migration
Strategies
Brian Beach
Principal Solutions Architect
3 0 1 0 2 4

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Agenda
Microsoft SQL Server on AWS
Best Practices for running SQL
Migration Methods
AWS Database Migration Service
Selecting the Migration Method
SQL 2008 End of Life

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Innovation for Windows on AWS
Key Windows launches since 2008
90+
40+
750+
instance types, 20+ instance families
different AMIs for Windows workloads
Windows ISV listings
in AWS Marketplace
Windows Deep Learning AMI
Hyper-V support in SMS
Application-consistent Snapshots through VSS
WS 2008 & SQL Server 2008
Visual Studio Toolkit
Microsoft SCOM plugin release
AWS Directory Service
EC2 Dedicated Hosts (BYOL)
Microsoft SharePoint 2016 (Marketplace)
Windows Server 2008 R2
SQL Server 2008 R2
Windows Server 2003
SQL Server 2005
.NET SDK
Microsoft SCVMM plugin
Windows Server 2012
SQL Server 2012
AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
Amazon RDS adds SQL Server
EC2 Run Command
EC2 Systems Manager
Windows Server & SQL Server 2016
EC2 Dedicated Instances (BYOL)
.NET on Lambda & Codebuild
SAP instance on AWS 2012
Trusted Advisor
checks for Windows
SQL Server 2017 Windows & Linux
X-Ray .NET SDK
CustomerAdoption
Windows for Lightsail
.NET Core & PowerShell
on AL2/Ubuntu
2008 Today
.NET Core 2.0 Support
with Lambda & X-Ray

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Public cloud market leaders dominate the Windows segment of the
Infrastructure as a Service Market
IDC estimates AWS accounted for approximately
57.7% of total Windows instances deployed in the
public cloud IaaS market during 2017, followed by
Microsoft Azure at 30.9%. The rest of the market
collectively accounted for the remaining 11.4% of
Windows instances deployed in the public cloud IaaS
market during 2017.
IDC notes the Windows public cloud IaaS market
continues to expand due to the growing usage of
public cloud IaaS among enterprises and the
movement of Windows workloads into public cloud
IaaS.
Note: Includes Windows instances deployed in the public cloud IaaS market during 2017
Source: IDC estimates, 2018
1
57.7%
2
30.9%
3
11.4%
Worldwide Windows public cloud IaaS
instances by cloud provider, 2017

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Which migration strategy is right for you?
• Amazon Aurora – SQL/OLTP
• Amazon Redshift – SQL/OLAP
• Amazon DynamoDB – NoSQL
• Amazon Neptune – Graph
• Eliminate SQL Server licensing costs
Refactor:
Adopt Cloud Native Services
• Optimized architecture
• Automated patching
• Automated backups
• Proven high availability
Replatform:
SQL Server on RDS
• Familiar administration experience
• Full control over the environment
• All SQL Server features available
• All SQL Server versions supported
Rehost:
SQL Server on EC2
Amazon Relational
Database Service
(Amazon RDS)
Amazon Elastic Compute
Cloud (Amazon EC2)

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Migrating SQL Server databases to AWS
Amazon
EC2
SQL Server
Migrate
On- Premise

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Amazon RDS for SQL Server SQL Server on Amazon EC2
Customer managedAWS managed
Power, HVAC, net
OS Install/Maintenance
OS Patching
DBMS Install/Maintenance
DBMS Patching
Database Backups
High Availability
Scaling
Power, HVAC, net
OS Install/Maintenance
OS Patching
DBMS Install/Maintenance
DBMS Patching
Database Backups
High Availability
Scaling
• Consider RDS first
• Focus on business
value tasks
• High-level tuning asks
• Schema optimization
• No in-house database
expertise
• Need full control over
DB instance
• Backups
• Replication
• Clustering
• Options that are not
available in RDS
SQL Server on AWS

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* Self-installed
Versions Supported: 2008 R2, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 All
Editions Supported: Express, Web, Standard, Enterprise**
High Availability: Self-managed; AlwaysOn, Mirror, Log ShipAWS-managed
Encrypted Storage using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) (all editions); TDE SupportEncryption:
Authentication: Windows & SQL authentication
Maintenance plans & 3rd party toolsManaged automated backupsBackups:
Self-managedAutomatic software patchingMaintenance:
Amazon RDS Amazon EC2
SQL Server features at a glance

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SQL Server as a managed service
AMAZON RDS
LIMITATIONS
• Same SQL Server DB engine as with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
• Management, monitoring, and automation layer around the DB engine
• Automated full DB instance backups, with point-in-time restore
• Automated high availability (HA)
• Automated provisioning, patching, monitoring, directory integration
• Cannot run SSRS, SSIS, SSAS on the DB instance (works as data source)
• No sysadmin role, server administrator, or direct file system access
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/UsingWithRDS.MasterAccounts.html
• Not supported: MSDTC, maintenance plans, database mail

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Storage performance planning
AMAZON RDS STORAGE
MONITORING I/O EFFICIENCY
• Low latency, persistent, network-attached block storage
• Easy to change after initial selection
• Maximum storage: 16 TB
• Maximum IOPS: 64,000
• Maximum throughput: 500 MiB/sec
• Amazon RDS storage throughput
depends on DB instance class (see equivalent
Amazon EC2 EBS optimized instance type)
• Keep in mind this includes TempDB
• Amazon CloudWatch metric average queue depth
- I/O requests waiting to be serviced

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RDS SQL Server – Performance Insights

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SQL Server on AWS exhibited 2X+ better price/
performance than Azure (ZK Research)
SQL Server on Amazon EC2 consistently outperforms Azure across a variety of machine types
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233
AWS versus Azure Large* Configuration (TPM)
AWS Azure
$0
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
Small Medium Large
Costs per 1 Billion Transactions Per Month
AWS Azure
https://zkresearch.com/blog/2018/11/comparing-sql-server-deployments-on-microsoft-azure-and-amazon-web-services
*Results for Small and Medium configuration available on https://zkresearch.com, a 3rd party research firm

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Microsoft licensing on AWS
Dedicated options for
licenses not eligible for
license mobility
Default tenancy
for license mobility-
eligible products with
software assurance
AWS licensing
Buy license-included
instances from AWS
Bring licenses to AWS

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Amazon EC2: Purpose-built compute families
Current Instance Families and Generation Family/Usage
M5, M4 General purpose compute
T2, T3 Burstable performance
C5, C4 Compute optimized
X1, X1E, R5, R5d, R4, R3
Memory
optimized
P2, G3, F1 Accelerated computing
I3
Storage optimized
(I/O)
D2
Storage optimized
(Density)

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License optimization with Optimize CPUs
• Control active vCPUs and hyper-threading status
when launching new EC2 instances
• Reduce the number of SQL Server licenses
*Sample licensing example only
Instance Type Total vCPUs Active vCPUs with
Optimize CPUs
SQL Server license
savings
r5.4xlarge 16 8 50%
r5.8xlarge 32 8 75%

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How do I use Optimize CPU?
Set with AWS CLI run-instances
--cpu-options “CoreCount=x,ThreadsPerCore=y”
View with AWS CLI describe-instances
“CpuOptions”: {“CoreCount”: x, “ThreadsPerCore”: y}
Alternatively, set with AWS SDK or Amazon EC2 API

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Amazon EBS volume types
HDDSSD
Provisioned IOPS
$0.125 per GiB
$0.065 per PIOPS
io1
General purpose
$0.10 per GiB
gp2
Throughput optimized
$0.045 per GiB
st1 sc1
Cold
$0.025 per GiB
Snapshot storage for all volume types is $0.05 per GiB per month
* All prices are per month, prorated to the second, and from the us-east-1 region as of October 2018

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What is Amazon EC2 Instance Store?
• Local to instance
• SSD or HDD
• Non-persistent data store
• Data not replicated (by
default)
• No snapshot support
EC2 instances
Physical host
Instance store
or
* Not all instance types have local, instance storage

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Assessment and planning
• Inventory SQL Server all dependencies
• Authentication requirements (e.g., Windows Authentication vs. SQL)
• Identify SQL Server version or edition features currently used
• Know you licensing options (e.g., Leverage BYOL)
• Understand High Availability and Disaster Recovery Requirements
• Performance requirements (e.g., IOPS) and Capacity planning
• Leverage your Retention Policy
• Understand migration options
• List all database properties (e.g., Recovery Model and Compatibility
Level)
• Acknowledge Internal capabilities

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Hybrid Architecture
• Integration of on-premises resources with cloud resources
• Migrate SQL Server data to the AWS Cloud
https://aws.amazon.com/enterprise/hybrid/

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App Web
App Web
VPC endpoint
SQL Server
backups
to Amazon S3
.bak uploads to S3
HTTPS traffic
.bak downloads
using VPC endpoint
Restore .bak
Availability zone
Subnet
Availability zone
Subnet
On-Premise
MS SQL
Replica
MS SQL
Primary
SQL Server
VPC
AlwaysOn
Endpoints

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Native SQL backup to Amazon S3 via SMB
Corporate data center
SQL Server
(native SQL agent)
Domain
controller
Share
(SMB)
Local
cache
Backup
bucket SQL Server
Corporate data center
On-Premise AWS Cloud

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• Backup and restore using
Amazon S3
• IAM Role to connect services
• Configure Option Group to
enable functionality
• Specify an S3 Bucket as part
of configuration
• Run Stored Procedure to
perform restore
• Heavily optimized
SQL Server
Amazon
S3
IAM
SQL Server
*.bak
RDS SQL Server backup/restore

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Amazon S3 file transfer performance considerations
• If necessary, split backup files:
BACKUP DATABASE AdventureWorks
TO DISK = 'C:BackupAdventureWorks2014/1.bak’,
DISK = 'D:BackupAdventureWorks2014/2.bak’,
DISK = 'E:BackupAdventureWorks2014/3.bak’
GO
• Various ways optimizing, including using
SDKs. Must be manually optimized.
• Storage Gateway automatically
optimizes uploads

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Cloud
Migration
SQL Server
Amazon S3
MS SQL
instance
When to use AWS Import/Export Snowball

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Native SQL Server migration methods
Amazon
EC2
SQL Server
Migrate
On- Premise

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SubnetSubnet
Log Shipping
On-Premises
SQL Server
Primary
SQL Server
Warm Standby
VPC
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
WSFC
AlwaysOn

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SubnetSubnet
Database Mirroring
On-Premises
SQL Server
Principal
SQL Server
Warm Standby
VPC
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
WSFC
AlwaysOn

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AlwaysOn Availability Groups
On-Premises
SQL Server
Primary Replica
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
VPC
WSFC
Availability Group
Subnet

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Distributed Availability Groups
On-Premises
SQL Server
Primary Replica
SQL Server
Forwarder
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
SQL Server
Secondary Replica
VPC
Availability Group 1 Availability Group 2
WSFC1 WSFC2
Distributed Availability Group

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Transactional Replication
Publish and filter database objects to a subscriber of choice
Publisher
Publication
Database
Distributor
Snapshot Folder
Subscription
Database
Subscriber
Snapshot Agent
Publication
Snapshot Files Distribution Agent

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AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) easily and
securely migrate and/or replicate your databases and
data warehouses to AWS
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) convert your
commercial database and data warehouse schemas to open-
source engines or AWS-native services, such as Amazon
Aurora and Redshift
AWS Database Migration Service

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S U M M I T
When to use AWS DMS and AWS SCT?
Modernize Migrate Replicate
Modernize your database tier
• SQL Server to open-source
• SQL Server to Amazon Aurora
or PostgeSQL
• SQL Server to Amazon
Redshift
• Migrate business-critical
applications
• Migrate data warehouse to
Amazon Redshift
• Consolidate shards into
Amazon Aurora
• Create cross-regions Read
Replicas
• Run your analytics in the cloud
• Keep your dev/test and
production environment sync

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SCT Migration Assessment Report
• Assessment of migration
compatibility of source
databases with open-source
database engines – RDS MySQL,
RDS PostgreSQL and Aurora
• Recommends best target engine
• Provides details level of efforts
to complete migration

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AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT)
• Understand the level of effort to migrate

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Change data capture (CDC) and apply
Replication instance
Source Target
Update
t1 t2
t1
t2
Transactions Change
apply
after bulk
load

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S U M M I T
Customer
premises
Application users
AWS
Internet
VPN/DX
Keep your apps running during the migration
 Start a replication instance
 Connect to source and target
databases
 Select tables, schemas, or
databases
 Let AWS DMS load data, and
keep them in sync
 Switch applications over to
the target at your
convenience
AWS
DMS

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Homogenous or heterogeneous
Replication
instance
MySQL
Replication
instance
Aurora
Replication
instance
SQL Server
SQL Server
SQL Server
SQL Server (EC2 or RDS)

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Migration Method: Which should I use?
Backup/
Restore
Transactional
Replication
AAGs
Log
Shipping
DB
Mirroring
DMS/
SCT
AWS
Snowball
SQL Server
Standard     
SQL Server
Enterprise       
On-going Replication
    
Migrate Specific DB
Objects (e.g. sprocs,
tables, indexes, etc.)
  
SQL Server
2008/2008R2 (ALL) (SE,EE) (EE) (ALL) (ALL)
SQL Server 2012+
(ALL)  (EE) (SE,EE) (EE) (ALL) (ALL)
SQL Server on EC2
      
RDS for SQL Server
   

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The SQL 2008 End of Life countdown is on
Windows Server
2008 and 2008
R2
SQL Server
2008 and 2008
R2
July 9,
2019
Jan 14,
2020
50-60% of On-Premises Microsoft workloads are
running on 2008 versions
No new security updates – customers are exposed
to cyber attacks
Customers now have strong need to put a strategic
plan in place
Compliance sensitive customers such as Health care
and Fin Serv. especially so
Learn more at https://wisdom.corp.amazon.com/Pages/Playbook_SQL-Windows-2008-End-of-Service.aspx

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Migrating SQL Server 2008/2008R2
• Support ends July 9, 2019 – must upgrade DB Engine
• Upgrade to SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, or 2017 (with SQL Server
2008 SP4/2008R2 SP3)
• Understand Database Compatibility Level Dependencies
• Set your database combability level to 100
• Upgrade compatibility level, only if supported and necessary
• New home – Amazon RDS for SQL Server and SQL Server on
Amazon EC2
• Migration options – Mirroring or Log Shipping? AWS DMS or Backup
and Restore?

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Summary of Migration Considerations
• SQL Server version and edition features
• Authentication requirements
• Amount of data being migrated
• Connectivity to AWS
• Migration method
• New home for the databases
• AWS Professional Services or Partner help
• Well Architected Framework
• Optimize after migration

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Thank you!
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S U M M I T
Brian Beach
Principal Solutions Architect

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