Migration Assistant for Fabric Data Warehouse (Preview)
We are excited to announce the preview of a migration experience built natively into Fabric to enable Azure Synapse Analytics (Data Warehouse) customers to transition seamlessly to Microsoft Fabric.
This feature will be rolled out to customers worldwide by the second week of April and for a sneak peek of what’s coming next, check out the “More Improvements Coming Soon” section at the end of this article.
This new DW Migration experience allows users to easily migrate both metadata and data from the source database, automatically converting the source schema to Fabric Data Warehouse, helping with data migration, and providing AI powered assistance. With integrated assessment tools and guided support, this capability simplifies migration, enabling customers to leverage Fabric’s capabilities without the complexity of traditional migrations.
Migration Assistant for Fabric Warehouse streamlines the migration process into four steps: metadata migration, problem resolution, data copying, and connection rerouting. Each of these steps will be explored in detail in the article below. For a more comprehensive guide, you can also review the migration assistant how-to article for step-by-step instructions and the migration assistant documentation for more in-depth information.
Metadata migration
During metadata migration, the metadata for the objects (such as the definition for a table) is copied from your source into a new Fabric warehouse using a DACPAC file.
Start the migration from the Migrate button on the workspace toolbar.
Select the DACPAC file card which opens a wizard that guides you through the steps to set the source and destination of the migration.
In the Set the source step upload the DACPAC file extracted from the source data warehouse.
In the Configure the destination step configure the workspace and name of the Fabric warehouse that the source is migrated into.
Clicking on Migrate in the Review step, creates a new data warehouse and kicks off the metadata migration. During this step, the T-SQL metadata is translated to those supported in Fabric data warehouse. The database objects that will be migrated include tables, views, functions, stored procedures and security objects. Once the metadata migration is complete, the Migration Assistant opens showing a summary of the migration.
The Show migrated objects section in the Migration Assistant shows the objects that have been successfully migrated to the Fabric warehouse along with the adjustments that were made to the objects. For example, you might see that certain column datatypes or T-SQL language constructs are automatically converted to the ones that are supported in Fabric.
Fixing problems using Migration Assistant
Some scripts fail to migrate if the T-SQL metadata could not be translated into those that are supported in Fabric warehouse or if the translated code failed to apply to T-SQL. The Fix problems step of the migration assistant helps you fix these failed scripts.
Clicking on an object shows the metadata definition, errors, and dependencies of that object. The metadata definition shows the adjustments that were made to it as comments in the beginning of the code. You can choose to review and fix the broken scripts using the error information manually or using Copilot for AI-powered assistance.
To use Copilot, click on the Fix query errors button under the Suggested action section. Copilot will analyze your query and try to find the best way to fix it and automatically take the errors into context when fixing your script. Copilot will also leave comments to explain what it fixed and why. Once you have made any adjustments you need and run the query, the Migration assistant validates and migrates the object and its dependencies.
Copying data using Migration Assistant
Copy data helps with migrating data used by the objects you migrate. You can use the copy job documentation to do it manually or follow the steps in the copy job wizard integrated into the Migration assistant.
In the Choose the data source step select the source you are copying data from and connect to it with your credentials.
In the Choose data step select the tables and columns you wish to copy from the source.
In the Choose data destination select the new warehouse that was created to migrate.
In the Map to destination step configure table or column mapping.
In the settings step choose the copy mode, either a one-time full data copy, or continuous incremental copying.
Reroute connections
In the final step, the ETL/reporting tools that are connected to your source data warehouse need to be reconnected to your new Fabric warehouse. After this step is done, the warehouse is ready to be used.
More improvements coming soon
We aren’t stopping with what we’ve just delivered, the Migration assistant will evolve as we further develop and enhance our experience alongside your feedback.
Here are some features on our roadmap:
- Live connectivity to Synapse dedicated SQL pool.
- Copilot improvements.
- Full-screen version of migration assistant.
- Seamless data copy experience.
- Reroute connections with assistant.
- Continued investments in usability and SQL surface area.
We’d love to hear about your experiences, feedback, and ideas on how we can improve it! Please share your ideas and vote them on the Fabric ideas site.
Next steps
We can’t wait for you to try out Data Warehouse migration assistant on your own data and let us know what you think. Submit your feedback on Fabric Ideas and join the conversation on the Fabric Community. To get into the technical details, head over to the Fabric Documentation.
