The Challenge
Karsun Solutions serves customers at the General Services Administration (GSA). As part of GSA’s cloud initiative, our customer was looking to reduce licensing costs by migrating legacy applications from an on-premise proprietary database (Sybase) to AWS RDS (mySQL or PostgreSQL). Using our model, we successfully migrated several legacy applications to the cloud.
Two Step Solution: Cloud Assessment & Migration
The proposed solution was divided into two steps.
Step 1 – Cloud Assessment
We assessed all our applications for migration to the cloud with detailed assessment checklists. We then selected the relevant migration path for each scenario, such as lift and shift versus database migration approaches. Once applications are identified, we convert these applications to be database agnostic. This allows the applications to run using any relational database engine such as Sybase, or MySQL.
Step 2- Database Migration Service
Use enhanced AWS Data Migration Service (DMS) to successfully migrate Sybase ASE v15.7 database to MySQL RDS. Database migration involves two steps – Schema Conversion and Database Migration.
Schema Conversion
The Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) did not support Sybase as a Source database. In order to convert schema from Sybase to MySQL RDS, a two-step process was used. 
Step 1 – Convert Schema from Sybase to Microsoft SQL
Microsoft provides a tool called SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) that has support for converting schema from Sybase DB to MS SQL DB. The SSMA tool requires access to a Source and a Target database. To provide a target MS SQL database, an MS SQL RDS instance was created. Then the SSMA tool was used to convert the schema from Sybase to MS SQL.
Step 2 – Convert Schema from Microsoft SQL to MySQL
The SCT tool supports conversion of MS SQL schema to MySQL schema. For this step, the SCT tool was configured to connect to MS SQL RDS instance as Source database and MySQL RDS instance as Target database. Then the SCT tool was used to convert the schema. Once the schema is converted to the target database, the schema needs to be reviewed for the warnings that were generated during the process. Any manual fixes or updates are applied as required. After the schema has been finalized, it needs to be deployed on the target MySQL RDS instance.
Database Migration
The migration of existing data and the on-going replication sync is set up through the Database Migration Service (DMS). The DMS service allows migration between heterogeneous database engines and supports Sybase / SAP ASE version 15.7 and higher as the source database. As required by the customer, the target database is set to MySQL RDS instance. The DMS service requires setting up a Replication Instance, an EC2 instance that performs the data migration and replication. This replication instance can be configured using the DMS service AWS Console page. For more details on DMS, please see documentation from AWS here. 
Project Outcomes
Karsun Solutions successfully converted CAMEO-SB applications – SWS, eOffer, eMod, CityPair Search to be database agnostic and migrated database from Sybase ASE to MySQL.
About Karsun Solutions
Karsun Solutions modernizes enterprise systems enabling agencies to make the next technological advancement their next opportunity to elevate mission capability. IT solutions from Karsun are tailored to meet agencies’ unique needs and optimize operations. These solutions adapt and stay relevant to current trends while using secure, digital architecture built to last. It is a proven modernization partner whose expertise elevates agency capabilities and ensures every next opportunity is within reach.
About the Engagement
Karsun initially performed this work under the its GSA CAMEO program. This contract was a predecessor to the GSA COMET BPA which Karsun was awarded in 2019. Its ongoing work with GSA FAS leverages this acquisitions experience through GSA COMET.
