HiT Bolsters DB2/400-to-SQL Server Replication Tool

Published: February 14, 2006

by Alex Woodie

OK, so HiT Software's DBMoto data replication tool isn't restricted to feeding data from expensive iSeries systems to cheap and ubiquitous Windows databases. But judging from the company's presentation materials, this is the most likely usage scenario for its multi-platform data replication tool. In any event, with DBMoto version 5.0, the tool gains new graphical monitoring and management capabilities that will make it more useful in enterprise environments.

DBMoto, formerly called DB2Motion, is a Windows-based utility for replicating data among different relational data stores. Currently, the product supports 16 database management systems, including IBM's DB2/400, DB2 UDB, and Informix, Microsoft's SQL Server, the Oracle database, Sybase ASE, MySQL, Computer Associates' Ingres, PostgreSQL, SQL Anywhere, Access, Gupta SQLBase, Solid, and Firebird.

What sets DBMoto apart from other data replication tools are its wizards and graphical management tools. With just a few clicks of a mouse and simple navigation through drop-down boxes, a DBMoto user can define a source database table, a destination database table, and a replication mode. Three modes are supported, including periodic "snapshot" replication, continuous one-way mirroring, and continuous two-way mirroring (also referred to as synchronization mode), although only DB2/400, Oracle, and SQL Server are supported in the synchronization mode, and only these databases are supported as sources with one-way mirroring.

Once the replication has been defined, the user activates the job, or schedules it to occur in the future, and the data is transmogrified from one system to the other. There are probably as many reasons why somebody would want to do this as there are Windows boxes in the world, but the most commonly cited are reporting, business intelligence, and data archiving.

With version 5.0, the San Jose, California-based company has bolstered the graphical management console, called the Enterprise Manager, with features that will imbue the product to enterprise-type IT managers. These features include support for creating and running multiple replication jobs at the same time, support for multi-threading in the replication engine, and new replication scheduling properties. New replication jobs can also be added to the system without first shutting down DBMoto--another feather in its enterprise cap.

Enterprise IT managers will also appreciate the new replication monitoring capabilities in the Enterprise Manager, which are presented as tabs in the modern-looking GUI console. With a swift click of a mouse over the Object Browser, Replication Browser, and Replication Monitor tabs, a user can see the current status of all of their replication jobs.

Because DBMoto 5 is built on Microsoft's .NET Framework, it also supports the latest .NET data providers, including HiT Software's own Ritmo for iSeries. If an organization is not on the latest .NET 2.0 infrastructure, it can use the older ODBC and OLE DB data providers that HiT has written for OS/400 servers. These drivers are all included with the shelf price of DBMoto.

Other new features in version 5.0 include support for the new SQL Server 2005 database, and improved high-speed data transfer capabilities, such as the Fast Load for SQL Server. The software also sports new ways to detect and resolve replication conflicts, and support for VB.NET as a scripting language for customizing replication jobs. VBScript and Jscript are also supported languages for setting up complicated mappings, filters, or making other customizations.

"We believe that DBMoto 5 addresses a critical need for companies to move data quickly and easily among databases to make essential corporate information available internally and to customers and partners." said Giacomo Lorenzin, CEO of HiT Software. "DBMoto 5 is a major milestone in providing cost effective, reliable database replication and synchronization with high performance and security."

DBMoto 5.0 is available now. Pricing was not disclosed by Hit Software. For more information, visit www.hitsw.com.