sqlserver-collation-migration/README.md

SQL Server Collation Migration (UTF-8 / UTF-16) – Data Copy + Verification

This repository contains two main scripts to support a SQL Server 2022 migration scenario:

1. Data copy (Variant B / Checkpointing): copies data from a source database into a target database table-by-table with restart capability.
2. Verification / compare script: compares source & target databases without comparing row contents (rowcounts + schema + programmable objects + principals).

Intended usage: build a new target DB (e.g. UTF-8 collation), deploy schema, run copy, then verify.

Repository layout

• scripts/migrate_copy_checkpoint.sql
  Copy data source → target (restartable, per-table commit, FK-aware order, live progress output)

• scripts/compare_source_target.sql
  Compare source vs target (textual summaries + result sets)

  • Rowcounts per table
  • Column schema diffs
  • Views/Procs/Functions hash compare
  • Trigger hash compare
  • Users/Roles + Role memberships

• docs/USAGE.md
  How to run the migration copy safely.

• docs/VERIFY.md
  How to run and interpret the compare results.

Quickstart

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
2. Ensure target DB exists and schema is deployed
3. Run:
   • scripts/migrate_copy_checkpoint.sql
4. After successful copy, run:
   • scripts/compare_source_target.sql

Both scripts show live progress output in SSMS (Messages tab).

Configuration

At the top of each script set:

• @SourceDb (default sysdb_UTF8)
• @TargetDb (default sysdb_utf8_jr)

Notes

• The copy script disables triggers, constraints, and nonclustered indexes in target during load and re-enables them afterwards.
• The compare script uses hashes (SHA2_256) for object definitions to quickly detect differences.