SQL Server 2008 R2 migration to Azure

Question

Because data can not be replicated directly from SQL Server 2008 R2 to Azure SQL Database I wonder if it is possible to replicate using replication from SQL Server 2008 R2 this way: SQL Server 2008 R2 replicates data to SQL Server 2012 or 2014 and then from there I replicate data to Azure SQL database.

What is the best fallback plan? Let's say we went to live and after 1 or 2 days we realized that we need go back. What is the best way to go back to old datacenter to SQL Server 2008 R2?

The database is approximately 20Gb. It is preferred to do migration in 1 step. I doubt that SQL Server 2012 or 2014 database could be a subscriber at the same time and the publisher.

Answer 1

At this point of time, replication between on-premise SQL 2008 R2 Database and Azure SQL is not supported.

If you are asking about data migration, I suggest using Azure SQL Migration tool. You can download it from codeplex , choose appropriate version 2008 R2

Answer 2

take a look into this article . To summarize: you can do a direct SQL 2008 DB move to Azure if the DB adheres to the v12 DB schema.