Switch from AIX/Oracle to Windows/SQL Server

Our organization is moving away from UNIX platforms and Oracle databases for a variety of reasons. They have asked us to look into what is required to move Lawson from our current AIX/Oracle setup to a Windows/SQL Server setup.

Has anyone done this before that can provide some feedback on what you found?

We are on LSF 10.0.4 today with Landmark for IPA only. We would likely do this along with an upgrade project rather than doing it on its own.

Find more posts tagged with

Infor Lawson Technology Group - Discussion

Comments

unknown

This is a "safe" transition because file names remain the same. Simple issues are the directions of the slashes, going from "/" to ""; and, folder root names. There is an issue of security: Windows ("MSAD") security will apply. Sometimes users can't get their work done because of security settings, and the only way to fix is to go into Windows and set up security there. On the other hand, moving files can be done by Windows Explorer remapping drives, then doing a "drag-and-drop". No FTP needed any more. The biggest issue is always customizations ... always.

unknown

Since I'm curious about a very similar potential migration, Milo is your reference to the security issue more than the similar security implemented on the AIX file system for application users? If so, please elaborate.

Also, thoughts on application performance comparison for both the OS and the database?

Thank you.

unknown

Application performance is "similar" if you follow standard guidelines.

As far as security goes - my experience with AIX was a few years ago. Security was implemented box-by-box. Under "normal" conditions, it's almost identical to Windows setup. However with MSAD applying to Windows Server technology, security for a user is usually set up company-wide instead of directly on the box, and it expands options for security. Security access to folders can be given to a special MSAD group specific to "general" Lawson security, then a new user is placed in that group. Or access can be granted directly to a user's account, specific to a folder or even a single file on the server. It makes customizations and export/import ... interesting. AIX uses Unix's standard security settings, and then Windows adds a lot more possible settings. Sorry I can't elaborate further, I'm just making general comments.

unknown

Thanks Milo.

Robert - sorry if I hijacked your post with my question (rude??).

Hopefully you're interested in the same information..

bhillz

Interested the rationale for switching from Aix/Oracle to Windows/SQL Server: Mainly the part about switching from Oracle to SQL Server. Why not stay with Oracle but on Windows platform?

robert-canham

No problem, you asked good questions and they are things I was wondering about as well.

As for rationale, a large part of it is cost. Oracle is expensive to run while our Microsoft licensing agreement would cover us. I think DBA resources is also a factor.

0811130630195911.xls

acollins

The first time I went from AIX to Windows, the reasoning was that Windows was the corporate direction. I have to admit that I ended up explaining to security personnel how to add users and secure files more than I wanted because most of our security resources did not know a single Unix command.

I really thought the Windows platform would have more issues as we were always having issues with the Windows webserver. It was not the case.

One of the biggest efforts other than COBOL customizations was that we had many scripts to convert. We went through scripts and reduced the number of scripts. On AIX, we had a script which was generally cloned from another to do everything. When we went to Windows, we parameterized the scripts so that a script could be reused. For example, nearly every script backed up or moved a file. We ended up with one solid script to do this. It made everything more consistent. We had many scripts which ran SQL, and I had wished we had switched database platforms (UDB to SQL Server) or rewrote them in PFI/IPA. Why I thought switching to SQL Server would be good was that we could have used trusted connections when using SQL to pull data from our cross platform scheduler. I liked how we could use Windows authentication to secure our database access in the other system we supported.

The one thing which seemed odd for me was going from user logins to _ or the NT##### formats. Some of the screens and drills did not translate the NT IDs to the user logins in version 9.0.1 in the cash book audit screens. Users were always asking me who was the user assigned to the NT ID. I have not checked those screens in 10 yet. I still do not understand why there are 2 numbers per user as the NT IDs are base 16 but the other number shows up from time to time. I haven't been able to predict which one is used.

I know a lot of people got hung up understanding why we didn't need FTP anymore or why we use %LAWDIR% instead of $LAWDIR. We had a learning curve understanding file shares since and windows scripting. That was mainly due to the development staff having AIX skills and limited Windows skills.

acollins

I forgot to mention something else. Printer definitions need to be changed. The first time I worked with an organization which switched from AIX to Windows, we went with PDF reports so that printing was not an issue. I am currently working on a Solaris to Windows upgrade, and many reports are directed to the printer in case someone needs to research. We are looking at forcing those reports to PDF and retaining a number of days of those reports instead of reworking the print script in the printer definitions. This would reduce paper and secure the reports.

Copyright © 2025 Infor. All rights reserved.