Rules to migrate a relational database to a column-oriented NoSQL database

Abstract

The significant growth of data related to web applications has exposed the limitations of relational database technologies. Indeed, these technologies currently face several challenges, for example, the limits related to the increase in their size and how to manage the problems related to fast access in this context. These problems can be solved either with the help of hardware or software solutions. The database software technologies related to cloud computing, specifically, No-SQL databases promise to provide solutions to these challenges. This type of database technology was developed as a solution to the limitations of relational database technologies that face the management of very large amounts of data on the web. Several recent publications describe these issues, among others, in the field of social networks and genomics. But each new technology brings challenges of use and software engineers, who are familiar with relational database technologies, are often initially hesitant to use these new technologies for lack of knowledge. This research aims to experiment and discover a set of rules that aim to help in the migration of relational databases to column-oriented No-SQL databases. Following an experiment in migrating an existing relational database to a column-oriented No- SQL database, in our case HBASE technology, software engineers attempt to perform this migration using only their experience. This experiment allows to study the steps carried out by each participant and to discover seven (7) migration rules which have the potential to better guide future migrations, and which add to the knowledge of recent publications by discovering three (3) additional steps which allow better coverage of relational aspects during migration. This thesis therefore proposes a set of seven (7) migration rules that have the potential to help software engineers who are performing this database migration for the first time. The validation of the usefulness of these rules will be validated in another research could guide them to carry out the migration activities of the problematic parts.

Date	21 Sept 2023
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Alain April (Supervisor)