About Ispirer Systems
Ispirer Home Page Ispirer Data Migrator Database Migration
The IDM Home page displays a list of all created projects along with their associated license information.
Each Project panel shows (if provided):
Delete button removes the project metadata: control schema, migration ledger tables, and all temporary resources from the target PostgreSQL database. This action is irreversible and should only be performed after migration is fully completed and the target schema is ready for production use.
The License Information panel on each project card displays:
Each project in the list retains its last configured migration state (Running or Stopped) and continues processing in the background according to the status of its tables and consistency mode when the project was last accessed or closed.
The license key for each project is entered during project creation and is bound to that project.
All data migration operations are performed within projects.
To create a new project, click + Add New Project button on the Home page. The Project Creation page will then open.
On this page, enter the following information:
After filling in the required fields, click Create Project button to continue. Upon successful field entry, the Target Database Setup page will open.
Use the Setup Checklist panel to guide you through the essential steps and pages required to launch your project.
On the Target Database Setup page, enter the connection details for the target PostgreSQL database:
Note: The target database must be created and available before the project starts.
Important. Ensure the following utilities are installed and configured:
| Target Databases | Required target extensions must be installed manually by the superuser before setup |
| PostgreSQL RDBMS (version 14 and above) | Postgres_fdw DBlink Oracle_fdw PG_cron Plv8 |
After entering the details, click Next button to continue. Upon successful field entry and database connection verification, the License Setup page will open.
Note: All installation steps below should be executed as Postgres RDBMS superuser, formally known as Postgres. It is needed only for installation purposes, and further effective operation of the IDM solution does not require any redundant administrator privileges.
Alternative credential fields are for a migration-only user, allowing data migration with minimal privileges and without administrative configuration rights.
Note: If a connection error occurs:
Contact support if the issue persists.
All data migration operations are performed within the license data usage.
On the License page, enter the following info:
Click Activate button to continue. The license key is verified, and the License Details section is displayed on the same page.
Note: License verification is performed online by connecting to the to Ispirer's license server; an active internet connection is required on the user's machine.
The License Details panel shows the source and target types, expiration date, maximum allowed project data volume, and current licensed data usage (used and available GB) for this key.
Click Next button to continue. The Source Database Setup page will open.
Note: If your license has expired, you encounter any license-related issues, or have questions, please request a new license or contact us via www.ispirer.com
Also, you can book the demo and get the IDM demo license at www.ispirer.com/data-migration
On the Source Database Setup page, enter the following info:
Click Next button to continue. Upon successful field entry and Database Connection Verification, the Select Objects page will open.
If a connection error occurs:
Contact support if the issue persists.
Note: When specifying the database username and password on this page, you need sufficient privileges to successfully execute SELECT statements on system tables of the source database.
Important. Ensure that the source database user privileges are properly configured.
Note: To connect to the source database, a dedicated database user with sufficient privileges is also required; the sections below describe the minimum required permissions and provide detailed instructions for configuring them if needed.
A migration project is created empty and does not contain a list of objects for data migration.
On the Source Tables Selection page, the user needs to select which objects to include in the migration scope from the source database:
Click Next button to continue. Upon successful entry, the Target Tables Processing page will open.
On the Source Tables Selection page, you can also configure mapping settings.
Mapping defines how source objects are mapped to the target database during migration. To open the mapping configuration screen, click the Mapping button. Upon successful entry, the Mapping Objects for Migration page will open.
To open the Mapping Objects for Migration page, at least one object must be selected.
The page contains two tabs:
These options allow you to assign target object names that differ from those in the source database. By default, target names are automatically populated using the corresponding source object names.
At this stage, you define the names of objects in the target database. The creation and validation of target objects will be performed on the next setup screens.
On the following pages, the project object tree will be displayed using the target database object names.
To assign a new name to an object, enter it in the input field under the Target Schema Names or Target Name section, replacing the auto-filled value. The new name will be displayed in italic and underlined.
You can use live search (search-as-you-type) to quickly find project objects by name (schema, table, or column). The search results are updated automatically as you type.
You can revert custom object names and return to the default auto-filled names (matching the source database object names) using the following controls:
When entering new names for target database objects, you may encounter two types of errors:
Important. Until the error is resolved, leaving the mapping configuration page is blocked, as these types of errors prevent objects from being added to the migration project. A simple way to fix them is to use the Discard Changes badge in the input field to revert to the default name.
After completing the mapping configuration, you can return to the Source Tables Selection page by clicking the Close (×) icon.
There, you can further add or remove objects from the project (as you did earlier) and continue configuring mappings for the updated migration scope.
Once you finish selecting objects and configuring their mappings, click Next to proceed to the next project setup stage - creating and validating target objects (the Target Tables Processing page).
Important: After moving to the next step, you will no longer be able to return to the Source Tables Selection and Mapping stage.
On the Target Tables Processing page, configure and verify the target-side structures for the selected source tables. This step ensures that target tables exist (or are created), column mappings are correct, data types are compatible, and everything is ready for data migration.
Available actions (buttons per schema or per table):
Click Create All and Validate All button for each schema or table included in the project scope. Wait for the validation status of each table to confirm successful execution.
Table Creation Statuses:
Table Validation Statuses:
Note: The target table names and columns are typically converted to lowercase by default. If you used manual import/adoption earlier (e.g., via SQLWays), existing tables can be validated without recreation. Only tables with the Ready for migration status will be included in the migration process.
Only validated tables are included in the final migration scope.
The Setup Checklist panel displays the total data volume for all validated tables as Validated Tables Size. The calculation is based on the source database size. The final migrated data size may vary slightly in the target database.
Click Finalize Setup button to continue. Upon successful validation, the Migration project page will open.
Important. After finalizing the setup, the source and target connections and the selected migration scope are locked, and migration proceeds using the validated objects only for this project.
After completing the setup steps, the project configuration is locked and applied to the selected migration scope.
Migration is then performed and managed within this defined scope from the Migration Project page (also called the project dashboard or workspace), which is opened at this stage.
The workspace includes the following main components:
The Object Tree panel is a sidebar that displays the project object hierarchy, organized by schemas and the tables they contain.
When a schema is expanded, each table is shown with a dedicated card\component that includes the following information:
Table Consistency Mode dropdown. Select the mode via the dropdown in each table card or globally at the project level (only available while tables are in Stopped state):
The consistency mode can be set globally for the project or individually per table, and is available only while the project or the selected table is in the Stopped state.
Table Status field. The current migration status of the table:
In addition to changing the consistency mode, you can access more advanced project-level tuning options.
Look for the Settings icon
in the top-right corner of the Sidebar menu Migration Project.
Clicking this icon opens the Migration Parameters window – a configurable list of system-level parameters that control the overall behavior of the migration process, such as parallelism, batch sizing, error handling, and performance optimizations.
These settings apply globally to the project. They allow fine-grained individual tuning for large-scale or complex migrations.
Settings for individual tables are also available only when the table is in the Stopped status. To access these settings, select a separate table and click the Table Options button
in the upper-left corner of the workspace. Next, a Table Options window opens with a list of all possible settings.
Initial project state — all tables are in the Stopped status, the consistency mode is set to Partial Consistency, and only the Start button is available.
Consistency mode can be changed globally or per table, but only while all tables (or the selected table) remain stopped.
Migration can be started using Main project control buttons for all tables, or triggered individually for each table via Table Actions buttons in the object tree.
To start project migration, click the Start button. This initiates migration for all tables in the project according to the configured scope and consistency settings.
The following sections describe how to manage migration at both the project and table levels.
Main project control buttons control for managing migration at the project level.
Start project button:
Pause project button:
Soft Stop project button:
Stop project button: Immediately stops migration processing for all tables, regardless of their current status (Running, Waiting, Paused, or Error). Progress for the current iteration may be lost. After stopping, the Start button becomes available again. A confirmation warning is displayed before executing this action.
Table Actions buttons controls for managing migration at the table level.
Table actions for the selected table: Start, Paused, Stop buttons
Table action availability by table status:
Migration runs in the background (via pg_cron) in repeated iterations until manually stopped. Closing the GUI or browser does not stop migration – it continues in its last state (Running or Stopped). You can delete the entire project (including metadata and control schema) from the home page project card
Migration progress and performance in real time can be viewed on the dashboard, which includes:
You can also verify migration progress and results directly on the source and target systems using your own database tools.
This allows you to inspect data, validate changes, and troubleshoot issues outside the application.
Current Iteration panel displays the following information:
Current Iteration panel helps you navigate alternative scenarios as they arise during migration:
Completed Migration panel displays the following information:
Migration Dynamics charts display:
Deleted & Upserted Rows chart shows metric values for completed iterations.
Values are updated after each iteration is completed.
Iteration Time chart shows metric values for completed iterations.
Values are updated after each iteration is completed.
Tables Completed chart shows metric values for completed iterations.
Values are updated after each iteration is completed.