Copying Access 97 tables to SQL Server 2008 R2 64-bit daily

Question

I have an ancient system that uses an Access 97 database to store information. I want to copy the data from the 90-some tables to a SQL Server 2008 database on a daily basis. I already have the tables defined in SS2008.

There is an equally ancient DTS job that has a separate box-line-box for each table. I'd rather use an easier to maintain method that was written in code, not lines and boxes. (yes, I know that SSIS lines and boxes are translated into XML, but that's kind of hard for me read and write.)

I can't use Linked Server or OPENROWSET because my SS2008 server runs as a 64-bit process, so the OLEDB Jet driver is not available. The OLEDB MSOffice ACE 12.0 driver is 64-bit, but it isn't supposed to be used with database servers because it is not threadsafe (according to Microsoft). Also, I can't get it to work ("Could not find installable ISAM") within SS2008 despite extensive research. I can read the Access table with OLEDB Jet in a 32-bit program such as SSIS.

So, I'm looking for a modern, non-box-and-line, elegant 32-bit solution to copy the tables from the Access mdb/mdw file to SS2008.

Can I do this with:

• a single T-SQL script
• some C# thing that does introspection to determine table structure and then executes SQL for each table
• some magic "copy every table from this OLEDB to that SQL Server" package

There are several close dups of this question (Copy access database to SQL server periodically, Migrating Access Tables to SQL Server - Beginner), but none that deal with the 32-bit limitation that makes OPENROWSET/Linked Server a non-option.

Answer 1

I cast my vote for some C# thing. You may need to watch out for memory usage if you have large tables.

The basic idea goes like this:

foreach(tableName in access)
    get the table from access
    optionally clear the target table
    sqlbulkcopy it to target database

A more complicated solution would be to grab both tables and only update the changed rows.

Answer 2

You could probably do it from within Access itself using VBA like the following:

Public Function CopyTableDataToSqlServer()
Dim tbd As DAO.TableDef, qdf As DAO.QueryDef, connStr As String
connStr = _
        "ODBC;" & _
        "Driver={SQL Server};" & _
        "Server=.\SQLEXPRESS;" & _
        "Database=cloneDB;" & _
        "Trusted_Connection=yes;"
For Each tbd In CurrentDb.TableDefs
    If Not ((tbd.Name Like "MSys*") Or (tbd.Name Like "~*")) Then
        Debug.Print tbd.Name
        Set qdf = CurrentDb.CreateQueryDef("")
        qdf.Connect = connStr
        qdf.SQL = "DELETE FROM [" & tbd.Name & "]"
        qdf.ReturnsRecords = False
        qdf.Execute
        Set qdf = Nothing
        CurrentDb.Execute _
                "INSERT INTO [" & connStr & "].[" & tbd.Name & "] " & _
                "SELECT * " & _
                "FROM [" & tbd.Name & "] ", _
                dbFailOnError
    End If
Next
Set tbd = Nothing
Debug.Print "Done."
End Function