No More Direct Connections: DMS Schema Conversion Adds Offline SQL Server Support!

Hi everyone, it's Shiichan! Today I found news that should ease the pain for teams working under strict security policies!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

According to AWS's What's New, AWS DMS Schema Conversion now supports offline source conversion for Microsoft SQL Server. You can convert SQL Server schemas and code without a direct connection to the source database. You extract metadata using standard database commands in your own environment, then upload it to DMS Schema Conversion for processing.

Why it matters

For organizations with security policies that restrict external tool access to production SQL Server databases, the previous connection-based approach meant migrations could stall before they even started, held up by security reviews, firewall changes, and VPN setup. With Offline Source, database administrators generate metadata files within their own environment, and security teams can review the commands and output before anything is uploaded, which makes approval much more straightforward.

What changes

By removing the connectivity requirement, what used to take weeks of security review becomes a simple command-and-upload workflow. It delivers the same conversion results as the connected approach, so teams whose migration projects were stuck for security reasons should find it much easier to get started with DMS Schema Conversion.

Dive Deep

Offline Source works with all targets that DMS Schema Conversion supports, at no additional conversion charge. Supported regions are listed in AWS's documentation, and getting-started details are in the "Using Offline Source" documentation.

Wrap-up

• DMS Schema Conversion now supports offline source conversion for SQL Server
• You can convert schemas and code without a direct connection to the source database
• The workflow is simply extracting metadata in your own environment and uploading it
• It delivers the same conversion results as the connected approach, at no extra charge

Database administrators and security teams working under strict security policies who want to move SQL Server migrations forward should definitely check this out!