Migrating Schema and Data from Sybase ASE/SAP ASE to YugabyteDB with HexaRocket
February 25, 2026
A guest partnership blog from HexaCluster founder and CEO, Avi Vallarapu.
SAP Sybase ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) has been a dominant force in the financial services, telecommunications, and banking sectors for decades. However, the database landscape has shifted dramatically.
The need for cloud-native agility, horizontal scalability, and open-source ecosystems is driving organizations to move away from legacy monolithic architectures.
In this blog, we share how you can migrate Sybase ASE/SAP ASE to YugabyteDB, using HexaRocket.
We evaluate how HexaRocket treats YugabyteDB as a PostgreSQL-compatible system and delivers 100% accurate schema conversion and deployment, even when handling the specific T-SQL dialect used by Sybase ASE/SAP ASE.
In this upcoming webinar, HexaCluster and Yugabyte experts will explore the benefits of a distributed SQL database built on an open-source ecosystem. Register to watch as they demonstrate a practical engineering journey from a traditional architecture, such as Sybase/SAP ASE, to YugabyteDB with HexaRocket.About YugabyteDB
Open-source, PostgreSQL-compatible distributed YugabyteDB is an ideal option for enterprises looking to modernize. Since YugabyteDB maintains PostgreSQL compatibility with the YSQL API layer, most PostgreSQL tooling can be applied directly, including migration tools like HexaRocket.
We were curious to test how seamlessly HexaRocket could migrate a Sybase ASE to YugabyteDB, treating YugabyteDB as a PostgreSQL-compatible target.
Why are Sybase ASE Users Exploring Open-Source and Distributed SQL Databases?
Sybase ASE remains a potent engine for specific OLTP workloads. However, as organizations modernize their infrastructure, maintaining legacy Sybase ASE instances poses significant challenges. These include:
- High Total Cost of Ownership: SAP licensing and support costs continue to rise, particularly for high-availability setups.
- Scalability Limits: Like most traditional RDBMS, Sybase ASE relies on vertical scaling (getting a bigger box), which has a hard ceiling compared to distributed horizontal scaling.
- End of Life: Some of the promising Sybase/SAP ASE releases are already EOL, and maintenance of versions 16 and 17 is only extended for a limited period.
For many companies, it is time to consider a distributed PostgreSQL database. YugabyteDB is a highly reliable open source database for distributed workloads, suitable for both OLTP and OLAP requirements.
YugabyteDB offers:
- Horizontal scalability
- Multi-region and globally consistent transactions
- PostgreSQL wire-protocol compatibility
- Open source philosophy
- Suitability for both OLTP and analytical workloads
PostgreSQL Compatibility
One of YugabyteDB’s biggest advantages is its deep compatibility with PostgreSQL. Its YSQL layer is wire-compatible and syntax-compatible with PostgreSQL, which means:
- Most PostgreSQL drivers, tools, and ORM frameworks work seamlessly with YugabyteDB.
- SQL functions, DDL statements, and PL/pgSQL procedures can often be used without modification.
- Applications that connect to PostgreSQL can connect to YugabyteDB using the same JDBC or libpq interfaces.
Datatype Mapping Between Sybase ASE and YugabyteDB
Let’s take a deeper look at the datatype mapping between Sybase ASE and YugabyteDB.
| Sybase Type | YugabyteDB Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CHAR(n) | CHAR(n) | Fixed-length string |
| NCHAR(n) | CHAR(n) | Fixed-length national character string |
| NVARCHAR(n) | VARCHAR(n) | Variable-length national character string |
| TEXT | TEXT | Variable-length character data (≤ 2 GB) |
| UNICHAR(n) | CHAR(n) | Fixed-length Unicode UTF-16 string |
| UNITEXT | TEXT | Variable-length Unicode UTF-16 data (≤ 1 GB) |
| UNIVARCHAR(n) | VARCHAR(n) | Variable-length Unicode UTF-16 string |
| VARCHAR(n) | VARCHAR(n) | Variable-length string |
| BIGDATETIME | TIMESTAMP(6) | Date and time with fraction |
| BIGINT | BIGINT | 64-bit integer |
| BIGTIME | TIME(6) | Time (Hour, minute, second, and fraction) |
| BINARY(n) | BYTEA | Fixed-length binary data |
| BIT | BOOLEAN | 0 or 1; NULL is not allowed |
| DATE | DATE | Date (year, month, and day) |
| DATETIME | TIMESTAMP(3) | Date and time with fraction |
| DECIMAL(p,s) | NUMERIC(p,s) | Fixed-point number |
| DOUBLE PRECISION | DOUBLE PRECISION | Double-precision floating-point number |
| FLOAT | DOUBLE PRECISION | Floating-point number |
| IMAGE | BYTEA | Variable-length binary data (≤ 2 GB) |
| INT, INTEGER | INTEGER | 32-bit integer |
| MONEY | NUMERIC(19,4) | 64-bit currency amount |
| NUMERIC(p,s) | NUMERIC(p,s) | Fixed-point number |
| REAL | REAL | Single-precision floating-point number |
| SMALLDATETIME | TIMESTAMP(0) | Date and time |
| SMALLINT | SMALLINT | 16-bit integer |
| SMALLMONEY | NUMERIC(10,4) | 32-bit currency amount |
| TIME | TIME(6) | Time (Hour, minute, second, and fraction) |
| TINYINT | SMALLINT | 8-bit unsigned integer (0 to 255) |
| UNSIGNED BIGINT | NUMERIC(20) | 64-bit unsigned integer |
| UNSIGNED INT | BIGINT | 32-bit unsigned integer |
| UNSIGNED SMALLINT | INTEGER | 16-bit unsigned integer |
| VARBINARY(n) | BYTEA | Variable-length binary string |
Migrating from Sybase ASE to YugabyteDB with HexaRocket
When planning a migration, automation, accuracy, and compatibility are crucial.
This is where HexaRocket plays a significant role, simplifying the schema and data translation process and accelerating the journey from Sybase ASE to YugabyteDB.
HexaRocket is a unified database migration and replication engine developed by HexaCluster.
HexaRocket enables seamless schema and data migration from Sybase ASE to YugabyteDB through a simplified one-click execution model. It eliminates manual effort by automating the entire migration lifecycle, from schema and data extraction to loading into the target database. By leveraging high-speed parallel processing, HexaRocket migrates multiple objects simultaneously, significantly reducing downtime and improving performance during large-scale data movement.
Since YugabyteDB is PostgreSQL-compatible, HexaRocket connects to it just as you would with a standard PostgreSQL database.
In HexaCluster’s tests, HexaRocket achieved a 100% success rate in migrating Sybase ASE schemas to YugabyteDB on the first attempt.
It handled Sybase-specific constructs such as sp_bindrule, defaults, and T-SQL stored procedures without requiring manual code edits. HexaRocket also supports validating both schemas and data, ensuring structural correctness and consistency.
What Testing did HexaRocket Consider?
We aimed to test the migration of the primary data structures, covering Tables with various data types, alongside their corresponding Constraints, Indexes, and User Defined Types.
Overall, we used HexaRocket to migrate 68 objects and 38 constraints, and indexes to simulate a complex, real-world database workload.
- Tables: 40
- Constraints: 35
- Indexes: 3
- User Defined Types: 28
The Results
The result was originally expected to be high, given our previous success with SQL Server T-SQL conversions. As expected, we see all objects migrated and also deployed to YugabyteDB without any adjustments.
As shown in the “Migration Overview” dashboard in HexaRocket, all 68 objects were migrated successfully.
This means that all the Tables, Constraints, Indexes, and User Defined Types were converted from Sybase ASE T-SQL to YugabyteDB and deployed successfully.
Schema Migration Overview:
Data Migration Overview
To see whether YugabyteDB is truly PostgreSQL-compatible, we also performed a Data Migration covering every possible complex data type in Sybase/SAP ASE. We then migrated the data as if we migrated data to PostgreSQL. And again, 100% success with validation.
Click to try HexaRocket today.
Conclusion
Yugabyte is partnering with HexaRocket to support Sybase ASE modernization with a combined approach.
YugabyteDB acts as the target distributed PostgreSQL database, and HexaRocket provides migration tooling and delivery services. Customer benefits include:
- Standardized assessment and execution steps
- Reduced manual conversion work
- Repeatable testing and cutover practices
This joint motion is ideal for Sybase environments with complex database objects and tight operational requirements. Teams can engage with YugabyteDB and HexaRocket for a joint assessment and migration plan that covers scope sizing, conversion approach, testing and validation, and production-readiness criteria (performance, resilience, security, and operational runbooks).
Migrating Sybase/SAP ASE workloads to YugabyteDB is no longer complex. YugabyteDB supports direct compatibility with many Sybase features and can be easily adopted by users.
Discover more about HexaCluster’s database migrations to PostgreSQL databases and consulting services for application migrations and modernization.
Contact the team directly to explore how this joint partnership can benefit your business.
Register now for the upcoming webinar ‘Sybase/SAP ASE End-of-Life: A Practical Modernization Journey to Distributed PostgreSQL with YugabyteDB and HexaRocket‘ on March 18 at 12:30 PM ET.
