>Michael,
>
>As I told Bob, I would use BCP for any tables that don't have memo fields. For those that do, you can use a remote view (it doesn't need to be parameterized, you can just open it with the NODATA option). Be careful that you don't overrun SQL Server's error log. You may need to set the database in SQL Server to truncate the log on checkpoint and also make sure your log is fairly large. Keep in mind that you can't use the log as part of your backup strategy until you set it back to not truncating on checkpoints.
>
>>Bob, did you find a good way to update your server with many records. I thought of adding data to a parameterized remote view then doing a tableupdate(). I would set the view for tablebuffering instead of rowbuffering. Also the reason to use the parameterized remote view would be so that I wouldn't have any data coming back my way.
>>
>>If you find a better idea I would like to hear it.
>>
>>Thanks...
This thread was like a ghost from the past. My original response to Mark Franks' question on BCP was back in February!

Michael, I have been using BCP to move *relatively* large files from Informix to SQLServer via VFP for almost a year. Like the info in the original thread said, no memo fields are transferred.

I have a VFP app that is called by the SQLServer task manager. The app has a table containing the names of the views I wish to update. The app loops thru the table and refreshes the desired views. I then do an SDF copy of the view cursors to text files on the server. Another SQLServer task runs a stored procedure that BCP's the text files into my SQL tables. I write a record to a SQLServer table when the VFP app completes to signal the BCP task that there is fresh data to move.

This all handled by the SQLServer Task Mangager and runs in the wee hours of the morning. The Informix data is in California and the SQLServer data is in San Antonio. We are connected via a WAN. The average time to transfer 500 Mb of data is just under 3 hours.

There is a better way to do this. There are direct "any platform" to "any platform" replicators available where I could go directly from Informix to SQLServer, we can't afford them yet. If you want to look at the specs on one, run a search on "OmniReplicator".

Josh may be able to add more advice, sounds like he's been there also.

Good luck.