Simplifying Oracle to Azure SQL migrations with Copilot-driven automation and plain English commands.
Introduction
Enterprise scale Oracle-to-SQL migrations often struggle with inconsistent execution, manual effort, and lack of repeatability across environments. These challenges slow down delivery, introduce risk, and limit the ability to scale migration programs effectively.
The SSMA Console Skill for GitHub Copilot addresses this gap by enabling a standardized, AI-driven migration workflow using SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA). By translating natural language prompts into orchestrated migration steps, this capability allows teams to industrialize migrations, reduce variability, and accelerate outcomes across large portfolios.
What is the SSMA Console Skill?
The SSMA Console Skill is a reusable Copilot skill built to automate and orchestrate SQL Server Migration Assistant console operations for Oracle to SQL Server and Azure SQL migrations. It is designed to reduce the need for multiple steps that must be carefully repeated across environments and projects. Instead of requiring users to learn SSMA in detail or manually run every command, it allows migration steps to be expressed in plain English and then executed in a consistent and repeatable way across many databases.
At its core, it enables Copilot to:
- Create SSMA migration projects
- Generate assessment reports
- Convert schema
- Migrate data end-to-end
All of this follows a structured workflow defined in the skill
It also supports generating the required XML configuration files that SSMA depends on so that migrations remain repeatable and can be version controlled. It can also directly execute SSMA console commands, removing the need for external scripts or ad hoc command line operations.
All of these capabilities are tied together through a well-defined workflow inside the skill, which ensures that each step flows into the next in a predictable and automated manner.
What problem this skill is solving?
While tools like SSMA are widely used for Oracle-to-SQL migration, enterprise programs typically face:
- Manual, repetitive execution across multiple schemas and environments
- Dependency on highly specialized expertise
- Inconsistent processes across teams (especially in GSI-led delivery models)
- Limited ability to standardize and version-control migration workflows
As migration programs scale (e.g., 50–500 databases), these challenges become multipliers of cost, time, and operational risk.
What is its benefit?
If you've ever had to migrate more than a handful of Oracle schemas, you know the real challenge isn't any single migration it's running them consistently and repeatably across a whole team. SSMA is the proven, purpose built Microsoft tool for Oracle to SQL migration: a rich GUI, a scriptable console, configurable project files, and detailed assessment reports. At enterprise scale say 10 engineers and 100+ schemas the win is making sure everyone drives those capabilities the same way, so the team spends its time migrating rather than coordinating how each person runs the tooling.
That's exactly what the SSMA Console Skill brings to GitHub Copilot. It builds on SSMA's console automation so the entire team can run assessments and conversions from simple natural language prompts standardizing the workflow across every engineer and every schema.
With the SSMA Console Skill, nobody on the team needs to open the SSMA GUI or learn how it works:
- An engineer types something like "migrate the HR schema from Oracle to Azure SQL" and Copilot handles the rest, collecting connection details, generating the XML configs, and invoking the SSMA console directly
- When an assessment report comes back with many conversion warnings, Copilot reads it and explains what each issue means in plain English, no digging through XML or cross-referencing documentation
- The engineer can ask follow-up questions conversationally: "which of these are blockers?", "what's the workaround for the CONNECT BY issue?", "run the schema conversion now"
- The next engineer on the team does the same thing for a different schema without any ramp-up
This changes the scaling model entirely. Instead of needing SSMA-trained engineers proportional to the number of schemas, you need people who can describe what they want to migrate and review the results Copilot summarizes for them. The tool expertise lives in the skill; the domain expertise stays with the engineer.
How to install it?
Using Github CLI
If you have GitHub CLI installed, then just run following command in the command prompt
gh skill install github/awesome-copilot ssma-console
Select target agent and Installation scope at the prompt.
Using VScode
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Open the Awesome Copilot Skills page.
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Find the ssma-console skill (or go directly to the SSMA Console skill page).
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Download the skill (click Download) or clone the repository.
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Copy the skills/ssma-console/ folder into one of the following locations:
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Project-specific - your-repo/.github/skills/ssma-console/Global - ~/.copilot/skills/ssma-console/
How you use the skill?
Once installed, you can invoke it manually by running
/ssma-console
Or by submitting a prompt and allowing Copilot to automatically detect it based on the description
e.g -> Migrate an Oracle schema to Azure SQL using SSMA console.
In both the cases following questionnaire screen is expected
A sample migration output
Important Considerations
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You still need SSMA installed locally (console executable path required)
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Sensitive data (credentials) should be handled securely
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Validate reporting outputs before production migration
Key Takeaways
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The SSMA Console Skill transforms SSMA into a fully automatable, reusable workflow
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It reduces manual effort and increases migration consistency
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It aligns perfectly with modern AI-assisted engineering practices
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It’s especially powerful for teams running migration at scale
References
Microsoft