The way to migrate virtual machines from Amazon to Azure

This article describes how to migrate a virtual machine from Amazon to the Azure cloud using the special Windows Azure Migrator tool .


Note translator : various migration guides or utilities for migrating virtual machines between different virtual environments or clouds are not really special or unique. But in this article and the utility itself, I liked the idea of ​​migration - everything is done from the virtual machine itself, which will be migrated. At the moment, only the migration of Windows machines is possible .

Migration instructions

So, we will migrate a virtual machine located in Amazon. Make sure that the virtual machine has RDP access and administrator rights for the account.

1. Log on to the virtual machine located in Amazon via RDP and open at http://www.azuremigrator.net .
   
   
   
2. Install the utility components. Next, run setup.exe .
   
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3. Now we select the migration mode. In our case, these are virtual machine migrations to Azure - Move VM to Azure .
   
   
   Note Translator : Note that moving the virtual machine between subscriptions in Azure - Move VM between subscriptions. It should be borne in mind here that this is not a completely transparent transfer, since A virtual machine will be created in another subscription based on the image of the current machine, i.e. the machine will have a different name (new_machine_name.cloudapp.net) and an IP address. If it is required to transfer cars to another subscription (in fact, to tie the machine to another Azure subscription), then this can be done through contacting support (free download).
   
   
4. The migration process begins. At first, an image of the current virtual machine will be created locally, at the moment it is only an OS disk. To place the image, select a temporary disk (Temp Storage), which has enough space to accommodate the VHD file (approximately 17GB for Windows 2008). The image will be created in about 10 minutes.
   
   
   
5. The image is created, now it can be transferred to Azure. On the next screen, you must enter the subscription data in Azure (Subscription ID), in which a virtual machine will be created based on the resulting image.
   
   
   Note translator : note that incoming traffic to Amazon and Azure is not paid, but outgoing traffic is charged. This means that the move created by vhd will be charged by Amazon.
   
   
6. Next, click Create Certificate , as a result, a new certificate will be created and installed on the current virtual machine (in Amazon).
   
   
   
7. Now we’ll upload the generated certificate to Azure. To do this, go to the Azure Management Portal, go to the Settings section and select the required subscription.
   
   
   Select Management Certificates and upload the certificate.
   
   
   
8. After successfully uploading the certificate to Azure, test the connection from the virtual machine in Amazon to the Azure subscription - in the utility click Test Connection .
   
   
   
9. Now everything is ready to load the VHD disk into Azure. Select the storage account and container in the account where the previously created image (VHD disk) will be loaded.
   
   
   Once the download is complete, the disk will be visible in the Azure subscription.
   
   
   
10. Next, we configure some things specific to Azure. Select a new cloud service ( New Service ) or an existing one ( Existing Service ), select the binding group ( Affinity Group ), the virtual network and the size of the virtual machine being created.
    
    
    If all parameters are specified correctly and the set subscription limits are not exceeded, the virtual machine will start to be created.
    
    
    Once the machine is created ( running status), you can go to the Configure tab and see or change the previously specified settings. If required, you can choose to bind the Availability Set for the virtual machine.
    
    Note translator : Availability Set allows you to implement fault tolerance for virtual machines. Read more in Habrostat Virtual machines in Windows Azure: Data Disk, virtual networks and Availability Set .
    In addition, just recently, Azure has a new subtype of virtual machines - Basic Instances. The price of Basic machines is about 27% lower, but these machines do not support automatic scaling and load balancing, but if this is not required, then why pay more :) Therefore, I recommend through the Azure management portal for virtual machines that do not require scaling and balancing load, change the mode from Standard (default) to Basic.
    
    
    
    
    
11. The machine is created, and we can connect to it via RDP.
    
    
    Note that the original virtual machine continues to exist in Amazon. Therefore, do not forget to remove or stop it, if it is not required in the future.
    
    

Additional notes and materials (from the author of the article)

The ported virtual machine contains programs and files specific to the virtual machine on Amazon ( AWS Tools for Windows ).


If you do not plan to transfer the virtual machine back to Amazon, you can delete them.

Troubleshooting

Insufficient disk space

If an " Insufficient disk space " error occurs when creating an image, then add a new disk with enough space and use it to create an image of the machine.

1. Go to the EC2 panel and select the Volumes section, then create a new disk ( Create Volume ).
   
   
   When creating a disc, make sure that it will be created in the same region as the virtual machine in Amazon.
   
   
   
2. After the disk is created, attach it to the virtual machine ( Attach Volume ).
   
   
   
3. Next, you need to go to Disk Manager in a virtual machine and format the disk, after which the disk will be available for use.
   
   
   

Error creating bootable partition

The error " Error creating bootable partition: The drive cannot be found the drive specified " appears when you click on the boot disk in Azure (after clicking on the Upload button). Just click OK , and the utility will continue its normal execution.

Unhandled Exception The Subscription Policy limit for 'cores count' was exceeded

The error is related to the limits that can be set to subscribe to Azure. Check the value of the parameter used kernels. To do this, go to the Azure Management Portal, go to the Settings section, select the Usage tab.


If the cores are not enough to create the selected virtual machine size in Azure, then there are the following options:

1. Turn off unused virtual machines in Azure, thus the kernels configured for their work, will be returned to the common pool of cores for the entire subscription.
2. Choose a different virtual machine size to be created in Azure, for example, Small (1 core required) /
3. Create a free support request to increase the core limits for this Azure subscription.