Preparing your VMware Virtual machines for Migration to Azure
Migrating your on-premises Windows virtual machine (VM) from ...
The SituationÂ
A US medical company was beginning the process of a migration to a hybrid cloud model using AWS to host several high priority application services. As part of the migration process there were many configuration changes required for each device to meet their AWS infrastructures requirements.
The TaskÂ
The customer’s devices being moved to the new AWS platform needed to be migrated with minimal downtime, numerous configuration changes and without impacting the confidence of any end-users. Towers Associates were engaged to bring methodology, communications, scheduling, analysis and planning to make for reliable and predictable migration events.
- Up to 20 post migration activities, including network updates, configuration changes and version uplifts per device.
- Short migration windows to perform device cutovers and hand back healthy devices in the new target platform.
- Up to 2000 tasks in each cutover runbook to be performed during the migration window.
The ActionÂ
Towers Associates worked with the customer to ensure that each migration event went smoothly and as predicted with minimal impact the end-users. We utilised two of our in-house tools to maximise efficiency and reduce risk. The first tool being TransitionManager;Â this allowed us to produce user friendly, scalable runbooks that could facility the volume of tasks in each migration event with minimal disruption and overhead. The second tool was TransitionManagerConsole (TMC);Â TMC is our automation and orchestration tool which plugs directly into the migration tools and environments. The processes we implemented:
- Fully automated pre migration checks.
- Fully automated pre-seeding (replication)(AWS MGN) of devices prior to event.
- Fully automated test migration process (AWS MGN).
- Fully automated cutover process (AWS MGN).
- Fully automated post migration configuration process (AWS SSM).
The ResultÂ
We performed numerous migration events successfully with zero rollbacks for the customer. Over these migration events we moved all the required devices and applications from the initial source environments. The lessons learned and the confidence installed in the customer has been a driver in pushing them to start the process of assessing the remaining source environments for the next phase of their transformation journey.
