This topic describes the VMware virtual machine (VM) migration feature of Cloud Backup. It covers its benefits, how it works, procedure, and costs.
Introduction
The VMware VM migration feature of Cloud Backup is a solution for migrating entire on-premises VMware VMs to Alibaba Cloud. This feature provides a simple, secure, and reliable way to perform batch migrations without installing a client on the VMs.
Key benefits
Agentless
You do not need to install a client on the VM's operating system. To migrate VMs to the cloud, you only need to deploy a migration gateway VM in your VMware environment.
Incremental migration
Cloud Backup supports scheduled incremental migration. It uses native VMware APIs to retrieve block-level incremental data. This process is highly efficient and greatly shortens the switch window.
Strong data consistency
The feature ensures data consistency across the entire disk during migration. This is a major benefit when you migrate VMs that run database applications or store many files.
Easy validation
After the first full migration, you can verify at any time whether the ECS instance can be started and if the data is consistent. This helps build confidence before the final switch.
Simple operations
The feature provides centralized management, one-click migration, and batch migration of VMs. After you configure a migration task, you can simply click Switch in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console to complete the migration. No other operations are required.
How it works
In the vCenter where you perform backups, you can deploy and activate a Cloud Backup VMware migration gateway using the Open Virtualization Appliance (OVA) template provided by Cloud Backup. Each vCenter environment requires only one gateway, but you can deploy multiple gateways for large-scale environments. The gateway migrates the VMs according to the migration plan.
During migration, the migration gateway creates a snapshot of the specified VM. It then reads the snapshot data using the official VMware software development kit (SDK). After performing data reduction operations such as data deduplication and compression, the gateway uploads the data to the cloud. Next, it creates a migration agent ECS instance based on the migration plan and writes the data to an ECS cloud disk. For scheduled incremental migrations, the gateway also creates a snapshot of the VM, retrieves the incremental data, and writes it to the cloud disk. When the migration is complete, Cloud Backup starts the destination ECS instance.
Cloud Backup supports migration to Alibaba Cloud over the Internet, a VPN, or a leased line. For migrations over the Internet, the migration gateway only needs Internet access. You do not need to expose an IP address to the Internet.
Procedure
The following procedure describes how to back up and migrate VMware VMs using the Cloud Backup console.
You are not charged for activating Cloud Backup. You are charged for migrating VMware VMs to the cloud. For more information, see Billing methods and billable items.
You can create a migration gateway in the Cloud Backup console. A migration gateway helps you back up and restore data.
Install and activate the gateway
After you download the migration gateway and certificate, you can install the gateway in your VMware environment. After the gateway is installed, you can migrate VMware VMs in the Cloud Backup console.
To migrate VMware virtual machines, you must first add a vCenter server in the Cloud Backup console.
You can create a migration plan in the Cloud Backup console and specify whether to run the migration plan immediately or on a schedule, the virtual private cloud (VPC) to use, and the ECS instance type. Cloud Backup starts the migration plan and continuously migrates the VMware VMs to the specified ECS instances.
Confirm the migration completion
You can click Finish Migration in the Cloud Backup console. Cloud Backup creates an ECS instance based on the last synchronized data and no longer runs synchronization jobs.
Costs
VMware VM migration incurs the following costs:
VM migration service fee: Cloud Backup charges a service fee for each VM that is successfully migrated. A migration is considered successful when the task status is Completed. For pricing details, see Pricing.
ECS instance, cloud disk, and image fees: When you start a VM migration, Cloud Backup automatically creates a pay-as-you-go intermediate ECS instance. ECS instances and images are also created during the migration validation process. The fees for these ECS instances, cloud disks, and images are billed by ECS. These fees are charged regardless of whether the migration succeeds or fails. For more information about billing, see ECS Product Billing.
What to do next
Learn how to migrate VMware VMs. For more information, see VMware VM Migration.
Learn about the best practices for Cloud Backup. For more information, see Best practices.