Benefits and scenarios of agentless migration of VMware VMs - Server Migration Center

Server Migration Center (SMC) provides the non-intrusive migration technology to help you migrate VMware VMs to Alibaba Cloud without the need to install agents. This improves the efficiency of business migration to Alibaba Cloud and eliminates your concerns about business security and business performance during the migration process. You do not need to use the SMC client. You can migrate multiple VMware VMs at a time.

Scenarios

Migrate a single VMware VM from your local device to Alibaba Cloud
Migrate multiple VMware VMs at a time from your local device to Alibaba Cloud

Benefits

Low costs
You can reduce the infrastructure costs of your enterprises.
High security
You can use the strong security technologies and powerful security capabilities of Alibaba Cloud to improve the security level of your enterprises.
High flexibility
You can use the auto scaling feature to adjust storage capacity based on your business requirements. This way, your enterprise can be more flexible and adaptable.
Zero resource consumption
The SMC client does not run inside VMs. Therefore, the migration does not consume the resources of VMs.
High migration efficiency
You do not need to separately install an agent for each VM. This reduces the costs of labor and time.
Zero concerns about business security
No operations are performed within the operating system of a VM. This eliminates your concerns about security.
High compatibility
The migration does not depend on the internal environment of the VM operating system. This improves the success rate of migration.

Migration process

The following figure shows the process of migrating a VMware VM without agents.

Limits

The following table describes the environment requirements that vary based on the Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) template.

OVA template

Configuration of a Server Migration Connector

Environment requirement for deploying a Server Migration Connector on vCenter Server

Environment requirement for deploying a Server Migration Connector on VMware ESXi

SMC VMware Connector 6.7 OVA

Number of vCPUs: four or more
Memory size: 8 GB or more
Disk space: 40 GB or more

vCenter Server version: 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7
Version of VMware ESXi on which the Server Migration Connector is deployed: 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7
Version of VMware ESXi on which the VMware VM to be migrated is deployed: 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7
Hardware version of the VMware VM to be migrated: 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15

VMware ESXi version: 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7
Hardware version of the VMware VM to be migrated: 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15

SMC VMware Connector 8.0 OVA

Number of vCPUs: four or more
Memory size: 8 GB or more
Disk space: 40 GB or more

vCenter Server version: 6.7, 7.0, or 8.0
Version of VMware ESXi on which the Server Migration Connector is deployed: 6.7, 7.0, or 8.0
Version of VMware ESXi on which the VMware VM to be migrated is deployed: 6.7, 7.0, or 8.0

Hardware version of the VMware VM to be migrated: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21

VMware ESXi version: 6.7, 7.0, or 8.0
Hardware version of the VMware VM to be migrated: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21

Procedure

For more information about how to migrate VMware VMs to Alibaba Cloud without agents, see Migration guide.