All Products
Search
Document Center

Server Migration Center:Migration with an agent

Last Updated:Oct 08, 2024

You can download and run the Server Migration Center (SMC) client on a source server. The SMC client reports information about the source server to and works with the SMC server to migrate the source server to Alibaba Cloud. This method allows you to fully replicate the data of the source server without modification.

Scenarios

  • Migrate servers from data centers to Alibaba Cloud

  • Migrate on-premises virtual machines (VMs), such as VMware, VirtualBox, Xen, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and Hyper-V, to Alibaba Cloud

  • Migrate servers from clouds of other vendors, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Tencent Cloud, UCloud, China Telecom Cloud, and QingCloud, to Alibaba Cloud

  • Migrate servers across Alibaba Cloud accounts or regions

Benefits

  • Supports mainstream versions of platforms and operating systems, regardless of the underlying environments of source servers.

  • Supports online migration without downtime, so the operation of the source system is not affected.

  • Allows users to directly decompress and run the downloaded SMC client, which is small in size and does not need to be installed.

  • Uses 2048-bit Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) keys for data encryption and transmission, which ensures security.

  • Supports resumable data transfer and data compression.

  • Supports incremental migration to reduce business suspension and accelerate cutover.

How it works

You can migrate a source server to a custom image and then use the custom image to create an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. You can also directly migrate a source server to an ECS instance. This section describes how migration with an agent works.

Migrate a source server to a custom image

image

Migration to a custom image consists of the following steps:

  1. Download the SMC client to a source server. If you import the information about the source server by using the CLI or the SMC console, the system automatically downloads the SMC client to the source server. In this case, you can skip this step.

  2. Run the SMC client on the source server. The SMC client submits the information about the source server to the SMC server by using the endpoint of SMC.

  3. The SMC server creates a temporary intermediate instance and enables ports 8080 and 8703 in the outbound direction by using security group rules.

  4. The SMC client connects to port 8080 of the intermediate instance to establish communication and transmits the disk data of the source server to the data disks of the intermediate instance by using port 8703 of the intermediate instance.

  5. The SMC server creates snapshots based on the disk data of the intermediate instance and creates an image from the snapshots.

Migrate a source server to an instance

image

Migration to an instance consists of the following steps:

  1. Download the SMC client to a source server. If you import the information about the source server by using the CLI or the SMC console, the system automatically downloads the SMC client to the source server. In this case, you can skip this step.

  2. Run the SMC client on the source server. The SMC client submits the information about the source server to the SMC server by using the endpoint of SMC.

  3. The SMC server connects to the destination instance, creates and mounts a temporary intermediate cloud disk, and then enables ports 8080 and 8703 in the outbound direction by using security group rules.

  4. The SMC client connects to port 8080 of the destination instance to establish communication and transmits the disk data of the source server to the data disks of the destination instance by using port 8703 of the destination instance.

  5. The SMC server creates snapshots based on the disk data of the destination instance and creates an image from the snapshots.

  6. The SMC server replaces the system disk of the destination instance with a disk that is created from the custom image.

Supported network types:

SMC supports server migration over the Internet or a virtual private cloud (VPC). You must ensure the network connectivity between the source server and the intermediate instance or destination instance.

  • Server migration over the Internet: You must connect the source server to the Internet and enable ports 8080 and 8703 in the outbound direction by using security group rules for the migration source. The data of the source server is transmitted to the intermediate instance over the Internet. By default, this network type is used to transmit data.

  • Server migration over a VPC: You must connect the source server to an Alibaba Cloud VPC. The data of the source server is transmitted to the intermediate instance or destination instance over the VPC. You must specify a VPC and a vSwitch during migration. If a server in a data center, a VM, or a third-party cloud server can connect to a VPC in an Alibaba Cloud region, we recommend that you use SMC to migrate the server over the VPC. Compared with server migration over the Internet, server migration over a VPC is more efficient and stable. You can use VPN Gateway, Express Connect, or Smart Access Gateway to connect the source server to a VPC. For more information, see Connect a data center to a VPC and Migrate servers over a VPC.

Limits

Limits on operating systems

The following table describes the operating systems that are supported by the SMC client.

Windows

Linux

  • Windows Server 2003

  • Windows Server 2008

  • Windows Server 2012

  • Windows Server 2016

  • Windows Server 2019

  • Windows Server 2022

Important

Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 cannot be activated after the migration. You can upgrade the operating system after the migration. For more information, see Windows Server EOL guidance.

  • CentOS 5, 6, 7, and 8

  • Red Hat 5, 6, 7, and 8

  • Ubuntu 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20

  • Debian 7, 8, 9, and 10

  • OpenSUSE 13, 42, and 15

  • SUSE 11, 12, and 15

  • Gentoo 13.0

  • Alibaba Cloud Linux

  • Oracle Linux 5, 6, 7, and 8

  • Amazon Linux 2014 and later

Limits on data migration

Operating system of the source server

Limit

Windows

  • The partitioning scheme of some disks cannot be replicated, such as dynamic disk partitions and extended disk partitions. If the partitioning scheme of a source disk cannot be replicated, the destination disk is built as a standard partitioned disk.

  • You cannot migrate the volume shadow snapshots of the source server.

Linux

  • The partitioning scheme of some disks cannot be replicated, such as logical volume manager (LVM) partitions and extended disk partitions. If the partitioning scheme of a source disk cannot be replicated, the destination disk is built as a standard partitioned disk.

  • Swap partitions cannot be replicated. After the source server is migrated, you must reconfigure a swap partition.

  • Some file system formats are not supported. During the migration process, the file systems in the unsupported formats are converted to the file systems in the mainstream formats, such as ext2, ext3, and ext4.

  • By default, if block replication is disabled, the virtual memory, cache, system snapshots, software configurations such as cloud-init and network services, and Docker directory data are not migrated. For more information, see the rsync_excludes_linux.txt filtering configuration file in the installation directory of the SMC client.

    Note

    The path of the default filtering configuration file varies based on the installation directory of the SMC client.

Limits on the number of migration sources and migration jobs

Item

Limit

Adjustable

Maximum number of migration sources that can be registered within an Alibaba Cloud account

1,000

Submit a ticket.

Maximum number of migration jobs that can be created within an Alibaba Cloud account

1,000

Submit a ticket.

Maximum number of migration jobs that can be concurrently executed within an Alibaba Cloud account

50

Submit a ticket.

Start migration

For more information about how to start server migration, see Migration guide.