Migrate Alibaba ECS VM to Azure Cloud using Azure Site Recovery Services

In my previous blog, I have written how to migrate workloads from VMware to Azure Cloud.  In this tutorial, I am going to elaborate you how to migrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 virtual machines (VMs) to Azure VMs by using Azure Site Recovery.

Supported Workloads Which can be migrated:

• Windows Server 2016 or later version
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7

Prerequisites

• The Mobility service must be installed on each VM that you want to replicate. Site Recovery installs this service automatically when you enable replication for the VM.
• For non-domain joined Windows VMs, disable Remote User Access control on the local machine at the registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System, add the DWORD entry LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and set the value to 1.
• A separate VM in AWS subscriptions to use as Site Recovery Configuration Server. This instance must be running Windows Server 2012 R2.

Credential Requirements

• root credential on the source Linux server
• A Domain Admin Credentials for Windows VM.
• A Local Admin Account for non-domain joined VM.

Prepare Azure resources (Target)

Step1: Create a Storage Account

1. In the Azure portal, in the left menu, select Create a resource > Storage > Storage account.
2. Create a Storage Account in your region.

Step2: Create a Recovery Vault

1. In the Azure portal, select All services. Search for and then select Recovery Services vaults.
2. Add new Recovery Vault in your region.

Step3: Add a separate network for migrated VM

1. In the Azure portal, select Create a resource > Networking > Virtual network.
2. Add new Network and Address Space.

Step4: Prepare Recovery Goal

1. On your vault page in the Azure portal, in the Getting Started section, select Site Recovery, and then select Prepare Infrastructure.
2. Create a protection goal from On-prem to Azure.
3. When you’re done, select OK to move to the next section.

Step5: Create a Replication Policy

1. To create a new replication policy, click Site Recovery infrastructure > Replication Policies > +Replication Policy. Create replication policy, specify a policy name.
2. In RPO threshold, specify the recovery point objective (RPO) limit. This value specifies how often data recovery points are created. An alert is generated if continuous replication exceeds this limit.
3. In Recovery point retention, specify how long (in hours) the retention window is for each recovery point. Replicated VMs can be recovered to any point in a window. Up to 24 hours retention is supported for machines replicated to premium storage, and 72 hours for standard storage.
4. In App-consistent snapshot frequency, specify how often (in minutes) recovery points containing application-consistent snapshots will be created. Click OK to create the policy.

Prepare Source Environment (Alibaba Cloud)

Step6: Deploy an Alibaba ECS Instance (this is similar steps like OpenStack or AWS)

1. Log on to the ECS console.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Instances.
3. On the Instances, list page, click Create Instance.
4. Complete the Basic Configurations such as region, billing method, instance type, key pair, storage type and VPC to create an ECS instance.

Step7: Prepare Source ASR Configuration Server

1. Log on to the Alibaba ECS instance (Step6) where you would like to install Configuration Server
2. Configure the proxy on the EC2 instance VM you’re using as the configuration server so that it can access the service URLs.
3. Download the Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Unified Setup. You can download it to your local machine and then copy it to the VM you’re using as the configuration server.
4. Select the Download button to download the vault registration key. Copy the downloaded file to the VM you’re using as the configuration server.
5. On the VM, right-click the installer you downloaded for Microsoft Azure Site Recovery Unified Setup, and then select Run as administrator.
6. Under Before You Begin, select Install the configuration server and process server, and then select Next.
7. In Third-Party Software License, select I accept the third-party license agreement and then select Next.
8. In Registration, select Browse, and then go to where you put the vault registration key file. Select Next.
9. In Internet Settings, select Connect to Azure Site Recovery without a proxy server, and then select Next.
10. The Prerequisites Check page runs checks for several items. When it’s finished, select Next.
11. In MySQL Configuration, provide the required passwords, and then select Next.
12. In Environment Details, select No. You don’t need to protect VMware machines. Then, select Next.
13. In Install Location, select Next to accept the default.
14. In Network Selection, select Next to accept the default.
15. In Summary, select Install. Installation Progress shows you information about the installation process. When it’s finished, select Finish. A window displays a message about a reboot. Select OK. Next, a window displays a message about the configuration server connection passphrase. Copy the passphrase to your clipboard and save it somewhere safe.
16. On the VM, run cspsconfigtool.exe to create one or more management accounts on the configuration server. Make sure that the management accounts have administrator permissions on the EC2 instances that you want to migrate.

Step8: Enable Replication for an Alibaba ECS VM

1. Click Replicate application > Source.
2. In Source, select the configuration server.
3. In Machine type, select Physical machines.
4. Select the process server (the configuration server). Then click OK.
5. In Target, select the subscription and the resource group in which you want to create the Azure VMs after failover. Choose the deployment model that you want to use in Azure (classic or resource management).
6. Select the Azure storage account you want to use for replicating data.
7. Select the Azure network and subnet to which Azure VMs will connect when they’re created after failover.
8. Select Configure now for selected machines, to apply the network setting to all machines you select for protection. Select Configure later to select the Azure network per machine.
9. In Physical Machines, and click +Physical machine. Specify the name and IP address. Select the operating system of the machine you want to replicate. It takes a few minutes for the servers to be discovered and listed.
10. In Properties > Configure properties, select the account that will be used by the process server to install the Mobility service on the machine automatically.
11. In Replication settings,> Configure replication settings, verify that the correct replication policy is selected.
12. Click Enable Replication. You can track the progress of the Enable Protection job in Settings > Jobs > Site Recovery Jobs. After the Finalize Protection job runs the machine is ready for failover.

Test failover at Azure Portal

Step9: Test a Failover

1. On the page for your vault, go to Protected items > Replicated Items. Select the VM, and then select Test Failover.
2. Select a recovery point to use for the failover:
3. Latest processed: Fails over the VM to the latest recovery point that was prepared by Site Recovery. The time stamp is shown. With this option, no time is spent preparing data, so it provides a low recovery time objective (RTO).
4. Latest app-consistent: This option fails over all VMs to the latest app-consistent recovery point. The time stamp is shown.
5. Custom: Select any recovery point.
6. In Test Failover, select the target Azure network to which Azure VMs will be connected after failover occurs. This should be the network you created in Prepare Azure resources.
7. Select OK to begin the failover. To track progress, select the VM to view its properties. Or you can select the Test Failover job on the page for your vault. To do this, select Monitoring and reports > Jobs > Site Recovery jobs.
8. When the failover finishes, the replica Azure VM appears in the Azure portal. To view the VM, select Virtual Machines. Ensure that the VM is the appropriate size, that it’s connected to the right network, and that it’s running.
9. You should now be able to connect to the replicated VM in Azure.
10. To delete Azure VMs that were created during the test failover, select Cleanup test failover in the recovery plan. In Notes, record and save any observations associated with the test failover.

Migrate an Alibaba ECS Instance to Azure Cloud

Step10: Trigger Azure Migration

1. In Protected items > Replicated items, select the AWS instances, and then select Failover.
2. In Failover, select a Recovery Point to failover to. Select the latest recovery point.
3. Select Shut down the machine before beginning failover if you want Site Recovery to attempt to do a shutdown of source virtual machines before triggering the failover. Failover continues even if shutdown fails. You can follow the failover progress on the Jobs
4. Ensure that the VM appears in Replicated items.
5. Right-click each VM, and then select Complete Migration. This finishes the migration process, stops replication for the AWS VM, and stops Site Recovery billing for the VM.

Migrate SQL Server to Azure SQL Database using Database Migration Services (DMS)

The Data Migration Assistant (DMA) helps you upgrade to a modern data platform by detecting compatibility issues that can impact database functionality in your new version of SQL Server or Azure SQL Database. The Data Migration Service (DMA) lets you migrate on-premises SQL Server or SQL Database hosted in AWS or GCP migrate to Azure SQL Database. There are three simple steps require to migrate Database to Azure SQL. There are two migration approach you can take, Offline and Online migration.

1. Assess on-premises SQL Server instance(s) migrating to Azure SQL database(s).
2. Discover issues that can affect an upgrade to an on-premises SQL Server.
3. Migrate an on-premises SQL Server instance to Azure SQL Server

Azure SQL Database Migration Steps

Prerequisites:

• SQL Server sysadmin role
• distributor role for source SQL Server
• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• Co-Administrator or Contributor role in Azure cloud
• Source Database is SQL Server 2005 or later version
• Target database is Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
• Azure Virtual Network (VNET) for the Azure Database Migration Service by using the Azure Resource Manager deployment model.
• Ensure that your VNET Network Security Group rules don’t block the following communication ports 443, 53, 9354, 445, 12000.
• Download and install the Data Migration Assistant v3.3 or later.

Prepare Target Database:

A single database has a defined set of compute, memory, IO, and storage resources using one of two purchasing models.

1. Log on to Azure Portal
2. Select Create a resource in the upper left-hand corner of the Azure portal.
3. Select Databases and then select SQL Database.
4. In the Create SQL Database form, type or select Database name, Subscription, Resource group, Select source>select OK.
5. Under Server, select Create new.
6. In the New server form, create Server name, location, admin Name and password
7. Choose Select.
8. On the SQL Database form, select Pricing tier. Explore the amount of DTUs and storage available for each service tier.
9. For this quickstart, select the Standard service tier, and then use the slider to select DTUs (S0) and GB of storage.
10. Select Apply.
11. On the SQL Database form, select Create to deploy and provision the resource group, server, and database.
12. Deployment takes a few minutes. You can select Notifications on the toolbar to monitor deployment progress.
13. On the SQL Database page for your database, select Query editor (preview) in the left menu.
14. Enter your login information, and select OK.
15. Enter the following query in the Query editor pane. Select Run, and then review the query results in the Results pane.

SELECT TOP 20 pc.Name as CategoryName, p.name as ProductName

FROM SalesLT.ProductCategory pc

JOIN SalesLT.Product p

ON pc.productcategoryid = p.productcategoryid;

Assess your on-premises database:

1. In the Data Migration Assistant, select the New (+) icon, and then select the Assessment project type.
2. Specify a project name, in the Source server type text box, select SQL Server, in the Target server type text box, select Azure SQL Database, and then select Create to create the project.
3. When you’re assessing the source SQL Server database migrating to a single database or pooled database in Azure SQL Database, you can choose one or both of the following assessment report types: Check database compatibility, Check feature parity, Both report types are selected by default.
4. In the Data Migration Assistant, on the Options screen, select Next.
5. On the Select sources screen, in the Connect to a server dialog box, provide the connection details to your SQL Server, and then select Connect.
6. In the Add sources dialog box, select AdventureWorks2012, select Add, and then select Start Assessment.

Create a Database Migration Services instance:

1. In the Azure portal, select + Create a resource, search for Azure Database Migration Service, and then select Azure Database Migration Service from the drop-down list.
2. On the Azure Database Migration Service screen, select Create.
3. On the Create Migration Service screen, specify a name for the service, the subscription, and a new or existing resource group.
4. Select the location in which you want to create the instance of the Azure Database Migration Service.
5. Select an existing virtual network (VNET) or create a new one.
6. Select a pricing tier.
7. Select Create to create the service.

Create a migration project:

1. In the Azure portal, select All services, search for Azure Database Migration Service, and then select Azure Database Migration Services.
2. On the Azure Database Migration Services screen, search for the name of the Azure Database Migration Service instance that you created, and then select the instance.
3. Select + New Migration Project.
4. On the New migration project screen, specify a name for the project, in the Source server type text box, select SQL Server, in the Target server type text box, select Azure SQL Database, and then for Choose type of activity, select Offline data migration or Online data migration.
5. Select Create and run activity to create the project and run the migration activity

Specify Source On-premises SQL Database:

1. On the Migration source detail screen, specify the connection details for the source SQL Server instance e.g. FQDN of SQL Server, admin name (domain name\username) and password.
2. Click Encrypt Connection. Click Save.

Specify Target Azure SQL Database:

DMS Wizard

1. On the Migration target details screen, specify the connection details for the target Azure SQL Database Server.
2. Select Save, and then on the Map to target databases screen, map the source and the target database for migration.
3. Select Save, on the Select tables screen, expand the table listing, and then review the list of affected fields.
4. Select Save, on the Migration summary screen, in the Activity name text box, specify a name for the migration activity.
5. Expand the Validation option section to display the Choose validation option screen, and then specify whether to validate the migrated databases for Schema comparison, Data consistency, and Query correctness.
6. Select Save, review the summary to ensure that the source and target details match what you previously specified.
7. Select Run migration.
8. After the migration completes, select Download report to get a report listing the details associated with the migration process.
9. Verify the target database(s) on the target Azure SQL Database server.

Monitor & Cutover to Azure SQL Database:

Data migration using SQL Management Studio

1. On the migration activity screen, select Refresh to update the display until the Status of the migration shows as Running.
2. Click on a specific database to get to the migration status for Full data load and Incremental data sync operations.
3. When you’re ready to complete the database migration, select Start Cutover.
4. Make sure to stop all the incoming transactions to the source database; wait until the Pending changes counter shows 0.
5. Select Confirm, and the select Apply.
6. When the database migration status shows Completed, connect your applications to the new target Azure SQL Database.

Convert Synced User to In-Cloud User

Here is the scenario:

Synced ID: Specifies the immutable ID of the federated identity of the user. This should be omitted for users with standard identities.

You have local Active Directory with AAD Connect installed, which sync users and password hash to Office 365. Now you have decided to migrate the authentication from local Active Directory to Office 365 and decommission on-premises Active Directory. The purpose of this exercise to demote on-premises AD, use Office 365 as office productivity tools and Azure AD as the IDaaS.

The following are the steps to transition from on-premises “Synced Identity” to “In Cloud Identity”.

Step1: Sign into the AAD Connect Server and Sync the Delta

Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Delta

Step2: Turn off AAD Connect Sync

Set-MsolDirSyncEnabled -EnableDirSync $false

Step3: Transition a Single Test User from on-premises “Synced Identity” to “In Cloud Identity”.

Get-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName john.doe@domain.com | Set-MsolUser -ImmutableId $null

Step4: Remove Immutable ID of all users

Get-MsolUser | Set-MsolUser -ImmutableId $null

Step5 (Optional): Alternative Scripts

$users=Get-MSOLUser

$immutableID=$null

Foreach($user in $users)

{Set-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName $user.UserPrincipalName -ImmutableID $immutableID}

Step5: Turn o AAD Connect Sync

Now go to local Active Directory, move user out of sync scope. In best practice when you have configured sync, you target a specific OU in active directory to sync users from, moving user to different OU will take user out of sync scope. If you have targeted the sync to all users then you have delete user from your local active directory.

Step6: Turn on AAD Connect Sync

Set-MsolDirSyncEnabled -EnableDirSync $true

Step7: Enable Force Sync if the Sync didn’t work

Import-Module ADSyn
Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType Initial

Step8: Change the Federated Domain to Standard Domain if you have ADFS Server

Convert-MsolDomainToStandard -DomainName domain.com -WhatIf
Convert-MsolDomainToStandard -DomainName domain.com -Confim

Step9: Test SSO using Azure AD

Now, last step is to login into Office365 with the same password, it should work.
Also, you will see that in Office365 the user sync status will be shown as Incloud instead of Synced with local AD.

 

Decide on Office 365 Migration Path

Deciding on the best migration path of your users’ email to Office 365 can be difficult. Your migration performance will vary based on your network, existing messaging systems design, mailbox size, migration speed, and so on.

For migrations from an existing on-premises Exchange Server environment, you can migrate all email, calendar items, tasks and contacts from user mailboxes to Office 365. The available methods are cutover, staged, and Exchange Hybrid migrations.

For migrating third-party email to Office 365, you can configure mail flow coexistence if the third-party email provider permits then migrate the mailboxes using IMAP or cutover migration options.

Migrating from Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007

Number of mailboxes	How quickly do you want to migrate?	Use
Fewer than 150	Over a weekend or a few days.	Cutover
Fewer than 150	Slowly, by migrating a few users at a time.	Staged
Over 150	Over a weekend or a few days.	Staged
Over 150	Slowly, by migrating a few users at a time.	Staged

Migrating from Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2013 or Exchange 2016 or Exchange 2019

Number of mailboxes	How quickly do you want to migrate?	Use
Fewer than 150	Over a weekend or a few days.	Cutover
Fewer than 150	Slowly, by migrating a few users at a time.	Exchange Hybrid
Over 150	Over a weekend or a few days.	Exchange Hybrid
Over 150	Slowly, by migrating a few users at a time.	Exchange Hybrid

Migrating from third-party email system to Office 365

Number of mailboxes	How quickly do you want to migrate?	Use
Fewer than 150	Over a weekend or a few days.	Cutover
more than 150	Slowly, by migrating a few users at a time.	IMAP with mail flow coexistence

If the mailboxes you’re migrating contain a large amount of data, you can also use Office 365 Import Service to import PST files to Office 365.

Azure Stack Pricing Model

Azure Stack is sold as an integrated system, with software pre-installed on validated hardware. Azure Stack comes with two operational modes—Connected and Disconnected. Connected Mode use Azure metering services with the Microsoft Azure Cloud. The Disconnected Mode does not use Azure metering services. The Disconnected Mode is based on capacity pricing model. The Connected Mode is a Pay-as-you-use software pricing model.

Licensing Model

Payment Method	Description	License Type
PAYG	No upfront cost	EA or CSP
Capacity Model	Fixed Fees per annum	EA Only

Windows and SQL License

You have to use licenses from any channel (EA, SPLA, Open, and others), as long as you comply with all software licensing and product terms.

Linux Licenses

You have to use RedHat or other Linux licenses on the Azure Stack if you choose to use Linux Operating Systems. You have to pay to the software vendor for use of their software on the Azure Stack.

Connected Mode for Cloud Service Provider (CSP)

Azure Stack offers pay-as-you-use pricing, just like you get with Azure. Run infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) on Azure Stack with no upfront fees, and use the same subscriptions, monetary commitments, and billing tools as Azure. The pay-as-you-use package is available through Enterprise Agreements (EA) and the Cloud Solution Provider program (CSP).

Service Type	Description	Hourly Rate	Monthly Rate
Compute	Base VM	$0.011/vCPU	$8 vCPU
	Windows VM	$0.059/vCPU	$43 vCPU
Storage	Storage		$0.008/GB
	Table & Queue		$0.023/GB
	Unmanaged Disk		$0.015/GB
App Services	Web Apps, API, Functions	$0.072/vCPU	$53 vCPU

The Connected Mode is available through both Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Cloud Service Provider (CSP) partner channel. Azure MSDN, Free Trial, and Biz Spark subscription IDs cannot be used in conjunction with Azure Stack.

Your Azure Stack usage will be metered and integrated into one bill with your Azure usage.

Use cases:

The customer already has Azure Subscription. The customer wants to establish hybrid cloud in conjunction with Azure Cloud.

Disconnected Mode for Azure Stack On-premises

the App Service package, which includes App Service, base virtual machines, and Azure Storage ($400/core/year), and the IaaS package, which includes base virtual machines and Azure Storage ($144/ core/year.) With the capacity model, you use your existing on-premises licenses to deploy Windows Server and SQL Server virtual machines.

The capacity model is available via EA only. It is purchased as an Azure Plan SKU via normal volume licensing channels.

Use Cases

The customer wants to build their own private cloud platform and offer services to their departments and subsidiaries. The purpose of this exercise is to segregate billing of each department but maintain single ICT organisation.

Azure Stack Support

Azure Stack support is a consistent, integrated, hybrid support experience that covers the full system lifecycle. If you already have Premier, Azure, or Partner support with Microsoft, your Azure Stack software support is included. You need only make one call to the vendor of your choice (Microsoft or hardware partner) for any Azure Stack issue.

For up-to-date pricing visit Microsoft website.

Azure AD B2B Collaboration With SharePoint Online

Azure AD B2B collaboration capabilities to invite guest users into your Azure AD tenant to allow them to access Azure AD service Azure AD B2B collaboration invited users can be picked from OneDrive/SharePoint Online sharing dialog boxes. OneDrive/SharePoint Online invited users also show up in Azure AD after they redeem their invitations and other resources such OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online in your organization.

Azure AD B2B Collaboration (Source Microsoft Corp)

Licensing Requirements for Paid Features:

The customer who owns the inviting tenant must be the one to determine how many B2B collaboration users need paid Azure AD capabilities. Depending on the paid Azure AD features you want for your guest users, you must have enough Azure AD paid licenses to cover B2B collaboration users in the same 5:1 ratio.

Contoso Corp B2B Collaboration with partners (Source Microsoft Corp)

The below guides articulate how to deploy Azure B2B functionality for SharePoint Online.

Turning on Azure AD Integrated App for Office 365

1. Log on to Office 365 portal.office.com using your work or school account.
2. Go to the Office 365 admin center, and from the left navigation bar, click Settings> Services & add-ins
3. On the Integrated apps page, use the toggle to turn Integrated Apps on or off.

Add a B2B User

1. Sign in to the Azure portal as an Azure AD administrator.
2. In the navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory.
3. Under Manage, select Users. Select New guest user.
4. Under User name, enter the email address of the external user. Optionally, include a welcome message.
5. Select Invite to automatically send the invitation to the guest user.
6. To assign Group Permission, Under Manage, select Groups.
7. Select a group (or click New group to create a new one). It’s a good idea to include in the group description that the group contains B2B guest users.
8. Select Members. Add the Guest User.

Add Azure AD B2B Licenses

1. Log on to Azure Portal.Azure.com, Navigate to Azure Active Directory
2. To assign a license, under Azure Active Directory > Licenses > All Products, select one or more products, and then select Assign on the command bar.
3. You can use the Users and groups blade to choose multiple users or groups or to disable service plans in the product. Use the search box on top to search for user and group names.
4. When you assign licenses to a group, it can take some time before all users inherit the license depending on the size of the group. You can check the processing status on the Group blade, under the Licenses

Add guest users to a SharePoint Online App

1. Sign in to the Azure portal as an Azure AD administrator. In the navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory.
2. Under Manage, select Enterprise applications > All applications. Select the application to which you want to add guest users.
3. On the application’s dashboard, select Total Users to open the Users and groups pane.
4. Select Add user. Under Add Assignment, select User and groups.
5. If the guest user already exists in the directory, search for the B2B user. Select the user, click Select, and then click Assign to add the user to the app.
6. The guest user appears in the application’s Users and groups list with the assigned role of Default Access or Under Edit Assignment, click Select Role, and select the role you want to assign to the selected user. Click Select. Click Assign.

Turn on External Sharing for SharePoint Online

1. Sign in to Office 365 as a global admin or SharePoint admin.
2. Select the app launcher icon The app launcher icon in Office 365 in the upper-left and choose Admin to open the Office 365 admin center. (If you don’t see the Admin tile, you don’t have Office 365 administrator permissions in your organization.)
3. In the left pane, choose Admin centers > SharePoint.
4. In the left pane, click sharing.
5. Select “Allow sharing only with the external users that already exist in your organization’s directory.”
6. You can setup additional settings such as Limits external sharing using domains, prevent external users from sharing files, External User must accept sharing invitations.

Turn on External Sharing for Specific Site Collection

1. Sign in to Office 365 as a global admin or SharePoint admin.
2. Select the app launcher icon The app launcher icon in Office 365 in the upper-left and choose Admin to open the Office 365 admin center. (If you don’t see the Admin tile, you don’t have Office 365 administrator permissions in your organization.)
3. In the left pane, choose Admin centers > SharePoint.
4. Click Try the preview to open the new SharePoint admin center.
5. In the left pane, click Site management.
6. Locate the site that you want to update, and click the site name.
7. In the right pane, under Sharing status, click Change.
8. Select your option (see the following table) and click Save.

Redemption through the invitation email

If invited through a method that sends an invitation email, users can also redeem an invitation through the invitation email. An invited user can click the redemption URL in the email, and then review and accept the privacy terms.

1. After being invited, the invitee receives an invitation through email that’s sent from Microsoft Invitations.
2. The invitee selects Get Started in the email.
3. If the invitee doesn’t have an Azure AD account or an MSA, they’re prompted to create an MSA.
4. The invitee is redirected to the Review permissions screen, where they can review the inviting organization’s privacy statement and accept the terms.