Another post just to share some thoughts and experiences so far...…..
Reducing risk is one of the highest priorities in any migration, preparation of the on-premise environment will ensure all levels up to the highest possible
- Firmware - Servers, Network and Storage
- Virtualisation Layer - If time and resources permit vSphere 5.5 is best to have as the lowest version (More on this later)
- Active Directory - Domain Functional level provide additional features which can assist with object clean-up processes. (Will also come back to this)
- Operating System - Latest updates installed and drivers.
Firmware
The above was in layer order as firmware upgrades can involve more downtime vs benefits so is not the most important.
Virtualisation Layer
Port Groups, vMotion, Storage vMotion, are one of the many features which keep Vmware as the preferred platform for on-prem private cloud, however mixed with Azure in a hybrid configuration the next few years are going to be quite interesting as to what happens overall. Microsoft has a free tool in the form of an appliance called Azure Migrate, however the minimum platform is vSphere 5.5, this tool is run as an appliance on the Vmware infrastructure and collects metrics over a set time which the. In turn recommends the best size for your Azure VM. If that was not enough using the Azure Site Recovery platform it is also possible to migrate the VMs from Vmware to Azure by creating a replica VM in Azure to which it is then possible initially test how the service perform might run on Azure and perform cut-over migrations without having to re-install applications.
If upgrading vCenter and the hosts were something you meant to get around to but had not, it is possible to use Azure Site Recovery and select the physical server option, you do not have the failover and fallback option so it is recommended to use the Test Failover method until you are ready to migrate for real.
Active Directory
Hybrid AD enables you to replicate on-premise objects such as users and groups from on-premise into the Azure AD for your tenant. If like some companies I have worked with disabling and not deleting was the standard. This would have been mainly due an object deleted in error would require a full domain restore.
Thank you Windows 2008 R2 Domain Functional level, upgrading the domain to this level and enabling the recycle bin meant a deleted object in AD can now be recovered in the time it takes to open Active Directory Administration Centre select the OU called Deleted use the search to find the object, right click mouse select restore to original location (It took longer to write it than it takes to actually do it)
Implementing a clean up process to remove redundant user and computer accounts, then any empty security groups which are left as a result, is then easily achieved with simple PowerShell scripts
Operating System
Installing the latest updates and device drivers will also ensure the virtual machines are integrated into the Azure platform without any issues.
Finally due to the lack of a console view in Azure it is advisable to enable the Windows Serial Console
- From an administrative command prompt, run the following commands:
bcdedit /ems {current} on then ENTER
bcdedit /emssettings EMSPORT:1 EMSBAUDRATE:115200 then ENTER
- Reboot the system for the SAC console to be enabled.
Once this is enabled when the machine is migrated to Azure additional troubleshooting is then available if for any reason RDP does not connect.