Migrate VMware vSphere VMs to Azure (agent-based)

This article shows you how to migrate on-premises VMware vSphere or Azure VMware Solution VMs to Azure, using the Migration and modernization tool, with agent-based migration. You can also migrate VMware vSphere VMs using agentless migration (Recommended). Compare the methods.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

Before you begin this tutorial, you should:

1. Go to the already created project or create a new project.
2. Complete the first tutorial to prepare Azure and VMware for migration.
3. We recommend that you complete the second tutorial to assess VMware VMs before migrating them to Azure, but you don't have to.
4. Verify permissions for your Azure account - Your Azure account needs permissions to create a VM, and write to an Azure managed disk.
5. For the required Azure Migrate built‑in roles and permission details to create a project and run discovery, assessments, and migrations, see Prepare Azure accounts for Azure Migrate.
6. Assign permissions to register the Replication Appliance in Microsoft Entra ID. Learn more.

Set up an Azure network

Set up an Azure network. Source (on-premises or Azure VMware Solution) machines are replicated to Azure managed disks. When you fail over to Azure for migration, Azure VMs are created from these managed disks, and joined to the Azure network you set up.

Prepare for migration

Verify support requirements and permissions, and prepare to deploy a replication appliance.

Prepare an account to discover VMs

The Migration and modernization tool needs access to VMware vSphere to discover VMs you want to migrate. Create the account as follows:

1. To use a dedicated account, create a role at the vCenter Server level. Give the role a name such as Azure_Migrate.
2. Assign the role the permissions summarized in the table below.
3. Create a user on the vCenter Server or vSphere host. Assign the role to the user.

VMware vSphere account permissions

Prepare an account for Mobility service installation

The Mobility service must be installed on machines you want to replicate.

• The Azure Migrate replication appliance can do a push installation of this service when you enable replication for a machine, or you can install it manually, or using installation tools.
• In this tutorial, we're going to install the Mobility service with the push installation.
• For push installation, you need to prepare an account that the Migration and modernization tool can use to access the VM. This account is used only for the push installation, if you don't install the Mobility service manually.

Prepare the account as follows:

1. Prepare a domain or local account with permissions to install on the VM.
2. For Windows VMs, if you're not using a domain account, disable Remote User Access control on the local machine by adding the DWORD entry LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy, with a value of 1 in the registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. For Linux VMs, prepare a root account on the source Linux server.

Prepare a machine for the replication appliance

The Azure Site Recovery Replication appliance is used to replicate machines to Azure. Learn more.

To set up a new appliance, we recommend using the OVA template as it ensures all prerequisite configurations are handled. The OVA template creates a machine with the required specifications.

If your organization has restrictions, you can manually set up the replication appliance using PowerShell. Ensure you meet all the hardware and software requirements, and any other prerequisites.

Check VMware vSphere requirements

Make sure VMware vSphere VMs comply with requirements for migration to Azure.

1. Verify VMware vSphere VM requirements.
2. Verify VM requirements for migration.
3. Verify Azure settings. Source VMs (on-premises or Azure VMware Solution VMs) you replicate to Azure must comply with Azure VM requirements.
4. There are some changes needed on VMs before you migrate them to Azure.
   • It's important to make these changes before you begin migration. If you migrate the VM before you make the change, the VM might not boot up in Azure.
   • Review Windows and Linux changes you need to make.

Set up the replication appliance

This section describes how to set up the simplified appliance with a downloaded Open Virtualization Application (OVA) template. If you can't use this method, you can set up the appliance using a script.

Download the replication appliance OVF template

1. In the Azure Migrate project > Execute > Migration, select Start execution.

2. In Specify intent, > What do you want to migrate, select Servers or Virtual Machines(VM). Under Where do you want to migrate to, select Azure VM.

3. In How will you select workloads, select From replication appliance (VMware) under Other sources. Select the link available in the page to start the setup.

4. In the setup page, the virtualization type is prepopulated based on the selection applied in the previous step (VMware).

5. In Target region, select the Azure region to which you want to migrate the machines.

6. Select Confirm that the target region for migration is region-name.

7. Select Create resources. This action creates an Azure Site Recovery vault in the background.

   Note

   You can't change the target region for this project after clicking this button, and all subsequent migrations are to this region.

8. Select Download. This downloads an OVF template.

9. Note the name of the resource group and the Recovery Services vault. You need these during appliance deployment.

   Note

   If you selected private endpoint as the connectivity method for the Azure Migrate project when it was created, the Recovery Services vault will also be configured for private endpoint connectivity. Ensure that the private endpoints are reachable from the replication appliance: Learn more

Import the OVF template into VMware vSphere

After downloading the OVF template, you import it into VMware vSphere to create the replication application on a VMware vSphere VM running Windows Server 2016.

1. Sign in to the VMware vCenter Server or vSphere ESXi host with the VMware vSphere Client.

2. On the File menu, select Deploy OVF Template to start the Deploy OVF Template Wizard.

3. In Select source, enter the location of the downloaded OVF.

4. In Review details, select Next.

5. In Select name and folder and Select configuration, accept the default settings.

6. In Select storage > Select virtual disk format, for best performance select Thick Provision Eager Zeroed.

7. On the rest of the wizard pages, accept the default settings.

8. In Ready to complete, to set up the VM with the default settings, select Power on after deployment > Finish.

   Tip

   If you want to add an additional NIC, clear Power on after deployment > Finish. By default, the template contains a single NIC. You can add additional NICs after deployment.

Register the replication appliance

Finish setting up and registering the replication appliance using the steps provided here.

Execute migrations

1. In the Azure Migrate project > Execute > Migration, select Start execution.

   

2. In Specify intent, > What do you want to migrate, select Servers or Virtual Machines(VM). Under Where do you want to migrate to, select Azure VM.

3. Under How will you select workloads, select one of the following options:

   • If you have an existing Azure Migrate appliance, select one of the following options and proceed to Discovery method:
     • From all inventory to manually select servers.
     • From an assessment to use an existing assessment.
   • If you don't have an existing Azure Migrate appliance (required for assessments, waves, and other planning capabilities) and want to directly execute agent-based migrations, select From a replication appliance (VMware). If you completed the replication appliance setup, you can proceed to Workloads. Otherwise, complete the setup as per the steps provided in the previous section.

4. In Discovery method, select the appliance that matches your source environment (VMware vSphere in this case). Under Migration mode, select Agent-based migration.

   

5. In Workloads:

   • Select the Target VM security type:
     • Azure Migrate supports migration to Trusted Launch Virtual Machines (TVMs). By default, it migrates eligible VMs as TVMs. These VMs provide enhanced security features such as secure boot and virtual TPM at no extra cost.
     • You can also migrate eligible machines to Confidential virtual machines (Preview). Learn more. If Confidential virtual machines is selected, only the eligible servers are available for selection and the rest are greyed out.
   • Select the replication appliance you set up from the drop-down menu or set up a new replication appliance by referring to the steps provided in the previous section.
     • In vCenter server/vSphere host, select the vCenter host details from the drop-down.
     • In Guest credentials, specify the VM admin account that you use for push installation of the Mobility service.
   • Then, select Next after selecting the VMs you want to replicate.

6. In Target settings, select the subscription and target region to which you want to migrate, and specify the resource group where the Azure VMs reside after migration. Complete the following settings:

• Storage account: Keep the default option to use the cache storage account that the portal automatically creates for the project. To use a different storage account for replication, select it from the drop-down list.

• Azure Hybrid Benefit: Apply Azure Hybrid Benefit and save up to 76% vs. pay-as-you-go costs by using an eligible Windows Server and/or Enterprise Linux license. Check the boxes applicable to your license (Windows Server license or Enterprise Linux license).

• Virtual network: Select the Azure virtual network and subnet that the Azure VMs join after migration.

• Availability options: Select one of the following options:

  • Availability Zone – Pins the migrated machine to a specific Availability Zone in the region. Use this option to distribute machines that are part of a multinode application tier across Availability Zones. If you select this option, specify the Availability Zone for each selected machine on the Compute tab. This option is available only if the selected target region supports Availability Zones.
  • Availability Set – Places the migrated machine in an Availability Set. The selected target resource group must contain one or more availability sets.
  • No infrastructure redundancy required– Select this option if you don't require Availability Zones or Availability Sets for the migrated machines.

• In Security Details,

  • If the target security type selected is Standard or Trusted Launch virtual machines,
    • Secure boot is enabled by default (recommended). You can choose to remove this option. Then, proceed to Disk encryption type selection.
  • If the target security type selected is Confidential virtual machines,

    • You can optionally choose to confidentially encrypt the OS disks. This encryption provides an additional layer of encryption that binds the disk encryption keys to the virtual machine's TPM and makes the disk content accessible only to the VM. To enable this encryption, check the Confidential compute encryption option and proceed to OS disk encryption type selection.

      Note

      Confidential OS Disk encryption isn't supported for RHEL and Rocky Linux VMs. If OS disk encryption is required, remove these VMs from the selection.

• OS disk encryption type, select:

  • Encryption at rest with platform-managed key (Default, if you didn't select Confidential compute encryption)
  • Confidential encryption with platform-managed key (If you selected Confidential compute encryption)
  • Confidential encryption with customer-managed key (If you selected Confidential compute encryption)

• Disk encryption type, select:

  • Encryption-at-rest with platform-managed key
  • Encryption-at-rest with customer-managed key
  • Double encryption with platform-managed and customer-managed keys

  Note

  • To replicate VMs with customer-managed keys (CMK), create a disk encryption set under the target resource group. A disk encryption set object maps managed disks to a Key Vault that contains the CMK to use for SSE.
  • The seed disk is created in Azure during replication/staging before cutover. Encrypting it protects data right from the first write while it resides in Azure. The Disk encryption type setting applies to both seed disks and the managed disks after final migration.

7. In Compute, review the VM name, size, OS disk type, and availability configuration (if selected in the previous step). VMs must conform to Azure requirements.

   • VM size: If you're using assessment recommendations, the VM size dropdown shows the recommended size. Otherwise Azure Migrate picks a size based on the closest match in the Azure subscription. Alternatively, pick a manual size in Azure VM size.
   • OS disk: Specify the OS (boot) disk for the VM. The OS disk contains the operating system bootloader and installer.
   • Availability Zone: Specify the Availability Zone to use.
   • Availability Set: Specify the Availability Set to use.
   • Capacity reservation: If you already have a capacity reservation for the VM SKU in the target subscription and location, specify it here for this deployment. Capacity reservations ensure that the required VM SKU is available when you start migration. You can associate a reservation now or skip this step and configure it later during the migration. The capacity reservation for the SKU can be in any resource group within the target subscription and location. Learn more.

8. In Disks, specify whether the VM disks should be replicated to Azure, and select the disk type (Premium v2, Ultra Disk, Standard SSD, Standard HDD, or Premium Managed disks) in Azure. Then select Next.

   • You can exclude disks from replication.
   • If you exclude disks, they won't be present on the Azure VM after migration.
   • You can exclude disks if the mobility agent is already installed on that server. Learn more.

9. In Tags, choose to add tags to your Virtual machines, Disks, and NICs.

10. In Review and start execution, review the settings, and select Review and start execution to start the initial replication for the servers.

Track and monitor

1. In Azure Migrate project, go to Execute > Migrations. Use View by applications or View by workloads to switch how items are grouped.

2. Replication occurs as follows:

   • When the Start Replication job finishes successfully, the machines begin their initial replication to Azure.
   • During initial replication, a VM snapshot is created. Disk data from the snapshot is replicated to replica managed disks in Azure.
   • After initial replication finishes, delta replication begins. Incremental changes to the source disks are periodically replicated to the replica disks in Azure.

3. Execution progress is shown in Execution stage and Execution status:

   • Execution stage: Preparation, Testing, or Completion.
   • Execution status: In progress, In error, Action pending, or Completed.

4. Execution progress is tracked across three stages in the Execution stage:

   • Preparation:

     • Servers that are enabled for replication remain in the Preparation stage while initial replication (data replication) is in progress.
     • You can perform Stop replication and Start replication operations in this stage if required by using the drop-downs available in the server drill-down blade.
     • After initial replication is complete, the servers move to the Testing stage.

     

   • Testing:

     • Servers for which initial replication is complete and delta replication is in progress move to the Testing stage.
     • You can choose to perform test migrations on a test virtual network before the actual migration (recommended).
     • You can skip the Testing stage and start migration directly by using the actions available in the Completion drop-down menu.

   • Completion:

     • Servers for which test migrations are completed or skipped move to this stage. You can perform final migrations (Cutover) for these servers.
     • After migration is completed, perform Complete migration to clean up the migration resources by using the drop-downs available in the server drill-down blade.

Run a test migration

When delta replication begins, you can run a test migration for the VMs, before running a full migration to Azure. We highly recommend that you do this at least once for each machine, before you migrate it.

• Running a test migration checks that migration works as expected, without impacting the source (on-premises or AVS) machines, which remain operational, and continue replicating.
• Test migration simulates the migration by creating an Azure VM using replicated data (usually migrating to a non-production VNet in your Azure subscription).
• You can use the replicated test Azure VM to validate the migration, perform app testing, and address any issues before full migration.

Perform the test migration:

1. In Azure Migrate project, Under Execute > Migrations > select the server for which you wish to do test migration by clicking on the server name under Workloads column.

2. In the drill-down blade, under Testing drop-down, select Start test migration.

3. In Test migration, select the Azure VNet in which the Azure VM will be located during testing. We recommend you use a non-production VNet.

   

4. Select the subnet to associate with each Network Interface Cards (NICs) of themigrated VM.

5. You have an option to upgrade the Windows Server OS during test migration. To upgrade, select the Upgrade available option. In the pane that appears, select the target OS version that you want to upgrade to and select Apply. Learn more.

6. Select the Test migration to start the job. Monitor the job status in the portal under Execution status. After the test migration completes, clean up the test resources by navigating to the server and selecting Clean up test migration from the Testing drop-down.

   Note

   You can now register your servers running SQL server with SQL VM RP to take advantage of automated patching, automated backup and simplified license management using SQL IaaS Agent Extension.

   • Select the server under Workloads column in Execute> Migrations page. In Compute and Network settings, select checkbox associated with register with SQL IaaS extension.
   • Select Azure Hybrid benefit for SQL Server if you have SQL Server instances that are covered with active Software Assurance or SQL Server subscriptions and you want to apply the benefit to the machines you're migrating.hs.

Migrate VMs

After you've verified that the test migration works as expected, you can migrate the source (on-premises or AVS) machines.

1. In Azure Migrate project, Under Execute > Migrations > select the server for which you wish to do final migration by clicking on the server name under Workloads column.

2. In the drill-down blade, under Completion drop-down, select Migrate.

   

3. In Migrate > Shut down virtual machines and perform a planned migration with no data loss, select Yes > OK.

   • By default Azure Migrate shuts down the source (on-premises or AVS) VM, and runs an on-demand replication to synchronize any VM changes that occurred since the last replication occurred. This ensures no data loss.
   • If you don't want to shut down the VM, select No

4. You have an option to upgrade the Windows Server OS during migration. To upgrade, select the Upgrade available option. In the pane that appears, select the target OS version that you want to upgrade to and select Apply. Learn more.

5. If you already have a capacity reservation for the VM SKU in the target subscription and location, specify it here for this deployment. Capacity reservations ensure that the required VM SKU is available when you start migration. The capacity reservation for the SKU can be in any resource group within the target subscription and location. Learn more.

6. A migration job starts for the server. Track the job in Azure notifications.

7. After the job finishes, you can view and manage the server from the Migrations page which will be tracked under Completion stage.

Complete the migration

1. After the migration is done, in the drill-down page of the server, under Completion drop-down, select Complete migration. This stops replication for the source (on-premises or AVS) machine, and cleans up replication state information for the VM.

   

2. Verify and troubleshoot any Windows activation issues on the Azure VM.

3. Perform any post-migration app tweaks, such as host names, updating database connection strings, and web server configurations.

4. Perform final application and migration acceptance testing on the migrated application now running in Azure.

5. Cut over traffic to the migrated Azure VM instance.

6. Remove the source (on-premises or AVS) VMs from your local VM inventory.

7. Remove the source (on-premises or AVS) VMs from local backups.

8. Update any internal documentation to show the new location and IP address of the Azure VMs.

Post-migration best practices

• On-premises or on Azure VMware Solution
  • Move app traffic over to the app running on the migrated Azure VM instance.
  • Remove the source VMs (on-premises or AVS) from your local VM inventory.
  • Remove the source VMs (on-premises or AVS) from local backups.
  • Update any internal documentation to show the new location and IP address of the Azure VMs.
• Tweak Azure VM settings after migration:
  • The Azure VM agent manages VM interaction with the Azure Fabric Controller. It's required for some Azure services, such as Azure Backup, Site Recovery, and Azure Security. When migrating VMware VMs with agent-based migration, the Mobility Service installer installs Azure VM agent on Windows machines. On Linux VMs, we recommend that you install the agent after migration.
  • Manually uninstall the Mobility service from the Azure VM after migration. We recommend that you reboot the server when prompted.
  • Manually uninstall VMware tools after migration.
• In Azure:
  • Perform any post-migration app tweaks, such as updating database connection strings, and web server configurations.
  • Perform final application and migration acceptance testing on the migrated application now running in Azure.
• Business continuity/disaster recovery
  • Keep data secure by backing up Azure VMs using the Azure Backup service. Learn more.
  • Keep workloads running and continuously available by replicating Azure VMs to a secondary region with Site Recovery. Learn more.
• For increased security:
  • Lock down and limit inbound traffic access with Microsoft Defender for Cloud - Just in time administration.
  • Manage and govern updates on Windows and Linux machines with Azure Update Manager.
  • Restrict network traffic to management endpoints with Network Security Groups.
  • Deploy Azure Disk Encryption to help secure disks, and keep data safe from theft and unauthorized access.
  • Read more about securing IaaS resources, and visit the Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
• For monitoring and management:
  • Consider deploying Microsoft Cost Management to monitor resource usage and spending.

Next steps

• Investigate the cloud migration journey in the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework.
• Learn more on how to migrate your Hyper-V and Physical Servers.