#Microsoft Azure Migrate Assessments in Action #VMWare to #Cloud

Azure Migrate

This blogpost is about the Microsoft Azure Migrate tool in the Cloud doing Azure Migrate assessments to see if your on-premises Datacenter is ready for Azure Cloud Services. Before you migrate your workloads with Azure Migrate to the Microsoft Azure Cloud, you want to know the costs before the migration and what your options are in the transition. For example when you have hardware in your on-premises Datacenter which is too high qua hardware specs like Memory, CPU and storage and you can do with less Compute power, then the performance assessments are really interesting. From here you see a step-by-step guide for VMWare workload assessment(s) to Azure Cloud.

Azure Migrate preparation for VMware workload

When you search for ‘Azure Migrate’ in your Azure Subscription and click on the services you will see the Azure Migrate Overview screen. When you don’t have a Microsoft Azure subscription yet, you can get one here

Click on Assess and Migrate Servers.

Before we go further with the server migration assessments for VMware, there are more Azure Migration tools available to do assessments and migrations like the following goals :

 

For Databases Microsoft Azure Migrate uses the Data Migration Assistant for the Assessment and the Data migration to Azure SQL Cloud.
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. DMA recommends performance and reliability improvements for your target environment and allows you to move your schema, data, and uncontained objects from your source server to your target server.

 

To identify the right Azure SQL Database / Managed Instance SKU for your on-premises Database you can use the CLI with a Script :

Here you find more detailed information about the Data Migration Assistant

When you have a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on-premises and you want to migrate to Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) you can use this Azure Migrate tool :

ISV Lakeside with SysTrack

You can vote for the tools or scenarios that you would like to be integrated with Azure Migrate via this Online form

When you are in the beginning of your Cloud Transition journey, what will go first to the Cloud?

1. On-premises mail to Microsoft Office 365
2. File Server Clusters to Office 365 into Teams, Onedrive for Business
3. From Apps On-premises to SaaS or Paas solutions
4. From On-premises Websites to Azure Cloud Solutions like Azure Web App.
5. From SQL Clusters On-Premises to Azure SQL Managed Instances in the Cloud
6. And at last Migrate Servers to Azure IaaS

Of course there are much more scenarios like Lift and Shift or modernize your workload in the Cloud like moving to Azure Kubernetes Services for example instead of IaaS Virtual Machines.

So when you want to start moving your On-premises Website(s) or WebApp, Microsoft Azure Migrate Services has a tool for that too :

Assess any app with an endpoint scan. Download the Migration Assistant and start your .NET and PHP app migration to Azure App Service.

Click on Assess

and from here you can plan your migration.

At last when you have to move a big enterprise On-premises Datacenter to the Azure Cloud with a lot of Servers for example 10.000, you can use Azure Data Box Migration
The Microsoft Azure Data Box cloud solution lets you send terabytes of data into Azure in a quick, inexpensive, and reliable way. The secure data transfer is accelerated by shipping you a proprietary Data Box storage device. Each storage device has a maximum usable storage capacity of 80 TB and is transported to your datacenter through a regional carrier. The device has a rugged casing to protect and secure data during the transit.

Azure Data Box

When you want to read more about Microsoft Azure Migrate go to the website.

Microsoft Azure Migrate assessment for VMware platform

First we make the Azure Migrate Project ready in the Microsoft Azure Portal.

Select the right Azure Subscription and Resource group to collect the metadata reported by your On-premises environment. Give your Migrate project a name and select the geography.

Here you can select from different Assessment Tools
Select Azure Migrate Server Assessment

Here you can select from different Migration Tools
Select Azure Migrate Server Migration

Add your Tools in the Azure Portal.

Here you see both Microsoft Azure Migrate tools for the Assessment and the Migration as well.
We are going for the Assessment quick start, so click on discover

From here we select with VMware vShere Hypervisor, so you can download the Azure Migrate Appliance for VMware ( 12GB Ova file).

You can also work with an Import CSV file but that’s Preview.

Now you can download and Install the Azure Migrate Virtual Appliance on VMware.
Follow the instructions here

When you have installed the Microsoft Azure Migrate Virtual Appliance for VMware successfully in your environment and has access to all the Virtual Machines then you can run the setup in the Appliance to make connectivity with your Azure subscription.

This will check all the prerequisites and get the updates.

Getting access to vCenter Server with the right permissions.

Now when your Azure Migrate Virtual Appliance for VMware is ready and collecting metadata, we see in the Microsoft Azure Portal the discovery running :

Discovery is in Progress.

After a view minutes we have discovered the Servers running on VMware platform On-premises.

Discovered Servers

Now we have the Servers in our metadata, we can do the Assessment(s) to get all the information we want for preparing to migrate to Azure Cloud Services. Click on Assess.

From here you give the Assessment a name and then you go to the properties of the assessment by clicking on View All

Here you can set the parameters for the assessment for example based on :

1. Reserved instances
2. Storage types
3. Sizing criterion like Performance-Based
4. Percentile Utilization
5. Azure VM series to use
6. Discount
7. VM Uptime
8. Offer pricing like Enterprise Agreement Support or Pay-As-You-Go
9. Hybrid Benefit offer.

Here I made different Azure Migrate Assessment groups with different parameters to see the difference in Costs.

Here you see for example Migrate As Is On-Premises and Performance-Based, but also an Azure Migrate Assessment without SQL Cluster Nodes. In this way you can make your own Azure Migrate Assessment with all your Servers or just a view Servers of your On-premises solution which you want to Migrate to Azure Cloud Services.

Overview of your Azure Migrate Assessment

Server is ready for migration

 

Server Ready but with conditions

Microsoft Azure Migrate gives you all the information to make the right decisions to migrate you workload from VMware to Microsoft Azure Cloud. When the Azure Migrate Assessment(s) are ready you can make a CSV export file to check the information before you migrate.

Overview of the Azure Migrate Assessment

Azure Migrate Assessment based on Performance for the VM
and there is a separated tab for Storage.

When your assessment is done, you can do the migration by replicating them to Microsoft Azure.

Here you can see the Azure Migrate for VMware (Agentless) steps

More Microsoft Azure Feature resources :

Dependency mapping helps you to visualize dependencies across machines

Setup Agentless Dependency visualization for assessment (Preview) 

Assess the readiness of a SQL Server data estate migrating to Azure SQL Database using the Data Migration Assistant

Conclusion

Microsoft Azure Migrate gives you insight information about your own On-Premises Datacenter by doing assessments to get the right migration information to move to Microsoft Azure Cloud. It gives you Azure Cloud costs before you do any migration at all, based on Total Cost of Owner (TCO) ship you can calculate if your solution in the Microsoft Azure Cloud is cheaper or not. Realize that’s it is not always about the money but also :

• Innovations
• Time to market
• New Features
• Flexibility
• Scalability
• Availability
• Not owning hardware anymore
• Less management (Hardware)

Hope this blog post helps you by your transition journey to Microsoft Azure Cloud

#Linux Administration on #Azure Hands-On E-book

About Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure, Second Edition

Thanks to its flexibility in delivering scalable cloud solutions, Microsoft Azure is a
suitable platform for managing all your workloads. You can use it to implement Linux
virtual machines and containers, and to create applications in open source languages
with open APIs.
This Linux administration book first takes you through the fundamentals of Linux and
Azure to prepare you for the more advanced Linux features in later chapters. With the
help of real-world examples, you’ll learn how to deploy virtual machines (VMs) in Azure,
expand their capabilities, and manage them efficiently. You will manage containers
and use them to run applications reliably, and in the concluding chapter, you’ll explore
troubleshooting techniques using a variety of open source tools.
By the end of this book, you’ll be proficient in administering Linux on Azure and
leveraging the tools required for deployment.

You can download the Linux Administration on Azure here

Thank you Authors :

Kamesh Ganesan, Rithin Skaria, Frederik Vos.

Don’t miss this Awesome #Microsoft Ignite 2019 Event of the Year #MSIgnite

Microsoft Ignite 2019

LEARN | CONNECT | EXPLORE

You don’t want to miss this Awesome Microsoft Ignite 2019 Event of the Year in Orlando, Florida !
If you can’t attend, don’t worry you can follow the Live Stream of MS Ignite here
Or here on Microsoft Ignite YouTube Channel

Have a look at the Microsoft Ignite 2019 Agenda

Plan your sessions for Microsoft Ignite 2019 ( More 1000+)

Download the Microsoft Events Mobile App for MS Ignite 2019 here

Follow @MS_Ignite on Twitter here

Use #MSIgnite on Social media

JOIN the Community on LinkedIn

JOIN Azure DevOps Community

linkedin.com/groups/12139259/…

JOIN Containers in the Cloud Community

linkedin.com/groups/13539967/…

JOIN Azure Monitor and Security Community

linkedin.com/groups/13517115/…

Backup – Restore – DR strategy in a Fast changing World #Data #Management

The world of data is moving and changing a lot with new IT technologies coming up like leaves on a tree.
Data is everywhere, on Servers, workstations, BYOD Devices in the Cloud but how do you keep your data save and protected for your business today and in the future? There are a lot of reasons why you should Backup your data :

• One of your employees accidentally deleted important files for example.
• Your data got compromised by a virus.
• Your Server crashed
• You have to save your data for a period of time by Law
•  And there will be more reasons why you should do backup…………….

A lot of Enterprise organizations are moving to the Cloud with workloads for the Business, but how is your Backup and Disaster Recovery managed today? A lot of data transitions are made but what if your Backup and Disaster Recovery solution is out dated or reaching end of Life? You can have a lot of Questions like :

• What data should I backup?
• Should I just upgrade the Backup Solution?
• How can I make my Data Management Backup -DR Solution Cheaper and ready for the future?
• How can I make my new Backup-DR Solution independent? ( Vendor Lockin)

And there will be more questions when you are in this scenario where you have to renew your Backup – DR Solution.
Here we have the following Great Backup Solution from 2014 :

Offsite Microsoft DPM Backup Solution since 2014

Here we have 3 System Center Data Protection Manager Backup Pods with a Tape library and One DPM pod connected with a Microsoft Azure Backup Vault in the Cloud. You do the Security updates and the Rollups for Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 to keep the Solution save and running.

Long Time Protection to Tape

DPM 2012 Server with direct attached Storage for Short time protection

The four DPM Backup Pods have the same Storage configuration for short time protection with a retention time of 15 days. After that Longtime protection is needed with Backup to tape and Backup to Microsoft Azure Backup Vault.
Since 2014 the Backup data is depending on these solution configurations.

Tape Management cost a lot of time and money

The fourth DPM Backup pod got a Azure Backup Vault in the Cloud to save Tape Management time.

DPM Backup to Microsoft Azure Cloud Backup Vault.

So this is the Start of the Journey to a New Data Management Backup – DR Solution transformation. The next Couple of weeks I will search for the different scenarios and solutions on the Internet and talk with the Community looking for Best Practices. I will do Polls on Social Media and a Serie of blogposts for the Data Management Backup – DR Solution to keep the business continuity.

Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions

Will it be a Cloud Backup – DR Solution?
Will it be a Hybrid Cloud Backup – DR Solution?
Everything in One Management Console?
Or More then One Backup -DR Solution for the right Job?

We will see what the journey will bring us based on Best Practices  😉

Creating Azure Virtual Machine via the Portal #Winserv #Linux #Azure

Microsoft Azure Cloud Services is evolving really fast with New solutions and features every day for your business. In the following step-by-step guide we will see all the options and features when you create a virtual machine in the Azure Cloud. For this you need a Microsoft Azure subscription to start. When you are in the Azure Portal you begin with + Create a Resource and from there you see all the create items. Click on Compute and you will see the picture above what you can create. I’m going to create a Windows Server 2019 datacenter edition Virtual Machine in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. In the Azure Portal is a step by step wizard to help you with your choices.

Basic tab

We start by selecting the right Azure subscription ( if you have Multiple) like a Hub-Spoke model design
you can choose for your deployment. Then select a Resource Group or Create New. I made a new Resource Group called RSG-Winserv.

 

When you go further down, you must give your Virtual Machine a name and select the Microsoft Azure region where your VM will run. I Choose West Europe because I life in the Netherlands. For availability options of the Virtual Machine you can choose out of three options :

1. No infrastructure redundancy required
2. Availability zone
3. Availability set

Availability Zones is a high-availability offering that protects your applications and data from datacenter failures. Availability Zones are unique physical locations within an Azure region. Each zone is made up of one or more datacenters equipped with independent power, cooling, and networking

An Availability Set is a logical grouping capability that you can use in Azure to ensure that the VM resources you place within it are isolated from each other when they are deployed within an Azure datacenter. Azure ensures that the VMs you place within an Availability Set run across multiple physical servers, compute racks, storage units, and network switches

Microsoft Azure got a lot of software operating images, I installed Windows Server 2019 Datacenter but have a look at Browse all Public and Private images :

Small Disk Images

More images like Kali and Red Hat

The next step is the VM Size, the “hardware” requirements of the Virtual Machine. When you choose your VM size you have to know the possibilities and feature set of the Virtual Machine. This article describes the available sizes and options for the Azure virtual machines you can use to run your Windows apps and workloads. It also provides deployment considerations to be aware of when you’re planning to use these resources.

Here is Microsoft Azure showing 250 different VM sizes

In this window you see the following items of the Virtual Machine specs :

• VM Size
• Offering
• Family
• vCPUs
• Memory RAM
• Data Disks
• Max IOPS
• Temporary Storage
•  Premium Disks (Yes or No)
• Cost / Month Estimated

So pick the right VM Size for your solution to do the job.

Allow Public Internet Inbound Port Rules

If you need this for example a website, then you can set it right away, but you can set it on None and change the Network Security Group (NSG) or Azure App Gateway or Azure Firewall later and keep it Closed for now. I will show this in the NSG later to get RDP access.

Hybrid Benefit

You can enable great savings in Azure with Windows Server Software Assurance by using Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server. Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server allows you to use your on-premises Windows Server licenses and run Windows virtual machines in Microsoft Azure at a reduced cost (i.e. at Linux rates). You can use your licenses for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2016. The Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server is applicable to Windows Server Standard and Datacenter editions as well as other versions obtained via custom images. With Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server, you can save 40 percent or more1 on Windows Server virtual machines by paying only the base compute2 rates—adding value to your Software Assurance investments. The benefit is available across all Azure regions. Read more here

Disks tab

Disk storage is important for performance, that’s why you can choose for Standard HDD,  Standard SSD or
Premium SSD for your OS Disk. When your server need a Data disk, you can add it here or later on.
Here you can read more on Managed disks
What disk types are available in Azure?

Networking tab

Here you create your Virtual Network / subnet with a public IP. You can see here when you choose for a specific Virtual machine, you can not use accelerated networking because It’s not supported by the VM size selection.

Here you can choose for a Load Balancer or a Application Gateway

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 – TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.

Azure Application Gateway

With Azure Load Balancer, you can scale your applications and create high availability for your services. Load Balancer supports inbound and outbound scenarios, provides low latency and high throughput, and scales up to millions of flows for all TCP and UDP applications.
Load Balancer distributes new inbound flows that arrive on the Load Balancer’s frontend to backend pool instances, according to rules and health probes.
Additionally, a public Load Balancer can provide outbound connections for virtual machines (VMs) inside your virtual network by translating their private IP addresses to public IP addresses.
Azure Load Balancer is available in two SKUs: Basic and Standard. There are differences in scale, features, and pricing. Any scenario that’s possible with Basic Load Balancer can also be created with Standard Load Balancer, although the approaches might differ slightly. As you learn about Load Balancer, it is important to familiarize yourself with the fundamentals and SKU-specific differences.

Management tab

When you have deployed your virtual machine, you want to manage it like monitoring and backup for example.
You can do these options also after the Virtual Machine deployment.
Backup of the Virtual Machine can be added when you deploy the VM.

I have a existing Backup Vault called WACvault1

From here you can create your own backup recovery Vault with your Own backup policy and retention times.

The feature provides Azure services with an automatically managed identity in Azure AD. You can use the identity to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication, including Key Vault, without any credentials in your code. What is managed identities for Azure resources?

Advanced tab

In the advanced tab you can select extensions for your Virtual Machine. These are add-ons and will installed during the deployment. You can now also select Gen 2 VM in Preview. Microsoft Azure has a lot of extensions for your Virtual machine :

List of extensions for your VM

Click on Create for adding Microsoft Antimalware on your VM

Select the options and exclusions

Tags tab

Here you can Tag your deployment

After you apply tags, you can retrieve all the resources in your subscription with that tag name and value. Tags enable you to retrieve related resources from different resource groups. This approach is helpful when you need to organize resources for billing or management. Read more on Tags here

At this moment the validation has passed for deployment with all your settings, but don’t forget to have a look at “Download a template for Automation”  before you hit Create.

Here you can download or save the JSON ARM Template

When you you go Back and click on Create the Virtual Machine, this will deploy the VM in Minutes.

The following Azure items are deployed in RSG-Winserv

Now your Virtual Machine is deployed in Microsoft Azure Cloud and is running, you can have a look at all the features of the Virtual Machine in the Portal.
To connect to the Virtual Machine you have to Manage access for your RDP session via the NSG in my case:

Double click on the NSG

I added a new rule to give my IP-address access to the VM

From here you can access the Windows Server 2019 Datacenter Virtual Machine in Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Management of your Virtual Machine

When your Azure Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2019 is running, you want to monitor the VM and see what is happening inside the Virtual Machine. Azure Monitor Insights can help you with this.

Health State of the VM

Connections

When Microsoft Azure Monitoring is on and running you want have important alerts on your Mobile by sms or
via E-mail notification to take action.

Alerts on Winserv2019 VM

High CPU Alert

Here we make an Alert about the CPU which is going higher then 80% average.

Making an Action group for email notification of the Alert

Action Group made

Alert made for the VM

Alert details

Alert rule is set and running for this Virtual Machine.

Conclusion

1. You can create every virtual machine you want for your business, Windows Server or Linux..
2. You can mange your own performance for the VM on demand by selecting the right VM Size.
3. You can set Networking and High Availability
4. You can set Disk Performance for your IOPS
5. You can configure your management settings and dashboard for Monitoring.
6. Security can be set on different levels.
7. Backup of the Virtual Machine can be set with the right policy before deployment.
8. and more…….

And keep watching your Azure Advisor for better changes :

New Advise will come !

and of course there are more features and options on this Virtual Machine, Have a look :

Settings of the VM

Operations and Management of the VM

Support and Troubleshooting of the VM

#Microsoft Windows Insiders and Windows Terminal Preview #WindowsInsiders #Winserv #MVPBuzz

Microsoft Windows Insiders Program

To be the first with the Microsoft Windows Insiders Community testing all the New features is awesome to do!
I’m a Windows Insider since October 1st, 2014 and I like to see every week what’s new? In the Feedback HUB Preview you can Follow other Windows Insiders and see the Challenges and features requests. From there you can give them feedback or vote for the new features.

Windows Insiders Feed Back HUB

To become a Microsoft Windows Insider, you have to register your self here : BECOME AN INSIDER

In the Windows Insiders HUB you find also the New announcements of the Preview Build versions. Microsoft Windows Insiders also have a blogsite here to follow:

Windows Insiders Blogpost site

When you are active in the Microsoft Windows Insiders Community you can Earn badges and Learn a lot of the New Features Microsoft releases every week. This gives you always a step a head and It’s fun 🚀😎👍

Earning Badges

It’s not only the Windows 10 Insiders program but also Windows Server Insiders or Microsoft Edge Insiders
Here you find more information :

Windows Server Insider Program

Microsoft Edge Insider Program

And of course keep up-to-date via Social Media here:

@windowsinsider

@donasarkar

@JenMsft

@MSEdgeDev

@windowsserver

Which recent Features do I like in Microsoft Windows Insiders Preview Build?

Well Let start Right a way with the Dark Side Theme in Windows Insiders 😎👍🚀

Much better for my eyes 😍

One of the latest new Features in Windows Insider Preview Build 18922 is Windows Terminal Preview from the Marketplace.

Click on Get

Just Click on Launch

It’s in really early Preview with version 0.2.1715.0

Windows Terminal Preview

Here begins the cool 😎 part with Settings opening profiles.json file to edit :

JSON Settings of Windows Terminal Preview

Here I Changed the JSON file for my Ubuntu Linux Terminal with a Great New Background.

You Have to add these lines in the JSON file here:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\RoamingState

Under “Icon” :

“backgroundImage” : “ms-appdata:///roaming/yourimage.jpg”,
“backgroundImageOpacity” : 0.75,
“backgroundImageStrechMode” : “fill”,

Save Profiles.json and you will see that the background will be Awesome in Ubuntu Terminal :

How Awesome is this !! 😎🚀👍

Conclusion:

I Love my Hobby and my Hobby is my Work !
The Microsoft Windows Insiders Program is Awesome together with the Community to make Windows a Great product for everyone.

#Microsoft Azure Central Monitoring for your Team #Dashboards #Azure #ContainerInsights #Apps

Full Screen Monitoring

When you install Azure Virtual Machines or Kubernetes Clusters in the Microsoft Cloud, It’s important to monitor your workload and keep your IT department in Control for the Business. Metric alerts in Azure Monitor work on top of multi-dimensional metrics. These metrics could be platform metrics, custom metrics, popular logs from Azure Monitor converted to metrics and Application Insights metrics.

When you have important alerts, you want to take action based on your rules.

Take action on Alerts

Make your Own rules based on Alerts.

IT Department of a company has most of the time different teams with each having it’s own responsibility of workloads in the Microsoft Cloud. For example, the Servicedesk is supporting the Business and they like to see if all the Services are up and running for the Business. The Infrastructure Team wants the same, but on deep level components of the Services like Memory, Network, Storage, CPU, Performance, Availability and more. The Technical Application Team is interested if the application is running and working with all the Interfaces, Databases, and/or Azure Pipelines.

Each Team can build there own Azure Dashboard(s) in the Microsoft Cloud.

Here I Have made an easy example of my Windows Server 2019 Virtual Machines and my Azure Kubernetes Cluster in One Microsoft Azure Dashboard :

You can Start from Azure Monitor Metrics

Or you can Start from the Virtual Machine Blade here.

When you have your Azure Monitor metrics ready with the right information then you can create it in your Azure Dashboard for your Team.

 

Select another Dashboard.

Create your Own Dashboard.

Now we have the first VM with CPU percentage in the Azure Dashboard.

Here I have added More Virtual Machines to the Same Metric Chart.

When you have Azure Kubernetes Cluster to monitor :

From here you can Add Container Insights information into your Azure Dashboard :

Adding Azure Monitor Container Insights of KubeCluster01

The Azure Monitor Container Insights logs for your Dashboard information, with Pin to Dashboard.

 

When you right click with your mouse on the dashboard, you can edit your dashboard with more Azure Resources
from the tile Gallery. Here you can read more about creating your Own Azure Dashboard with Action Rules.

Azure Monitor for containers is a feature designed to monitor the performance of container workloads deployed to either Azure Container Instances or managed Kubernetes clusters hosted on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Monitoring your containers is critical, especially when you’re running a production cluster, at scale, with multiple applications.
Azure Monitor for containers gives you performance visibility by collecting memory and processor metrics from controllers, nodes, and containers that are available in Kubernetes through the Metrics API. Container logs are also collected. After you enable monitoring from Kubernetes clusters, these metrics and logs are automatically collected for you through a containerized version of the Log Analytics agent for Linux and stored in your Log Analytics workspace.

 

Read here more about Azure Container Insights with Live Logs.

Follow and Join the community on LinkedIn

JOIN Azure DevOps Community 

JOIN Containers in the Cloud Community 

JOIN Azure Monitor and #Security Community