We recommend to use OCI import tool for majority of Vm to VM migrations. Platespin Migrate to be used for p2V migrations.

In case Vm boot volume is greater than 300GB platespin migrate needs to be used for V2V migration also. Zinstall can be used for Windows VersionUpgrades

Tools Covered

1. OCI Native Import
2. Platespin Migrate
3. Zinstall
4. Rackware Migration Module

Preliminary Steps

1. Add Cloud User to the Vms as admin before exporting the images to VMDK format
2. Add designated IDs in the admin group of the migrated servers
3. DEfine a SWing space in the on prem data center
4. If bulk transfer will be utilized ten investigate either data transfer disk or data transfer appliance in OCI

Approach & Methodology

Synchronization of files will happen over the IPsec VPN tunnels or FastConnect. If there is bandwidth issue, we suggest using Oracle’s bulk data transfer service for moving the files required for migration to Oracle Storage Cloud when available.

We expect Fast Connect connection having sufficient bandwidth would be configured between Client DC and Oracle DC

We will use

OCI native tool to migrate servers, This tool’s full emulation mode is the most flexible and OS compatible offering. It provides support for a wide range of production operating systems and provides the ability to emulate OS's 10+ years old, e.g. Ubuntu 6.X, RHEL 3.X, CentOS 5.4. Windows 2008 and 2012R2

Getting started with emulation mode involves import of images in QCOW2 or VMDK formats. The customer experience for importing images in emulation mode is:

1. Use on-premises tools (such as Platespin Migrate ,vCenter Converter, OVM Manager) to export VM as VMDK or QCOW2
2. Upload image on to OCI Object storage
3. Log into the OCI Console and navigate to Compute -> Images page
4. Click 'Import Image' button
5. On the Import dialog box,
6. Select compartment,
7. specify an image name,
8. Specify an object storage URL
9. Select emulation mode and click 'ok'

Once import completes, find imported image from the list of custom images and launch your instance

Also only a single VMDK can be imported of published size less than 300GB and any additional volumes need to be commented or removed from fstab/ windows disk management

Supported OS

Image Name

Supported Versions

RHEL

4.5, 5.9, 5.11, 6.9, 7.4

CentOS

4.0, 4.8, 5.11, 6.9, 7.x

Oracle Linux

4.5, 4.8, 5.8, 5.11, 6.2, 6.5, 6.9, 7.4

Ubuntu

12.04, 14.04, 16.04

Windows Server

2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter

2012 Standard, Datacenter

2012 R2 Standard, Datacenter

2016 Standard, Datacenter

Current Limitations of the Tool:

1. The image must be set up for BIOS boot.
2. The maximum image size is 300 GB.
3. Only one disk is supported, and it must be the boot drive with a valid MBR and boot loader. You can migrate additional data volumes after the image's boot volume has been imported.
4. The boot process must not require additional data volumes to be present for a successful boot.
5. The disk image cannot be encrypted.
6. The disk image must be a VMDK or QCOW2 file. VMDK files must be either the "single growable" (monolithicSparse) type or the "stream optimized" (streamOptimized) type, both of which will consist of a single VMDK file. All other VMDK formats such as those that use multiple files, split volumes, or contain snapshots, are not supported.
7. Existing network interfaces will not be recreated. Instead, a single network interface will be created after the import process is complete. You should use DHCP on this interface to discover the network settings.
8. Serial Console access is necessary for the process which is currently not working without internet gateway access.
9. Images are stored on Object storage that is exposed to internet. Oracle has introduced service gateway concept to work around this but it has not been tested by us.

Requirements Specific to Linux-Based Custom Images

The following requirements are only applicable to Linux-based custom images:

· The boot loader should use LVM or UUID to locate the boot volume.

· The network configuration should not hardcode the MAC address for the network interface.

Import Methodology for Linux

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute service enables to import older operating systems Oracle Cloud Infrastructure We can import existing operating system images using the VMDK format and then run them on Compute virtual machines (VMs) using emulated hardware.

The following is a high-level outline of the steps required to import custom images for emulation mode VMs

• Upload the image to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage
• Get the pre-authentication URL
• Import the image

Third Party Tools

In the event that Oracle tools are not available for the mandatory migration activities, other third party tools can be evaluated to validate Fit for Purpose. Highlighted here are couple of tools that can be evaluated, though the mention here is only for information purpose and is not included in the existing plan / approach for purpose of application / server migration.

Platespin Migrate

https://www.microfocus.com/media/white-paper/best_practices_for_migrating_servers_to_oracle_cloud_with_platespin_migrate_wp.pdf

Platespin Migrate is a tool from Microfocus that can be used to migrate VMs or physical servers to OCI. Licensing may vary but that are quotes of around USD 300 per server. Platespin does not support Incremental syncing for OCi hence the server has to be unavailable during the whole duration of the migration.

Platespin supports single disk migrations upto 16TB for the first Volume.

Zinstall Server Migration

Rackware Migration Module