Migrating a Line-of-Business Application to Azure

Overview

In this comprehensive guide, you will learn how to assess and migrate a multi-tier application from an on-premises Hyper-V environment to Microsoft Azure. You will leverage Azure Migrate as the central hub for executing the migration, along with a variety of accompanying tools to ensure a successful migration.

After completing this guide, you will have a thorough understanding of the role of Azure Migrate and related migration tools, as well as the steps required to successfully migrate an on-premises multi-tier application to Azure.

Assessing the On-Premises Environment

The first step is to assess the existing on-premises environment using Azure Migrate: Server Assessment. This includes deploying the Azure Migrate appliance on the Hyper-V host to gather information about the environment, as well as installing the Microsoft Monitoring Agent and Dependency Agent on the VMs to enable deeper analysis through Azure Migrate’s dependency visualization feature.

Deploying the Azure Migrate Appliance

The Azure Migrate appliance is deployed on the Hyper-V host to communicate with the Hyper-V server and gather configuration and performance data about the on-premises VMs. This data is then sent back to your Azure Migrate project.

  1. In the Azure portal, create a new Azure Migrate project and select the Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment and Azure Migrate: Server Migration tools.
  2. In the Azure Migrate project, initiate the discovery process by deploying the Azure Migrate appliance on the Hyper-V host.
  3. Configure the Azure Migrate appliance, including providing the Hyper-V host credentials for discovery.
  4. Start the discovery process to begin gathering information about the on-premises VMs.

Assessing the Application

Once the discovery process is complete, you can create a migration assessment for the application using the data gathered by the Azure Migrate appliance.

  1. In the Azure Migrate project, create a new assessment for the discovered VMs.
  2. Review the assessment results, which provide insights into the Azure readiness of the VMs and recommendations for migration.
  3. Explore the Azure Migrate dependency visualization feature, which provides a deep understanding of the application’s dependencies.

Migrating the Application Database

The next step is to migrate the application’s database from the on-premises SQL Server to Azure SQL Database. This is accomplished using the Azure Database Migration Service (DMS), which leverages the Microsoft Data Migration Assistant (DMA) for assessment and schema migration.

  1. Register the Microsoft.DataMigration resource provider in the target Azure subscription.
  2. Create a new Azure Database Migration Service instance.
  3. Use the Data Migration Assistant to assess the on-premises database and identify any migration blocking issues.
  4. Create a DMS migration project and migrate the database schema.
  5. Migrate the on-premises data to the Azure SQL Database.

Migrating the Application and Web Tiers

The final step is to migrate the application and web tiers of the application from the on-premises Hyper-V environment to Azure using Azure Migrate: Server Migration.

  1. Create a new Azure Storage Account to be used by Azure Migrate: Server Migration.
  2. Create a private endpoint to allow the migrated VMs to securely access the Azure SQL Database.
  3. Register the Hyper-V host with Azure Migrate: Server Migration and enable replication of the on-premises VMs to Azure.
  4. Customize the migrated VM settings, including static internal IP addresses to match the on-premises configuration.
  5. Perform the final migration of the VMs to Azure.
  6. Configure the application tier to use the migrated Azure SQL Database.
  7. Test the migrated application to ensure it is functioning as expected.
  8. Perform post-migration tasks, such as installing the Azure VM Agent on the migrated VMs and cleaning up temporary migration resources.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you will be able to successfully migrate a complex, multi-tier application from an on-premises Hyper-V environment to Microsoft Azure, leveraging a variety of Azure migration tools and services.

Source: Line-of-business application migration hands-on lab step-by-step