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Server Migration Center:What is SMC?

Last Updated:Feb 02, 2024

Server Migration Center (SMC) is a migration platform provided by Alibaba Cloud. SMC offers migration services with universal capabilities, consistent experience, and high efficiency. This meets your migration requirements when you use Alibaba Cloud services.

Benefits

SMC simplifies the migration process to provide easy-to-use services. This meets your various migration requirements.

  • Applies to migrations across diverse platforms and environments.

    • Server migration

    • Operating system migration

    • Agentless migration of VMware VMs

    • Cross-zone migration of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances

    • Desktop migration

  • Supports automated migration.

    SMC supports automated, unattended migration. You can check the migration progress in the SMC console or by calling API operations.

  • Provides automatic server restoration and result verification.

    SMC automatically detects server conditions and restores unhealthy servers before migration. After migration, you can verify migration results in the SMC console.

For more information about the benefits of SMC, see the following topics:

Features

Feature

Description

References

Server migration

You can use SMC to migrate one or more servers to Alibaba Cloud.

Operating system migration

You can use SMC to migrate CentOS 7 or CentOS 8 that runs on an ECS instance to Alibaba Cloud Linux or Anolis OS. This improves the efficiency of replacing CentOS with another operating system.

Migrate a Linux operating system

Agentless migration of VMware VMs

SMC provides the non-intrusive migration technology to help you migrate VMware VMs to Alibaba Cloud without the need to install agents. This improves the efficiency of business migration to Alibaba Cloud and eliminates your concerns about business security and business performance during the migration process.

Cross-zone migration

You can use SMC to migrate ECS instances across zones within the same region with high efficiency.

Cross-zone migration

Desktop migration

You can migrate your PC or cloud desktop to WUYING Workspace. WUYING Workspace is an easy-to-use, secure, and efficient cloud desktop service. It supports fast creation and efficient management of desktop environments. You can use WUYING Workspace to build a secure and flexible office system.

Desktop migration

Migration process

The following figure shows how to use SMC to perform migration.

image

Procedure:

  1. Prepare for the migration.

    Create an Alibaba Cloud account, complete real-name verification, activate Resource Access Management (RAM), and then activate the snapshot service.

  2. Import the information about a migration source.

    SMC supports multiple methods to import the information about a migration source. You can select one of the following methods based on your business requirements:

    • Import the information about a migration source by using the SMC console.

    • Import the information about a migration source by using the CLI.

    • Import the information about a migration source by using the SMC client.

    • Import the information about a migration source by configuring the Server Migration Connector without agents.

  3. Create and start a migration job.

    SMC supports multiple migration scenarios. You can create migration jobs based on your business requirements.

    Note
    • If the requirements for a migration test are met, a migration test is performed before the migration job is started.

      • If the migration test is passed, the system automatically starts the migration job by default.

      • If the migration test fails, you must view the test report and fix the test items that are in the Critical state. Then, retry the migration test. For more information, see Configure a migration test.

    • If the requirements for a migration test are not met, the system automatically starts the migration job by default.

    • Create a server migration job.

    • Create an operating system migration job.

    • Create a cross-zone migration job.

    • Create a cross-zone migration job.

    • Create a job to migrate VMware VMs without agents.

For more information, see Migration process.

Billing

When you use SMC for migration, you are charged only for the ECS resources that you use. For more information, see Billing.

Feedback and suggestions

If you have questions and suggestions about SMC, you can use the following methods to provide your feedback and obtain technical support:

  • Recommended. DingTalk: You can join the technical support group on DingTalk to contact technical support.

  • Ticket submission: You can submit a ticket to contact technical support.

  • Feedback on documentation: If you find errors in the documentation, including broken links, content issues, and API problems, you can click Feedback in the floating menu on the right side of the page to report the errors.