SMC allows you to migrate incremental data from source servers to Alibaba Cloud. You can specify the time interval between incremental migration tasks. Incremental migration reduces the service downtime and the total time of migration. This topic describes the best practices for incremental migration.
Prerequisites
- Incremental migration is supported by SMC client V2.0.0 and later. Therefore, we recommend that you use SMC client V2.0.0 and later to import the information of the migration source.
- The information of the server is imported to the SMC console. For more information, see Step 1: Import the information of a migration source.
Background information
- Make sure that the SMC client is running during migration. If data transfer is interrupted, you can restart the client and the migration task to resume migration.
- Each incremental migration task creates an intermediate instance to facilitate the migration process. The intermediate instance incurs a small fee. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go. The intermediate instance is released only when the incremental migration task is in the Expired state or when the task is deleted.
(Optional) Step 1: Exclude dynamic data directories
To ensure stable migration, we recommend that you exclude dynamic data directories, such as data directories of large databases. Then, you can stop the services on the source server and start the migration task. Skip this step if you do not need to exclude dynamic data directories from migration.
To exclude dynamic data directories, perform the following steps. You do not need to stop the services that are running on the source server.
Step 2: Create and start an incremental migration task
You can perform the following steps to exclude dynamic data directories. You do not need to stop your services that are running on the source server.
Step 3: Stop the services on the source server and run an incremental migration task
After you stop the services on the source server, perform the following steps to skip the excluded data directories and run an incremental migration task again:
- Log on to the source server. Stop the services that run on the source server and skip the excluded data directories.
- In the SMC console, manually run the incremental migration task or wait for the task
to automatically run. To manually run the incremental migration task, perform the
following steps:
Result
- If the migration task is in the Waiting state, the migration succeeded and you can obtain the image that was generated during the migration. This image contains all the data of the first full migration and each subsequent incremental migration of the source server.
- If the migration task is in the InError state, the migration has failed. You must check logs to fix the issue, and then restart the task. For information about common errors and solutions, see SMC FAQ.
What to do next
- Create an instance to verify the image:
- On the Migration Tasks page, find the migration task and click Create Instance in the Actions column.
- On the Custom Launch tab, the Image section shows the latest full image. Configure other parameters based on your needs
and purchase the instance. For more information, see Create an instance by using the wizard.
- Connect to the instance and check the system of the destination server. For more information, see How can I check my system after migrating a Windows server? or How can I check my system after migrating a Linux server?
- Stop the incremental migration task:
Note You can pause an incremental migration task only when the task is in the Syncing or Waiting state.
- On the Migration Tasks page, find the migration task, and click the
icon in the Actions column.
- Click Pause.
- In the Stop Migration Task message, click OK.
- On the Migration Tasks page, find the migration task, and click the
- Delete the incremental migration task:
- On the Migration Tasks page, find the migration task, and click Delete in the Actions column.
- In the Delete Migration Tasks message, click OK.