Migration sources can be physical servers, VMware virtual machines (VMs), Xen, KVM,
or Hyper-V VMs, and VMs that run in public clouds. Before you use Server Migration
Center (SMC) for server migration, you must run the SMC client with your Alibaba Cloud
account on the migration source, and import the migration source information. Then,
you can log on to the SMC console to perform migration. This topic describes how to
import the information of a migration source.
Prerequisites
The preparations for using SMC are completed. For more information, see
Before you begin.
Procedure
- Download and decompress the SMC client package.
- Download the SMC client package.
If the migration source has access to the Internet, you can also download the SMC
client package to the migration source.
Note You can log on to the
SMC console. In the upper-right corner of the page, click
Download Latest SMC Client to download the latest version of the SMC client.
- Upload the SMC client package to the migration source.
- Decompress the SMC client package.
The SMC client is available for different operating systems and architectures. Select
an SMC client version that is compatible with the migration source.
The following figure shows the decompressed client folders for Windows.
Note For Linux systems, run the unzip <name of the SMC client package> command to decompress the SMC client package. Make sure that the unzip utility is installed on the source server. For example, you can run the yum -y install unzip command to install the unzip utility in CentOS 7.

Table 1. SMC client packages
Client package |
Architecture |
Operating system |
Bits |
Supported destination image types |
go2aliyun_client2.5.8_linux_arm64.zip |
ARM |
Linux |
64 |
|
go2aliyun_client2.5.8_linux_i386.zip |
x86 |
Linux |
32 |
- ECS image
- ECS instance
- Container image
|
go2aliyun_client2.5.8_linux_x86_64.zip |
x86 |
Linux |
64 |
go2aliyun_client2.5.8_windows_i386.zip |
x86 |
Windows |
32 |
|
go2aliyun_client2.5.8_windows_x86_64.zip |
x86 |
Windows |
64 |
Note
- The version number 2.5.8 in the name of the client package is for reference only.
The actual version number shall prevail.
- SMC allows you to migrate Linux servers of the ARM64 architecture to ECS instances
of the g6r or c6r instance family. For more information, see Instance families.
- Decompress the client package that is compatible with the operating system of your
source server.
The following figure shows the directories and files in the decompressed folder.

Table 2. SMC client folders and files
Folder or file |
Description |
go2aliyun_client.exe |
The Windows CLI executable file. |
go2aliyun_gui.exe |
The Windows GUI executable file. For more information about the GUI version, see Use the Windows GUI version of an SMC client.
|
go2aliyun_client |
The Linux CLI executable file. |
user_config.json |
The configuration file of the migration source and destination. |
Excludes |
The folder in which to add directories to exclude from migration. |
client_data |
The migration data file. This includes the intermediate instance information and migration
progress.
|
- Optional:Optional. Exclude files or directories from migration. If you do not need some files
or directories after migration, you can exclude them from migration. For more information,
see How do I exclude files or directories from a migration task?.
Note If you enable the block replication feature, you cannot exclude files or directories
from migration.
- Run the SMC client to import the migration source information.
- Enter the SMC client folder and run the SMC client.
- For Windows servers, use one of the following methods to run the SMC client:
- To run the Windows GUI version, double-click the go2aliyun_gui.exe file.
- To run the Windows CLI version, double-click the go2aliyun_client.exe file.
Note When you run the program, you must click OK to confirm that you have the administrator privilege.
- For Linux servers, run the SMC client as a root or sudo user.
If you have required permissions on the migration source system, you can also run
the following commands to import the migration source information. In this case, you
do not need to enter your AccessKey pair.
Note An AccessKey pair of an Alibaba Cloud account includes an AccessKey ID and AccessKey
secret. If you have not created an AccessKey pair, create one first. For more information,
see
Obtain an AccessKey pair.
- Enter the AccessKey pair of your Alibaba Cloud account.
Note If the AccessKey pair you entered is invalid, open the user_config.json file, delete the access_id and secret_key values, and then run the client again.
- For Windows servers
- If you use the Windows GUI version, enter the AccessKey ID in the Access Id field, enter the AccessKey secret in the Secret Key field, and then click Start. For more information, see Use the Windows GUI version of an SMC client.
- If you use the Windows CLI version, enter the AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret, and then press
Enter
.
- For Linux servers
Enter the
AccessKey ID and
AccessKey secret, and then press
Enter
.

The following prompts may appear:
- If no snapshot dependency is installed on your source server, the following prompt
appears, as shown in the following figure. Decide whether to install one based on
whether you need to enable block replication.
- If you need to enable block replication for the migration, enter yes to automatically install a snapshot dependency.
- If you do not need to enable block replication for the migration, enter no.
Note If the snapshot dependency fails to be installed, do not enable block replication
when you create a migration task. Otherwise, the migration may fail.

- The rsync tool is installed in most mainstream migration sources. If rsync is not
installed on the migration source, the SMC client displays a prompt. Enter yes to install rsync, as shown in the following figure.

- If SELinux is enabled on the migration source, you are prompted to disable SELinux.
Enter yes to disable SELinux, as shown in the following figure.

Notice Do not close the client until the migration is complete. Otherwise, the migration
source will be disconnected from the SMC console and the migration fails.
What to do next
- If Import Source Server [s-bxxxxxxxxxxxx] Successfully! appears, the migration source information has been imported to the SMC console. After
you import the information of a migration source for the first time, the SMC console
generates a migration source record. The migration source is in the Active state.
The default migration source name is <Migration source hostname + Migration source
IP address>, as shown in the following figure.
When the client-side program is running, log on to the SMC console to complete the
migration. For more information, see Step 2: Create and start a migration task.
When you import a migration source, SMC collects information about the source server,
such as CPU, memory, CPU utilization, memory usage, and private IP address. You can
click the migration source ID to view the information, as shown in the following figure.
After the migration task is completed, you can create an ECS instance by using the
information of the source server. 
- If Error or Goto Aliyun Not Finished! appears, the migration source information has failed to be imported, as shown in
the following figure. We recommend that you find the root cause of the issue, and
then run the client again. For more information, see SMC FAQ.
