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Last Updated:Jun 05, 2023

Server Migration Center (SMC) can help you migrate one or more servers to Alibaba Cloud. This topic describes the benefits of server migration.

Migration from diverse platforms and environments

  • SMC allows you to migrate source servers that run various versions of Windows and Linux operating systems. For more information, see Limits.

  • SMC allows you to migrate data from servers in self-managed data centers, on-premises VMs, or third-party cloud servers to Alibaba Cloud. Supported VMs include VMware, VirtualBox, Xen, KVM, and Hyper-V. Third-party cloud servers include servers on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Tencent Cloud, UCloud, China Telecom e-Cloud, and QingCloud.SMC1

Independence from the underlying environments of source servers

  • SMC supports the following types of migration: physical-to-cloud (P2C), virtual-to-cloud (V2C), and cloud-to-cloud (C2C).

  • SMC supports multiple types of file systems, such as NTFS, EXT, XFS, and Btrfs.

  • SMC supports multiple disk partition types, such as MBR and GPT.

Migration without service interruption

During migration, the data of source servers is completely replicated. You do not need to stop services that run on the source servers.

Simple, lightweight, and flexible configuration

  • SMC provides a lightweight client that does not require installation.

  • SMC provides multiple migration methods. You can select a method based on your needs.

  • After you start a migration task, SMC manages the entire migration progress.

Secure data transmission

  • By default, SMC uses 2048-bit Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) keys to encrypt data during data transmission.

  • SMC allows you to migrate servers over a private network by using methods such as VPN gateways and Express Connect circuits.

Resumable upload

If data transfer is interrupted, you can restart the SMC client and the migration task to resume migration.

Incremental migration

After the initial full migration, you can start multiple incremental migration tasks to reduce the service downtime and the cutover period.