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.
Supports automated migration.
SMC supports automated and unattended migration that is conducted with simple operations. You can check the migration progress in the SMC console or by calling an API operation.
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.
Architecture
Supported migration sources and methods
Scenarios
Scenario | Description | References |
You can use the SMC client to migrate source servers deployed on physical machines, VMs, and third-party cloud service platforms to Alibaba Cloud. | ||
You can use SMC to migrate the operating system such as CentOS 7, CentOS 8, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2012 that runs on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance to another operating system or upgrade the operating system to a later version. This ensures longer maintenance support for operating systems in cases such as end of life (EOL) of certain operating systems. | ||
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. | ||
You can use SMC to migrate ECS instances across zones within the same region with high efficiency. | ||
You can migrate your PC or cloud desktop to Elastic Desktop Service (EDS). EDS is an easy-to-use, secure, and efficient cloud desktop service. It supports fast creation and efficient management of desktop environments. You can use EDS to build a secure and flexible office system. |
Migration workflow
For more information, see Migration guide.
Billing
SMC is free of charge. However, when you use SMC to perform migration, you are charged for the ECS resources that you use. For more information, see Billing.
Services that work with SMC
During server migration, you may also need to use other Alibaba Cloud services such as ECS, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), and Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK). The following figure shows the relationships between SMC and other Alibaba Cloud services.
The following table describes the relationships between SMC and other Alibaba Cloud services.
Service | Relationship with other services | References |
When you migrate a server, you can create an ECS image from a snapshot of the source server. Then, you can use the ECS image to create an ECS instance. | ||
When you migrate a server, SMC allows you to migrate data over the Internet or a VPC. | ||
You can migrate a server to a container image. Then, you can use the container image to deploy containerized applications. | ||
After a server is migrated to a container image, you can use the container image to deploy a containerized application in an ACK cluster. | ||
RAM is a service that is used to manage user identities and resource access permissions. You can use RAM to control the operation permissions of users. This allows you to implement fine-grained permission management for SMC resources. |
Terms
Term | Description |
SMC client | The migration client developed by Alibaba Cloud. It runs on source servers to perform migration jobs. |
Migration source | The information about a source server that is registered with the SMC console based on the information reported by the SMC client. A migration source corresponds to a source server. |
Migration job | The job created for a migration source in the SMC console after the information about the migration source is imported. A job automatically runs after it is created to start the migration. |
Destination instance | The ECS instance to which data is to be migrated. When you create a migration job, you can select an ECS instance as the destination instance. After migration, the data in the source server overwrites the data in the destination instance. |
Intermediate instance | The temporary instance that is created to assist migration. If the migration destination is an ECS image or a container image, SMC creates a temporary intermediate instance named |
ECS image | You can migrate a server to an ECS image and create an ECS instance based on the ECS image. |
Container image | You can migrate a server to a container image and deploy containerized applications based on the container image. |
Feedback and suggestions
If you have questions or suggestions about SMC, you can use one of the following methods to provide your feedback, contact technical support, and obtain a better service experience.
(Recommended) Click URL or scan the following QR code to join the DingTalk group for technical support. (Download URL of DingTalk)
Pre-sales consultation: Before purchasing Alibaba Cloud products, you can call Alibaba Cloud's pre-sales phone number or contact your Alibaba Cloud account manager to learn or consult about the products. For more information, see Pre-sales consultation.
After-sales support: If you encounter problems with Alibaba Cloud products or services, you can contact us by calling Alibaba Cloud after-sales service or submitting a ticket. For more information, see After-sales support.
Document feedback: If you find errors in the service documentation, such as link, content, and API errors, you can click Feedback in the lower-right corner of the documentation page, select the error, and then provide your feedback.