Server Migration Center:Create a server migration job

Procedure

1. Log on to the SMC console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Migration Sources.

3. Find the migration source for which you want to create a migration job and click Create Migration Job in the Actions column.

4. In the Create Migration Job dialog box, configure the parameters and click Create.

   The following table describes the parameters that you can configure to create a server migration job.

   Parameter	Description
   Migration Job Type	The type of the migration job. After you select Server Migration, read the migration instructions carefully.
   Migration Job Name	The name of the migration job. Note The job name must be unique within an Alibaba Cloud region.
   Job Description	The description of the migration job.
   Destination Region	The Alibaba Cloud region to which you want to migrate your source server. This parameter is required. For more information about regions, see Regions and zones.
   Destination Type	The type of the destination on Alibaba Cloud to which you want to migrate the source server. Valid values: ECS Image You can migrate the source server to an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) image and then create an ECS instance by using the image. Parameter: Image Name: the name of the destination ECS image generated by SMC for the migration source. ECS Instance You can migrate the source server to an ECS instance that you have purchased. The storage system and operating system of the source server must be compatible with those of the destination ECS instance. For more information about best practices, see Migrate servers to ECS instances. Important After a migration job is created, all original data is deleted from the destination ECS instance. If the destination ECS instance contains important data, we recommend that you do not directly migrate the source server to the destination instance. In this case, we recommend that you set the Destination Type parameter to ECS Image to migrate the source server to an ECS image and then create an ECS instance by using the image. For more information about how to migrate a source server to an ECS instance, see Migrate servers to ECS instances. During the migration, a pay-as-you-go cloud disk is created for temporary use. The cloud disk serves as a data transfer hub and is automatically released after the migration is complete. During the migration, the operating system of the destination ECS instance is changed, and the automatic snapshots of the system disk are deleted and cannot be recovered. You can manually disable the Delete Automatic Snapshots While Releasing Disk feature to retain the snapshots. For more information, see Delete automatic snapshots while releasing a disk. Parameter: Destination Instance: the ECS instance that you select as the destination instance. Important During the migration, do not stop, start, restart, or release the destination ECS instance. Otherwise, the migration fails. Container Image Note Not all operating systems and architectures support migration to Container Registry. For more information, see Import the information about a migration source by using the SMC client. For more information about best practices, see Migrate source servers to Container Registry. Parameters: Namespace: the namespace of the destination container image. Repository Name: the name of the repository that stores the destination container image. Version: the version of the destination container image. RAM Role: the Resource Access Management (RAM) role that is assigned to the intermediate instance.
   Destination Disk Size (GiB)	The disk configurations of the destination server. Configure the following parameters based on your business requirements: System disk System Disk: the system disk size of the destination ECS instance. Unit: GiB. Valid values: 20 to 2048. The size of the destination system disk must be larger than the amount of data on the source system disk. For example, if the total size of the source system disk is 400 GiB but the size of data stored on this disk is only 100 GiB, you must set this parameter to a value greater than 100. Note The default value of this parameter indicates the size of the source system disk. We recommend that you retain the default value or specify a greater value. Partition<N>: the size of the partition. SMC generates a partitioning scheme for the destination system disk based on the partitioning scheme of the source system disk. Unit: GiB. Valid values of N: 0 to 14. <N> indicates the serial number of the partition. For example, if the system disk of the migration source has only one partition, Partition0 is generated. Data disk Data Disk<N>: the data disk size of the destination ECS instance. Unit: GiB. Valid values: 20 to 32768. If you select the Data Disk<N> check box, a destination data disk is generated. <N> indicates the serial number of the data disk. The size of the destination data disk must be larger than the amount of data on the source data disk. For example, if the total size of the source data disk is 500 GiB but the size of data stored on this disk is only 100 GiB, you must set this parameter to a value greater than 100. Partition<N>: the size of the partition. SMC generates a partitioning scheme for the destination data disk based on the partitioning scheme of the source data disk. Unit: GiB. Valid values of N: 0 to 14. <N> indicates the serial number of the partition. For example, if a data disk of the migration source has only one partition, Partition0 is generated. Note If your migration source has no data disk or has a data disk that is not attached, the Data Disk parameters are not displayed. For more information, see the "Why are the data disk parameters of a migration source not displayed in the Create Migration Job dialog box? What do I do?" section of the FAQ topic. Block replication SMC allows or disallows you to turn on the switch based on whether the migration source supports block-level replication for partitions. If the migration source does not support block replication for partitions, you cannot turn on the switch. If SMC uses the default method to migrate the migration source at the file level, you can modify the size of each partition on the destination disk. If the migration source supports block replication for partitions, the switch is turned on by default. You can migrate disk data at the partition level. The block replication feature ensures stable data transmission. The feature also ensures that the source and destination disks use the same partitioning scheme. You cannot modify the size of each partition on the destination disk. Note If your source server runs Windows, block replication is enabled by default. You cannot disable this feature.
   Expert Mode (Optional)
   Network Type	The type of the network that is used to migrate data to the intermediate instance. During migration, SMC creates an intermediate instance that connects to a vSwitch in a virtual private cloud (VPC). If you select Public Network, a public IP address is assigned to the intermediate instance. Public Network SMC migrates data to the intermediate instance over the Internet. If you select Public Network, make sure that the source server can access the Internet. You can choose whether to specify a VPC and a vSwitch based on your business requirements. If you specify a VPC and a vSwitch, SMC creates an intermediate instance that connects to the specified VPC and vSwitch. If you migrate multiple migration sources at a time, you can specify the same VPC and vSwitch for the migration jobs involved. This improves the usage of VPC resources. In this case, you can migrate up to 100 migration sources at a time. If you do not specify a VPC or a vSwitch, SMC automatically creates a VPC and a vSwitch, and creates an intermediate instance that connects to the VPC and the vSwitch. If you do not specify a VPC or a vSwitch before you migrate multiple migration sources at a time, SMC creates a VPC for each intermediate instance. Note Each Alibaba Cloud account can have a maximum of 10 VPCs in a region, including the VPCs that are manually created and the VPCs that are automatically created by SMC. Therefore, you can migrate up to 10 migration sources at a time if you do not specify a VPC or a vSwitch. For information about how to increase the VPC quota, see Manage VPC quotas. VPC SMC migrates data to the intermediate instance over a VPC. If you select VPC, you must specify a VPC and a vSwitch and make sure that the source server can connect to the VPC. Note If your server in a data center, your VM, or your third-party cloud server can connect to a VPC, we recommend that you select this network type to migrate data. Compared with migration over the Internet, migration over a VPC is more efficient and stable. You can use VPN Gateway, Express Connect, or Smart Access Gateway to connect a migration source to a VPC. For more information, see Connect a data center to a VPC.
   Transmission Speed Limit	The maximum bandwidth for data transmission during migration. Unit: Mbit/s.
   Compression Ratio	The compression ratio of the data to be migrated. Set the compression ratio based on your business requirements. If the bandwidth is limited, a high compression ratio improves the transmission efficiency. If a high bandwidth is available, we recommend that you do not compress data. Data compression consumes the CPU resources of the migration source. Valid values: 0 to 10. Default value: 7. A value of 0 indicates that data is not compressed.
   Checksum Verification	Specifies whether to verify data integrity by using a checksum. By default, this feature is disabled. If you enable this feature, data integrity is ensured whereas transmission speed may be reduced.
   License Type	The license type. Valid values: Alibaba Cloud: the Microsoft license provided by Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see FAQ. BYOL: SMC allows you to bring your own license (BYOL). You can use your own Microsoft or Red Hat license to migrate a server to Alibaba Cloud. For more information, see FAQ.
   Intermediate Instance Type	The type of the intermediate instance. Select an intermediate instance type based on your business requirements. This parameter is displayed only if the Destination Type parameter is set to ECS Image or Container Image. If you specify an instance type, SMC creates an intermediate instance of the specified type. If the specified instance type is unavailable, the migration job fails to be created. If you do not specify an instance type, SMC automatically selects an instance type to create an intermediate instance. Important To prevent migration failures, do not stop, start, restart, or release the intermediate instance during the migration process. After the migration job is complete, SMC automatically releases the intermediate instance.
   Automatic Incremental Synchronization	Specifies whether SMC automatically synchronizes incremental data of the migration source to Alibaba Cloud. By default, this feature is disabled. To enable this feature, you must configure the following parameters: Synchronization Interval: the interval at which SMC automatically synchronizes incremental data to Alibaba Cloud. Upperlimit of Reserved Images: the maximum number of images that can be retained during incremental migration. SMC automatically synchronizes incremental data to Alibaba Cloud at the specified interval. For more information about best practices, see Migrate incremental data from a source server. If you disable this feature, incremental data is not synchronized.
   Image Check	The image check feature checks whether an image is valid and whether the image can be used to create full-featured ECS instances. You can use the image check feature when you create a server migration job or an agentless migration job for a VMware VM. This feature helps you identify potential issues in images or ECS instances after the migration job is complete, and provides solutions to the identified issues. This helps you improve the success rate of starting ECS instances. For more information, see Configure image check.
   Execution Method	The method that is used to run the migration job. Valid values: Run Now: The migration job starts immediately after it is created. This is the default value. Run Later: The migration job automatically starts at the specified time after it is created. Note The earliest time that you can specify to run a migration job is 10 minutes after the job is created. Create Only: After the migration job is created, you must manually start the job.
   Migration Job Tags	The tags that you specify for the migration job. Each tag contains a key and a value. You can use tags to query and manage migration jobs. For more information, see Use tags to manage migration sources and migration tasks. Note You can specify up to 20 tags for a migration job.

5. In the message that appears, read the migration notes and click Got It.

6. Optional. Start the migration job.

   Note

   If the Execution Method parameter is set to Run Now, skip this step. If the Execution Method parameter is set to Create Only or Run Later, you can perform the following steps to start the migration job.

   1. In the left-side navigation pane, click Migration Jobs.

   2. Find the migration job and click Run in the Actions column.

      • To start multiple migration jobs at a time, select the jobs and click Start or Retry in the lower part of the Migration Jobs page. The selected jobs must be in the Ready, Paused, or InError state.

      • To stop a migration job in the Synchronizing state, click Stop in the Actions column.

7. On the Migration Jobs page, wait until the migration job is complete. You can view the migration speed and remaining synchronization duration.

   

   If the migration job enters the Completed state, the migration is successful.