Server Migration Center:Containerized migration of servers and applications

1. Create the RAM role required for the SMC intermediate instance and grant permissions. During the migration setup phase, you need to specify the Intermediate Instance RAM Role. SMC uses this RAM role to push the generated container images to Container Registry.

   1. Create a RAM role for a trusted Alibaba Cloud service. Key parameter requirements are as follows. For example, the RAM role name is smc-container-role.

      • For Principal Type, select Cloud Service.

      • For Principal Name, select Elastic Compute Service.

   2. Create a custom policy that meets container image migration requirements. For example, the custom policy name is smc-container-policy.

      The custom policy is shown below.

      {
          "Statement": [
              {
                  "Effect": "Allow",
                  "Action": [
                      "cr:GetAuthorizationToken",
                      "cr:PushRepository",
                      "cr:PullRepository",
                      "cr:CreateRepository"
                  ],
                  "Resource": "*"
              }
          ],
          "Version": "1"
      }

   3. Grant the RAM role permissions to operate Container Registry. For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM role.

2. Activate Container Registry and create an image repository (Personal Edition). Alibaba Cloud Container Registry personal edition is designed for individual developers and currently supports creating image repositories in some regions. You can use it for free during the public preview period. During the migration setup phase, you need to specify the Namespace, Repository Name, and Version.

Migration sources can be servers of a variety of types to migrate, such as servers in data centers, VMs, and hosts on third-party cloud platforms. SMC supports multiple methods to import the information about migration sources. You can select a method based on your business requirements. For more information, see the How do I select the method to import the information about a migration source? section of the "FAQ" topic.

1. Find the migration source that you want to manage and click Start Migration in the Actions column.

2. Configure the parameters and click Start Migration.

   1. Configure the basic parameters described in the following table.

      Parameter	Description	Example
      Migration Job Name	The name of the migration job.	Containerized migration
      Job Description	The description of the migration job.	test
      Destination Region	Required. The Alibaba Cloud region to which you want to migrate the source server. For more information, see Regions and zones.	Hangzhou
      Namespace	Required. The namespace in which to store the container image repository generated during the migration. If you have not created a namespace, see Manage namespaces and quotas.	misaka-team
      Name	Required. The name of the repository in which to store the container image generated during the migration. If you have not created an image repository, see Build repositories and images.	console-service
      Version	Required. The version of the container image generated during the migration. For example, v1. The string must be 1 to 128 characters in length. The string can only contain lowercase letters (a-z), digits (0-9), periods (.), underscores (_), or hyphens (-). The string cannot start or end with a period (.) or hyphen (-).	v1
      Intermediate Instance RAM Role	Required. Select an intermediate instance RAM role. If you have not created a RAM role, see Step 1: Make preparations for requirements to create a RAM role.
      Migration Mode	Machine-level migration Supports complete migration of system and application data from physical machines/VMs to Alibaba Cloud Container Registry (ACR) (personal edition). Does not generate analysis reports. After minimal trimming of system and application data, the entire operating system application environment is packaged, generating larger container images. However, the runtime environment remains consistent with the source system and can support multiple applications simultaneously. Suitable for system-level disaster recovery scenarios. Application migration Supports migrating specific applications from physical machines/VMs to Alibaba Cloud Container Registry (ACR) (Personal Edition), minimizing the size of the generated container images, resulting in smaller container images. Generates analysis reports for specified applications and packages the specified application data based on the analysis reports, producing smaller container images. Currently supports Java Tomcat/Tomee/JBoss and ASP.NET applications. Please ensure that the applications you want to migrate are within the supported types. Suitable for microservice containerization transformation scenarios.	Machine-level migration
      Select Applications To Be Migrated	Select the application to migrate. The dropdown list only displays supported applications. If your application is not in the dropdown, it means that migration of your application is not currently supported. The application ID is generated by SMC in the format ${application_id} (Process: ${pid}). For example, java-tomcat-5924e694(Process: 2360). After the analysis is completed, you need to confirm the analysis results.: Unchecked: The migration will proceed automatically without confirming the analysis results. Checked: You need to confirm the analysis results. After analysis is complete, the task will be paused, and you need to click to confirm the analysis results before migration continues. The analysis report is stored on the source server, for example, /smc/app2container/java-tomcat-5924e694/analysis.json.	Retain the default setting
      Execution Method	Select the execution method for the migration task: Migrate Now: Start migration immediately after creating the migration task. Migrate Now is selected by default. Create Only: Only create the migration task. You need to click Start Task in the Actions column later to manually start the migration task.	Retain the default setting
      Network Mode	The type of network that is used to migrate data from the source server to the intermediate instance. By default, data is migrated over the Internet. During the migration, SMC creates an intermediate instance that connects to a vSwitch in a VPC. If you select Public Network, a public IP address is assigned to the intermediate instance. Public Network (default value) 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 determine 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 do not specify a VPC or vSwitch, SMC creates an intermediate instance that connects to the VPC and vSwitch automatically created by the system. 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 SAG to connect a migration source to a VPC. For more information, see Connect a data center to a VPC.	Keep the default setting

   2. (Conditionally required) If you need to set parameters such as transmission speed and compression rate, click Advanced and configure the advanced parameters. The parameter descriptions are shown in the table below.

      Parameter	Description	Example
      Transmission Speed Limit	The maximum network transfer speed during the migration. Unit: Mbit/s. If you set the Compression Ratio parameter to a value greater than 0, the actual network transfer speed, which is the transfer speed of compressed data, is lower than the speed displayed in the Real-time Migration Status column.	Keep the default setting
      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 CPU resources of the migration source. Valid values: 0 to 10. Default value: 7. A value of 0 indicates that data is not compressed.	Keep the default setting
      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, but transmission speed may be reduced.	Keep the default setting
      SSL-Encrypted Transmission	Using SSL encryption for data migration enhances security and ensures data integrity. By default, this feature is enabled.	Keep the default setting
      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 jobs and Use tags to implement fine-grained access control. Note You can specify up to 20 tags for a migration job.	Keep the default setting
      Intermediate Instance Type	You can select the intermediate instance type based on your actual needs. The instance type of the intermediate instance is automatically selected: If you specify this parameter, SMC creates an intermediate instance of the specified instance 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 creates an intermediate instance. Important To avoid migration errors, do not stop, start, restart, or release the intermediate instance during migration. After migration is complete, the instance will be automatically released.	Keep the default setting

   3. In the dialog box that appears, read the migration notes and click Got It.

3. On the Containerized migration page, check the real-time migration status.

   Since data transmission time is affected by factors such as source data size and network bandwidth, please be patient and wait for the migration task to complete.

   

   Note

   • Speed: the amount of data that is migrated per second, which indicates the transfer speed of uncompressed data. If you set the Compression Ratio parameter to a value greater than 0, the actual network transfer speed, which is the transfer speed of compressed data, is lower than the displayed speed.

   • Time Remaining for Synchronization: the remaining synchronization time calculated based on the current speed by using the following formula: Time remaining for synchronization = (Total data size - Transferred data size)/Speed.

   • If the transmission speed is too slow to meet your plan, you may consider temporarily increasing the dedicated bandwidth of both the source server and the destination server. For more information, see Estimate the time required for migration and test the data transfer speed.

   For details about how to subscribe to SMC migration job error-related events and modify and pause the migration job, perform the following operations.

   • To prevent migration process disruptions caused by errors in migration jobs, you can subscribe to SMC migration job error-related events in CloudMonitor so that you can promptly receive email notifications. For more information, see Subscribe to SMC migration task error-related event notifications.

   • When the migration job is in the Synchronizing state, you can perform the following operations as needed:

     • Modify the migration job: In the Actions column, click Modify Migration Job to modify Transmission Speed Limit, Compression Ratio, Checksum Verification, and other parameters.

     • Pause the migration job: In the Actions column, click Pause Migration Job.

4. In the Migration Source ID/Name column of the destination migration source, click the migration source ID to view detailed migration information.