Migrate a VM with Azure Site Recovery

In the post I will guide you on how to migrate an on premise VM into Azure using Azure Site Recovery service (ASR). These days, Microsoft recommends that you use Azure Migrate: Server Migration instead; the latter supports both physical and virtual machines, but also a raft of other systems, not just infrastructure-lead migrations.

Assuming you already have configured your ASR, have set up a replication to your Recovery Services vault and targeted some VM’s to replicate, there are some important steps you need to do before you can finalize a VM migration.

Pre-Migration tasks:

  1. Prepare the VM to be hosted by Azure, including Windows Server 2008 SP2
  2. Ensure the VM has the latest Windows Updatesinstalled
  3. Install the latest Azure VM Agent

Note: For Windows Server 2008 SP2 guests, refer to these notes regarding support and compatibility before migrating. 

  1. Check Azure Recovery Services vault for any errors and resolve first before proceeding.

Pre-Failover tasks:

  1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to Recovery Services vault and select the specific RSV used by the ASR
  2. Under the ‘Replicated items’ blade, select the VM to migrate
  3. Select [Failover] and accept the options to proceed, and select the latest 'Recovery Point'

Important: This will commence the cut-over from on premise to Azure, deactivating the on premise VM. You cannot power on the on premise VM unless you cancel the failover.

Post-Failover tasks:

  1. Once the migration completes (around 15~20 minutes), go to the VM's Overview blade, select the ‘Disks’ blade and change the disk type to a Managed Disk; this will require a restart and allow several minutes to complete
  2. If needed, change the VM Size to a suitable specification
  3. Under the 'Networking' blade, select network interface > IP configurations > IPv4 > change from 'Dynamic' to 'Static' > keep or select an alternative IP > Save, and update DNS if required

Note: Updating the NIC and VM Size properties will cause the VM to reboot.

  1. Confirm communications/services are working as expected
  2. Disable on-premise backup (ABS) on the old guest
  3. Include migrated VM to Recovery Services vault Backup
  4. Select [Complete migration] and [Commit] to finalize the migration
  5. Enable BitLocker Disk Encryption