[Server Migration] Alibaba Cloud Server Migration Center [Migration]

This is Ohara from the Technical Sales Department

This article describes
Server Migration Center (SMC) provided by Alibaba Cloud (Information current as of January 2022)

Overview and features of Server Migration Center (SMC)

Server Migration Center (hereinafter referred to as SMC) is a server migration platform developed by Alibaba Cloud that allows you to migrate one or more source servers to Alibaba Cloud. The source servers can be servers in a data center, virtual machines, or hosts on other cloud platforms.

SMC also supports automatic data migration from the source server to Alibaba Cloud. SMC provides the following features:

Incremental Data Migration

○ You can synchronize incremental data from a source server to Alibaba Cloud without interrupting service.
※ Reference: Migrate incremental data from a source server

Migrating multiple servers at once

○ You can start multiple migration tasks at once in the SMC console.
○ You can call SMC API operations to create and start migration tasks, query migration progress, and manage multiple migration tasks at once.
※ Reference: API operations

Multi-threaded data transmission

-
feature improves bandwidth utilization and transmission efficiency.

Centralized monitoring of task processes

○ If you migrate multiple source servers to Alibaba Cloud at one time, you can monitor the migration status of each source server in SMC.
○ You can view the status of each source server or migration task in the SMC console, which helps you identify any issues that may occur during the migration.

Benefits of Server Migration Center (SMC)

Migrating from a diverse platform and infrastructure environment

○ SMC allows you to migrate servers running various versions of Windows and Linux operating systems.
*Reference: Limits
○ SMC allows you to migrate data from servers in data centers, on-premise virtual machines (VMs), and cloud platforms to Alibaba Cloud.
・Supported VMs: VMware / VirtualBox / Xen / KVM / Hyper-V
・Supported cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services (AWS) / Microsoft Azure / Google Cloud Platform (GCP) / Tencent Cloud / UCloud / China Telecom e-Cloud / QingCloud

Independence from the underlying environment of the source server

○ Supports physical-to-cloud (P2C), virtual-to-cloud (V2C), and cloud-to-cloud (C2C) migration types, as well as multiple file system and disk types.
○ Migration is non-disruptive, so there is no need to stop services running on the source server.
○ A lightweight client that requires no installation provides multiple migration methods, allowing you to choose the method that best suits your needs. Once you start a migration task, SMC manages the entire migration progress.
○ By default, it uses 2048-bit RSA keys to encrypt data during transmission, ensuring secure data transmission. SMC allows you to migrate servers over private networks, such as VPN gateways and physical connections provided by Alibaba Cloud Express Connect.

Server Migration Center (SMC) migration process

The SMC consists of the SMC Client and the SMC Console. The following diagram illustrates how you can use the SMC for migration:

※ Reference: Migration process

summary

Server migration is limited to Alibaba Cloud, but there doesn't seem to be any other migration tool that is as versatile as this one at the moment, so if you have the opportunity to migrate, please give it a try