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Azure VMWare (AVS) Cost Optimization Using Azure Migrate Tool
What is AVS? Azure VMware Solution provides private clouds that contain VMware vSphere clusters built from dedicated bare-metal Azure infrastructure. Azure VMware Solution is available in Azure Commercial and Azure Government. The minimum initial deployment is three hosts, with the option to add more hosts, up to a maximum of 16 hosts per cluster. All provisioned private clouds have VMware vCenter Server, VMware vSAN, VMware vSphere, and VMware NSX. As a result, you can migrate workloads from your on-premises environments, deploy new virtual machines (VMs), and consume Azure services from your private clouds. Learn More:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-vmware/introduction What is Azure Migrate Tool? Azure Migrate is a comprehensive service designed to help you plan and execute your migration to Azure. It provides a unified platform to discover, assess, and migrate your on-premises resources, including servers, databases, web apps, and virtual desktops, to Azure. The tool offers features like dependency analysis, cost estimation, and readiness assessments to ensure a smooth and efficient migration process. Learn More: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/migrate-services-overview How Azure Migrate can be used to Discover and Assess AVS? Azure Migrate enables the discovery and assessment of Azure VMware Solution (AVS) environments by collecting inventory and performance data from on-premises VMware environments, either through direct integration with vCenter (via Appliance) or by importing data from tools like RVTools. Using Azure Migrate, organizations can analyze the compatibility of their VMware workloads for migration to AVS, assess costs, and evaluate performance requirements. The process involves creating an Azure Migrate project, discovering VMware VMs, and generating assessments that provide insights into resource utilization, right-sizing recommendations, and estimated costs in AVS. This streamlined approach helps plan and execute migrations effectively while ensuring workloads are optimized for the target AVS environment. Note: We will be narrating the RVtools Import method in this article. What Is RVTools? RVTools is a lightweight, free utility designed for VMware administrators to collect, analyze, and export detailed inventory and performance data from VMware vSphere environments. Developed by Rob de Veij, RVTools connects to vCenter or ESXi hosts using VMware's vSphere Management SDK to retrieve comprehensive information about the virtual infrastructure. Key Features of RVTools: Inventory Management: Provides detailed information about virtual machines (VMs), hosts, clusters, datastores, networks, and snapshots. Includes details like VM names, operating systems, IP addresses, resource allocations (CPU, memory, storage), and more. Performance Insights: Offers visibility into resource utilization, including CPU and memory usage, disk space, and VM states (e.g., powered on/off). Snapshot Analysis: Identifies unused or orphaned snapshots, helping to optimize storage and reduce overhead. Export to Excel: Allows users to export all collected data into an Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) for analysis, reporting, and integration with tools like Azure Migrate. Health Checks: Identifies configuration issues, such as disconnected hosts, orphaned VMs, or outdated VMware Tools versions. User-Friendly Interface: Displays information in tabular form across multiple tabs, making it easy to navigate and analyze specific components of the VMware environment. Hand-on LAB Disclaimer: The data used for this LAB has no relationship with real world scenarios. This sample data is self-created by the author and purely for understanding the concept. To discover and assess your Azure VMware Solution (AVS) environment using anRVTools extract report in the Azure Migrate tool, follow these steps: Prerequisites RVTools Setup: Download and install RVTools from the Official Website Ensure connectivity to your vCenter server. Extract the data by running RVTools and saving the output as an Excel (.xlsx) file Permissions: You need at least the Contributor role on the Azure Migrate project. Ensure that you have appropriate permissions in your vCenter environment to collect inventory and performance data. File Requirements: The RVTools file must be saved in .xlsx format without renaming or modifying the tabs or column headers. Note: Sample Sheet: Please check the attachment included with this article. Note that this is not the complete format; some tabs and columns have been removed for simplicity. During the actual discovery and assessment process, please do not modify the tabs or columns. Procedure Step 1: Export Data from RVTools Follow the steps provided in official website to get RVTools Extract Sample Sheet: Please check the attachment included with this article. Note that this is not the complete format; some tabs and columns have been removed for simplicity. During the actual discovery and assessment process, please do not modify the tabs or columns. Step 2: Set Up Azure Migrate Log in to the Azure portal. Navigate to Azure Migrate and select your project. Under Discover, choose Servers, databases, and web apps. In the Discover machines section: Select Add discovery data. Choose the Import using VMware inventory (RVTools XLSX) option. Step 3: Upload the RVTools File Select Upload files and browse to the RVTools .xlsx file you saved. Click Upload to start the discovery process. Reference Link:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/vmware/tutorial-import-vmware-using-rvtools-xlsx?context=%2Fazure%2Fmigrate%2Fcontext%2Fvmware-context Step 4: Map Machines to Assessment Groups After the upload is complete, navigate to the Servers tab. Click on Assess -->Azure VMware Solution to assess the discovered machines. Edit assessment settings based on your requirements and Save Target region: Select the Azure region for the migration. Node Type:Specify the Azure VMware Solution series (e.g., AV36, AV36P). Performance data availability: Choose "Yes" to analyze performance data (if available in the RVTools report). Pricing model: Select pay-as-you-go or reserved instance pricing. Discount: Specify any available discounts. Note: We will be explaining all the parameters in optimize session. As of now just review and leave parameters as it is. InAssess Servers, selectNext. InSelect servers to assess>Assessment name> specify a name for the assessment. InSelect or create a group> selectCreate New and specify a group name. Select the appliance and select the servers you want to add to the group. Then select Next. InReview + create assessment, review the assessment details, and selectCreate Assessment to create the group and run the assessment. Step 6: Review the Assessment View an assessment InWindows, Linux and SQL Server>Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment, select the number next toAzure VMware Solution. InAssessments, select an assessment to open it. As an example (estimations and costs, for example, only): Review the assessment summary. You can selectSizing assumptions to understand the assumptions that went in node sizing and resource utilization calculations. You can also edit the assessment properties, or recalculate the assessment. Step 7: Optimize We have received a report without any optimization. Now we can follow below steps to optimize the cost and node count even further High level steps: Find limiting factor Find which component in settings are mapped for optimization depending on limiting factor Try to adjust the Resultant component according to Scenario and Comfort Find Limiting factor: First understand which component (CPU , memory and storage) is deciding your ESXI Node count. This will be highlighted in the report The limiting factor shown in assessments could be CPU or memory or storage resources based on the utilization on nodes. It is the resource, which is limiting or determining the number of hosts/nodes required to accommodate the resources. For example, in an assessment if it was found that after migrating 8 VMware VMs to Azure VMware Solution, 50% of CPU resources will be utilized, 14% of memory is utilized and 18% of storage will be utilized on the 3 Av36 nodes and thus CPU is the limiting factor. Find which option in the setting can be used to optimize: This is depending on the limiting factor. For eg: If Limiting factor is CPU, which means you have high CPU requirement and CPU oversubscription can be used to optimize ESXI Node. Likewise, if storage is the limiting factor editing FTT, RAID or introducing External storage like ANF will help you to reduce Node count. Even reducing one node count will create a huge impact in dollar value. Let's understand how over commitment or over subscription works with simple example. Let's suppose I have two VMs with below specification Name CPU Memory Storage VM1 9 vCPU 200 GB 500 GB VM2 4 vCPU 200 GB 500 GB Total 13 vCPU 400 GB 1000 GB We have EXSI Node which has below capacity : vCPU 10 Memory 500 GB storage 1024 GB Now without optimization I need two ESXI node. But let's suppose VM1 and VM2 doesn't consume entire capacity all the time. The total capacity usage at a time will not go beyond 10. then I can accommodate both VM in same ESXI node, Hence I can reduce my node count and cost. Without optimization With optimization Parameters effecting Sizing and Pricing CPU Oversubscription Specifies the ratio of number of virtual cores tied to one physical core in the Azure VMware Solution node. The default value in the calculations is 4 vCPU:1 physical core in Azure VMware Solution. API users can set this value as an integer. Note that vCPU Oversubscription > 4:1 may impact workloads depending on their CPU usage. Memory overcommit factor Specifies the ratio of memory overcommit on the cluster. A value of 1 represents 100% memory use, 0.5, for example is 50%, and 2 would be using 200% of available memory. You can only add values from 0.5 to 10 up to one decimal place. Deduplication and compression factor Specifies the anticipated deduplication and compression factor for your workloads. Actual value can be obtained from on-premises vSAN or storage configurations. These vary by workload. A value of 3 would mean 3x so for 300GB disk only 100GB storage would be used. A value of 1 would mean no deduplication or compression. You can only add values from 1 to 10 up to one decimal place. FTT : How many device failure can be tolerated for a VM RAID : RAID stands for Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks Explains how data should be stored for redundancy Mirroring : Data will be duplicated as it is to another disk E.g.: To protect a 100 GB VM object by using RAID-1 (Mirroring) with an FTT of 1, you consume 200 GB. Erasure Coding : Erasure coding divides data into chunks and calculates parity information (redundant data) across multiple storage devices. This allows data reconstruction even if some chunks are lost, similar to RAID, but typically more space-efficient E.g.: to protect a 100 GB VM object by using RAID-5 (Erasure Coding) with an FTT of 1, you consume 133.33 GB. Comfort Factor: Azure Migrate considers a buffer (comfort factor) during assessment. This buffer is applied on top of server utilization data for VMs (CPU, memory and disk). The comfort factor accounts for issues such as seasonal usage, short performance history, and likely increases in future usage. For example, a 10-core VM with 20% utilization normally results in a 2-core VM. However, with a comfort factor of 2.0x, the result is a 4-core VM instead. AVS SKU Sizes Optimization Result In this example we got to know that CPU is my limiting factor hence I have adjusted CPU over subscription value from 4:1 to 8:1 Reduced node count from 6 (3 AV36P+3 AV64) to 5 AV36P Reduced Cost by 31%
How to backup your Azure VMs without Azure Guest Agent?
Hi All, Gusy I have some old Servers (that are 32 bit OS) and have migrated them to Azure, now I can't create there backups as Azure Guest Agent is not running on them. Azure Guest Agent is not compatible with the old 32 bit systems. I am not able to make their backup using Azure Recovery Vault (it failed also). Kindly provide me a robust and practical solution to create the backups of my Old VMs on Azure.
Azure SQL migrate from ADS not displaying Managed instance params
I am trying to migrating (I am doing a POC) 1 DB from sql on-prem to my managed instance in Azure, I set admin on the DB in azur(my account as am the admin for my subscriptionn), I can conenct to the instance in Azure Data Studio but when I run the migrate, reach "Azure SQL Target", it lists my login, subscription but Location no found location RG : no resource group found... whereas my user as I said was set as admin in
OnPrem telephony system with Microsoft Copilot Studio Voice as IVR
I came across the Microsoft document below, but I need a more detailed explanation and help to accomplish it. The contact center uses the existing CRM and CCaaS solution with Copilot for Service and Copilot Studio. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/guidance/reference-architectures/contact-center-existing-crm-ccaas-solution-copilot-service-copilot-studio Use Case: 1. Customer calls into OnPrem Telephony 2. OnPrem Telephony redirects the call to Azure Communications Services via SIP Trunk 3. ACS connects voice calls to Microsoft Copilot Studio Bot Voice IVR 4. Microsoft Copilot Studio Bot Voice IVR transfers the call to OnPrem Telephony via SIP Trunk 5. OnPrem Telephony routes to a Human Agent. Need help accomplishing Steps 2, 3, and 4.Guidance on using Azure Virtual Desktop
We are looking for a VDI solution and choose AVD. I have gone through MS Documentation but things are quite confusing and complicated. We have a team of 10 developers who are mainly into Biztalk and another set of 10 developers who are salesforce and other development works. They use Visual Studio, VS Code, Biztalk Server, and various other applications and services for their regular work. Initially we thought of option to create Azure VM (20 VMs one for each developer, Windows 2019 Server Image for Biztalk devs and Windows 11 for other devs)use a Generalize VM and spin up the images using the capture of the previous generalized VM image. But there was a point raised why can't we use Azure Virtual Desktop ? As I learned there are 2 types of host pools: Pooled (Multi sessions) Personal (Direct assignment of Host VM to each individual Developer) This AVD Host pools/ VMs should be able to work with external SQL Servers. All the 20 VMs in AVD should be able to access, how can this be possible , what should be the connection string for granting access to external SQL Servers ? As I understand, if I opt for Pooled AVD Hostpools, all the above 10 developers can utilize the multi sessions (whatever number of VMs we choose, ex., 5 VMs, sessions will be distributed !) they will be assigned to developers as per load balancing. Similarly if I choose personal (10 Windows Server 2019 & another 10 Windows 11) I need to create 20 VMs and assign the 20 VMs individually to each of 20 developers in the team. is my understanding correct? Should I create 2 different workspaces and 2 application groups ? Also I learned if I use FSLogix along with Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) I can manage users using profile management , will this actually help developers who uses the VS Code, Biztalk Server and other Azure services for their work daily ? Also based on all the facts above , please help me understand which suits the requirement well, please advice, if I choose Azure Virtual Desktop over Azure VMs or vice-versa, what are the benefits or disadvantages of AVD. Is it cost effective if I use pooled or personal AVD Host pool VMs or Azure VMs , which one suits better for us, please advice. Experts please help me with all this confusion ? Kind Regards
Adding users to an AD group with Azure Functions/Logic Apps
I want to add users to an Entra ID/Azure AD group. The list of users will be retrieved from a REST API call with Azure Functions, and then saved into a database, probably Azure SQL. I'm planning on then using Azure Logic Apps to connect the database to the AD group. How can I make the script run every time the REST API changes? Can I add users to the AD group from SQL? Is there a better way to go about this?
6 resets due to hacks from an azure user with the last name of Jenkins this week. Please help.
I am just a home user. 5days ago I went to upgrade my computer to W11 and it took about 2 hours. When it was done I noticed it looked wrong. I had seen 11 before. I checked for certain features that were not on it. I wiped my disk and did a factory HP cloud recovery and went to upgrade again. It still did not work. I got my daughters computer, this one, and downloaded a copy of W11 to fresh install. I had to wait until morning because I had to sleep. When I awoke my daughters system had been affected. I noticed because my computer would never accept a usb copy after 4 seperate downloads. Anyway someone keeps setting my system to domain user, changing the firewall, making settings not work , using remote desktop and believe it or not they have somehow managed to access it over bluetooth that does not belong to them. They have hijacked my printing operations and I am now determined to press charges but I need to fix these two systems. I am old and not super skilled at this crap. I managed to activate and hide a set of logs which is how I found their name and methods.Publishing blazor web app with an sql db on azure
Hi, I have recently attempted to publish my blazor web app on azure however the webpage comes with and error : HTTP Error 500.30 - ASP.NET Core app failed to start After checking the web apps Availability and Performance I notice this error: Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Cannot open server "aidandwaterfordgmail.onmicrosoft.com" requested by the login. The login failed. I have changed the settings on the firewall and the sql connection string does work when hosting off of my local machine. Any ideas? CheersUnused Enterprise applications
I inherited an Azure\Entra AD domain with a crazy number of Enterprise applications configured. Some going back 5, 6 or more years. Practically all of them are configured to not require user assignment so I have no idea of who might be using these, if they are being used at all. Is there a way to determine last time any of these where actually used? I want to get rid of anything that doesn't need ot be there.Azure Stack HCI - adding NIC to Network ATC Intent
Hello fellow Azure Stack HCI Admins, I currently have a compute_management Intent for my two node switchless cluster with only one pNIC per node (port1) assigned. I now want to add port2 of each node to the intent for redundancy. (See image) I found this command-set on learn: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/manage-network-atc?tabs=21H2&pivots=azure-stack-hci Get-NetIntentStatus -ClusterName <YourClusterName> Update-NetIntentAdapter -IntentName <YourIntentName> -AdapterName pNIC2 Get-NetIntentStatus -ClusterName <YourClusterName> Is that the correct command set to archive that? Or is there another way to do so? I am a bit anxious on running those commands because I already have workloads deployed on that cluster and I don't want to break it. Thanks in advance! :) PS: I chose only one NIC per node because at the time of deployment I only had one ToR switch available.Azure MVP Extended Benefit
I have redeemed my Azure MVP extended benefit, and the subscription was processed using my credit card. I received the confirmation email, but the credits have not been reflected in my account yet. I also double-checked the Azure Extended Benefit canvas, which shows a message indicating that the benefits have already been redeemed.
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