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 an RVTools 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: Discover Log in to the Azure portal. Navigate to Azure Migrate and select your project or create new project. Under Migration goals, select Servers, databases and web apps. On Azure Migrate | Servers, databases and web apps page, under Assessment tools, select Discover and then select Using import. In Discover page, in File type, select VMware inventory (RVTools XLSX). In the Step 1: Import the file section, select the RVTools XLSX file and then select Import. Wait for some time to Import Once import completed check for Error Messages if any and rectify those and re upload, otherwise wait 10-15 minutes to reflect imported VMs in the discovery. Post discovery Reference Link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/vmware/tutorial-import-vmware-using-rvtools-xlsx?context=%2Fazure%2Fmigrate%2Fcontext%2Fvmware-context Step 3: Assess 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). 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. In Assess Servers, select Next. In Select servers to assess > Assessment name > specify a name for the assessment. In Select or create a group > select Create New and specify a group name. Select the appliance and select the servers you want to add to the group. Then select Next. In Review + create assessment, review the assessment details, and select Create Assessment to create the group and run the assessment. Step 4: Review the Assessment View an assessment In Windows, Linux and SQL Server > Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment, select the number next to Azure VMware Solution. In Assessments, select an assessment to open it. As an example (estimations and costs, for example, only): Review the assessment summary. You can select Sizing 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 5: Optimize We have received a report without any optimization in our previous steps. 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 mapped 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 to accommodate 13 vCPU of total requirement. 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. Which means it is possible to share resources among both VMs. 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% Note: Over-provisioning or over-committing can put your VMs at risk. However, in Azure Cloud, you can create alarms to warn you of unexpected demand increases and add new ESXi nodes on demand. This is the beauty of the cloud: if your resources are under-provisioned, you can scale up or down at any time. Running your resources in an optimized environment not only saves your budget but also allows you to allocate funds for more innovative ideas.
Migrating forward-only emails from IMAP server
Hi, I'm testing a trial of M365 Standard and have picked up a problem with my email addresses. I currently have four or five email addresses for old staff that are no longer with us, and these emails are set up to forward to another email so we don't lose anything. Occasionally we still get emails through these addresses, so decommissioning them completely is not an option. I want to migrate the old data from the server to M365 (to keep all our historical data in the one place) and continue to forward any new emails that come in to an actual M365 user. I considered creating a shared email address for each one...... I found a 'Manage Email Forwarding' link under one of my staff's user details in the M365 Admin Centre, however this link is not available for the users that were created by the shared emails, there is a message saying 'This user doesn't have an Exchange Online license.' I could leave them set up as shared emails but this isn't perfect, as to get access to the mail in those mailboxes without forwarding it appears I would need to log into each mailbox individually, or have each mailbox set up in Outlook and check them individually. How would you migrate those mailboxes? I can't really see a way to do it, however I am completely inexperienced with Exchange so I may just be missing a simple way to do it. Thankyou 🙂
Copy a custom work item type form and move it to another project
Hi, I am in the process of migrating two projects (project A and B) into one separate project (project C). Project A and B have a custom work item type BUG CUSTOM. Project C uses the standard Bug work item type. Due to the setup above, I cannot migrate BUG CUSTOM from project A and B to Bug in project C without losing data. Is there an easy way to move my custom work item type template BUG CUSTOM from Project A and B to project C, so I can safely transfer all of the BUG CUSTOM data? Thanks in advance, Al
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We pay allot of money for extra SharePoint storage. We would like to migrate our old SharePoint sites to Azure Storage Accounts containers. The Azure Storage Accounts containers dont have some good gui for normal users. Who knows some good solution so the normal users can browse or search in an Azure Storage Account container?is it possible to Migrate existing appointments to new calendar
We currently have a Proof of Concept that went live under a user's own booking account. We need to change this to a more generic sounding account, so it doesnt tie up this users calendar. is it possible to migrate existing bookings to this new calendar, or what would be the tidiest way to migrate? As it currently stands, I'm considering running these two calendars side by side, and change the lead time daily on each account to coincide with a single date when they no longer have to run side by side. Hopign there's a smarter way of doing this.Script sharing: Export recipient permissions
I'd like to share an old script that I polished a bit in the last days. It may be of help for some of you in this forum. Document Exchange mailbox access rights, folder permissions, "send as", "send on behalf" and "managed by". Smoothen your migration to Exchange Online/Microsoft 365 by identifying permission chains that won't work cross-premises. Monitor permission changes over time. Identify permissions granted to recipients that no longer exist Export-RecipientPermissions can help you with all these tasks. Get your free copy at https://github.com/GruberMarkus/Export-RecipientPermissions.Digital event: Modernize and Migrate with Hybrid Flexibility
Boost your skills with guidance from Azure customers and experts Grow your skills and get insights from real Azure customers to navigate your cloud journey with confidence at this free digital event. Discover best practices and resources to accelerate every stage of your modernization and migration with Azure. https://info.microsoft.com/ww-modernize-and-migrate-with-hybrid-cloud-flexibility.html?ocid=AID3046094_QSG_580361 to: Learn best practices in technical sessions on modernizing and migrating specific workloads—including .NET, Java and web apps, relational data, and servers. Get insights from real-life modernization examples with enterprise customers who successfully modernized and migrated with Azure. Learn to manage and govern assets consistently across hybrid environments. https://info.microsoft.com/ww-modernize-and-migrate-with-hybrid-cloud-flexibility.html?ocid=AID3046094_QSG_580361 Get a chance to win Surface headphones, Surface earbuds, or a Bose SoundLink micro speaker by registering now for this free digital event. 15 winners will be selected following the event. Boost your chances by earning entry points through activities like knowledge checks and an event survey.  No purchase necessary. Open only to registered event attendees 18+. Game ends April 13, 2022. For official rules, see https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faka.ms%2FAVDMasterClassSweepstakes&data=04%7C01%7Cdavide%40synaxiscorp.com%7Cb6d3fcd705244405c69d08d9f0e985aa%7C8c76a1572a6a4260a5f67a86fe65071c%7C0%7C0%7C637805708047795433%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=kMZ0EMIfmHNjV0M22Txb7R1XaOaLO9b%2FAGuyFfKlpLw%3D&reserved=0. Modernize and Migrate with Hybrid Cloud Flexibility Wednesday, April 13, 2022 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM Pacific Time
