The course is part of this learning path
After planning and researching the migration of an SAP landscape to Azure, words must become action. In Deploy and Migrate as SAP Landscape to Azure, we look at how crucial infrastructure components can be deployed and configured in preparation for migrating servers and data from "on-premises" to the Azure cloud.
This course looks at deployment and migration options and tools and services available within the Azure and broader Microsoft ecosystem that will save you time and effort. We touch on SAP-specific issues you need to be aware of and general best practices for Azure resources deployment. The Deployment and Migration course builds on Designing a Migration Strategy for SAP and Designing an Azure Infrastructure for SAP courses.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the methods for deploying VMs and prerequisites for hosting SAP
- Learn about ExpressRoute, Azure Load Balancer, and Accelerated networking
- Understand how to deploy Azure resources
- Learn about Desired State Configuration and policy compliance
- Learn about general database and version-specific storage configuration in Azure
- Learn about the SQL Server Migration Assistant and Azure Migration tools
Intended Audience
This course is intended for anyone looking to migrate their SAP infrastructure to Azure.
Prerequisites
Before taking this course, we recommend you take our Designing a Migration Strategy for SAP and Designing an Azure Infrastructure for SAP courses first.
SQL Server Migration Assistant is a software tool used to automate migrating third-party databases to Microsoft SQL Server. It is far more than the typical import/export wizard, as it comes with analysis, reporting, and testing features. It is a mature and extensive tool with vast amounts of documentation and online articles and support.
In the context of SAP migration, SSMA can migrate DB2, Oracle, and SAP ASE and the non-SAP databases, Access, and MySQL. There are specific downloads of SQL Server Migration Assistant for each supported database. The download comes in two parts, the migration assistant to be installed on the computer with the source database and components on the destination SQL server machine. The software installed on the SQL server computer includes an extension pack that adds source system databases to aid with the migration and enables the emulation of source system user-defined functions to the target SQL Server instance. In the case of DB2, the sysdb schema is added. When migrating Oracle, sysdb and ssmatesterdb databases are added. The ssmatesterdb database enables the SSMA testing functionality with supporting tables and procedures. The Sybase or ASE extension pack will add the sysdb database to SQL Server for data migration and the ssmatester_sydb database containing ssma_sybase_utilites schema to support testing.
The migration engine can operate in either client or server-side modes, analogous to pushing or pulling the data. Server-side mode is more efficient as it is the SQL Bulk Copy Program (BCP) running as an SQL Agent job pulling from the source database and inserting straight into SQL Server.
Azure Migrate is a multi-faceted service that includes server assessment. Azure Migrate: Server Migration is the tool that performs the migration task. It can handle a wide range of sources from physical and virtual servers through to other major cloud providers. The migration process is managed through the Azure portal, where a wizard-type interface guides you through assessment to the actual migration. The assessment and migration process can be run on multiple source machines concurrently, and there is functionality for testing VMs post migration. For VMware VMs, there is the option of an agentless or agent-based migration, while all other source machines require a software agent. The process for agent-based discovery and migration is similar but will obviously differ based on platform and OS. For physical, AWS, and GCP servers, you will download and install the agent to a machine called a replication appliance visible to the machines you want to migrate. In a Hyper-V scenario, the agent is installed on the Hyper-V host. The replication appliance machine, virtual or physical, must be Windows Server 2016 or 2012 R2. When you install the agent software either on the VM host or the replication appliance, a key will be generated to enable secure access to the migration service from the source machines. This key is valid for 5 days.
In the case of physical, AWS, and GCP machines, you'll need to install the Mobility service on each machine or VM you want to migrate. This involves going to the replication appliance and finding the installer appropriate for the machine's operating system to migrate. The installer can be found in %ProgramData%\ASR\home\svsystems\pushinstallsvc\repository. Note ASR in the path, further evidence of the close relationship between Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery. On the replication appliance, run genpassphrase.exe with the -v option to retrieve the current passphrase. Don't regenerate the passphrase; doing so will disconnect your registered replication appliance. Copy the installer to the machine to be replicated, extract it, run the mobility installer, and register the agent with the replication appliance.
The Azure Migration tools and service is comprehensive, and this is just an overview of the process. Documentation on the Microsoft site is extensive, with examples for the different supported scenarios.
Just a note on Azure Migrate versus Azure Site Recovery. As I've said in the Migration Strategy course, Microsoft says that Azure Migrate: Migrate Server is the preferred server migration method over Azure Site Recovery. If you're presented with a situation, say a test question, where Azure Migrate would be the correct response and isn't an option, but Azure Site Recovery is an option, then it is likely that ASR is the right response.
Hallam is a software architect with over 20 years experience across a wide range of industries. He began his software career as a Delphi/Interbase disciple but changed his allegiance to Microsoft with its deep and broad ecosystem. While Hallam has designed and crafted custom software utilizing web, mobile and desktop technologies, good quality reliable data is the key to a successful solution. The challenge of quickly turning data into useful information for digestion by humans and machines has led Hallam to specialize in database design and process automation. Showing customers how leverage new technology to change and improve their business processes is one of the key drivers keeping Hallam coming back to the keyboard.