Migrating on-premises VMware VMs to Microsoft Azure using Vembu BDRSuite [sponsored]

by Jeffrey Kusters 08. June 2022 Partners 0

Many companies are migrating on-premises workloads to public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. There are many ways to lift & shift a VMware Virtual Machine to the cloud. My friends at Vembu asked me to write a few words on how this migration would work using their flagship BDRSuite product.

Recovery to Azure

BDRSuite supports a very wide range of backup and recovery environments, including Microsoft Azure and VMware vSphere. BDRSuite can convert Virtual Machine formats to backup a VM in one format, and convert it to a different format during the restore process. Using this method, you can very simply backup a VMware VM and restore it directly to Microsoft Azure.

BDR Proxy

To restore VMs into Azure, BDRSuite makes use of a BDR Proxy, that runs in your Azure account and communicates with the BDRSuite Backup Server on-premises, and has permissions to deploy resources in your Azure account.

The steps to deploy the BDR Proxy are:

Add Azure Account

Click on the Add Azure Account tab

The following page will open where all the required details have to be entered for which on the Azure Portal, create an application for BDRSuite and assign ‘Owner’ role for it. Then, provide these details like the Tenant ID, generated application details: Application ID, & Application Password and save your Azure Account.

Click on save to proceed.

Now from the drop down menu select the added Azure Account.

2. BDR Proxy VM Settings

Configure the virtual machine settings to create an Azure VM that will work as a BDR Proxy during Recovery to Azure.

Account Settings

Subscription: The subscriptions associated with the selected Azure account is listed from which you can choose. Make sure to use same subscription for creating both proxy and target VMs
Location: Choose the BDR Proxy location
Resource Group : The Resource group of the selected location will be listed and you can choose from them.
BDR Proxy VM Name: Provide a unique BDR Proxy VM name. VM creation will fail if any other VM exists with the same name.
BDR Proxy VM Credentials: Select the required credentials

Storage and Network Settings

Storage Account: Choose the storage location from the selected locations.
VM Size: Choose the size of the VM. It is recommended to choose the Standard_B2s or similar configuration.
Virtual Network: Choose the virtual network required from the listed options