Perform at-scale, agentless SQL server discovery and assessment with Azure Migrate

Moving on-premises infrastructure, databases, and applications to Azure is key to the success of your cloud migration and modernization journey, and we are committed to simplifying that process. With each major milestone, we set out to make these primary migration scenarios as seamless as possible. Today, we are announcing the preview of at-scale, agentless discovery and migration-readiness assessments for SQL Server. You can now use Azure Migrate to create a unified view of your entire datacenter, across Windows Server, Linux, and SQL Server.

Azure Migrate provides a streamlined, comprehensive portfolio of Microsoft and partner tools to meet migration needs, all in one place. With this release, we are taking three tools that help with server, database, and web app assessments and are unifying them into one guided end-to-end flow. The first step in that journey is assessments for Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure SQL Database. Soon, we will also expand to support integrated assessments for Azure App Service.

You can now discover your SQL Server instances and databases running in a VMware environment and analyze their configuration, performance, and application dependencies for migration to Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. Assessments will include Azure SQL readiness, right-sizing, and cost projections. You now have an easy way to discover your entire SQL estate and one unified experience for IaaS and PaaS migration assessments.

Unified onboarding for Windows Server, Linux, and SQL Server

Azure Migrate appliance for VMware helps with discovery, assessment, software inventory, application dependency mapping, and migration.

• Deploy a new Azure Migrate on-premises appliance or upgrade your existing appliance to start discovering your SQL Server instances and databases. You can also use the appliance to inventory installed software and perform agentless dependency mapping.
• You can now provide multiple credentials (domain, non-domain, and SQL authentication) for discovery. Azure Migrate appliance will automatically map server and database credentials across the entire estate.
• To ensure that your credentials are secure, they are encrypted and stored on your appliance in your datacenter. Credentials are not sent to Microsoft.

SQL Server discovery and application dependency mapping

Azure Migrate discovery will help you model servers running SQL Server and the various instances and databases, including multiple SQL instances running on the same server.

• You can discover up to 6,000 databases with one Azure Migrate appliance; SQL performance data is collected every 30 seconds to ensure that you get the most accurate right-sizing recommendations.
• You can discover SQL instances and databases running on SQL Server 2008 through SQL Server 2019. Developer, Enterprise, Express, and Web editions are supported.
• Discovery details will include SQL Server version, edition, availability mode, count and size of user databases, and compatibility level.
• You can also use the agentless dependency mapping feature to identify application tiers or interdependent applications; this information is useful when you need to plan migration for interdependent servers.

Azure SQL assessment, right-sizing, and cost planning

Azure Migrate assessment now natively includes the assessment logic that our SQL Server team has built over the years, augmented to deliver an at-scale experience for SQL Server. Azure Migrate also supports assessments for Azure infrastructure service and Azure VMware Solution.   

• You can customize assessments for your unique scenario with the ability to specify the target Azure region, Azure SQL deployment type, reserved capacity, service tier, and performance history.
• You’ll get best-fit recommendations, including right-sizing based on performance history and service tier recommendation. Assessments also include projected compute and storage costs based on the target Azure SQL deployment that is the most cost-effective.
• In addition to migration readiness information, blockers and issues are surfaced so that you can mitigate them as needed.
• You can also modify assessment inputs at any time or create multiple assessments for the same set of SQL instances and databases to compare and identify the target Azure options that work best for you.

Check out our Microsoft Mechanics video series below to see the new features in action.

Learn more

Azure Migrate is free and available in all Azure geographies. In addition to discovery, application dependency mapping, assessment, and migration, Azure Migrate now includes new features for ASP.NET and Java app containerization.

Get started with Azure Migrate now.

Source: Azure Blog Feed