Converting from VMware to Azure Stack

When restoring a VMware virtual machine from backup, you can restore the virtual machine as an Azure Stack VM.

Source VM disks are restored as VHD blobs in an Azure Stack storage account.

You can perform VM conversions from streaming backups, from secondary copies, or from IntelliSnap backup copies. You cannot perform a conversion from a Snap copy.

Before You Begin

Set up an application and a tenant for Azure Stack.
Create a virtualization client for Azure Stack.
Before you back up source VMs, complete the following tasks:
- Enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on the source VM. The user who performs the conversion must be able to log in to the VM.
- If you plan to start Linux VMs automatically after conversion, then enable integration services on the source VMs.
For Windows VMs, to enable disks to be brought online as part of the conversion, enable SAN policy for the source VM. You can use this workaround for disks that are not shared.
1. Open a command line or PowerShell session locally on the VM.
2. Open the disk partition tool:
```
C:> diskpart
```
3. Verify that the SAN policy is set to Offline Shared:
```
DISKPART> SAN
SAN Policy : Offline Shared
```
4. Change the policy to OnlineAll:
```
DISKPART> SAN POLICY=OnlineAll
```
You must have either an Azure Standard or Premium general-purpose storage account.
Define one or more resource groups for the application that is associated with the Azure Stack Hub virtualization client.
The operating system for the destination VM must be an operating system that is supported for Azure.

Commvault Considerations

Source virtual machines must be from vCenter Server 5.5 or a more recent version.
If you select the AUTO option and the disk operating system type cannot be determined from the configuration file, then the job fails. You can resubmit the job by selecting the proper OS in the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box.

Azure Stack VM Considerations

Before you convert a VM from a non-Azure hypervisor using a "restore as" operation, verify that the source VM meets the requirements for non-endorsed distributions. This verification is important because Linux VMs that are based on an endorsed distribution of Azure have the prerequisites that enable them to run on Azure, but VMs that originate from other hypervisors might not. For more information, see Information for Non-Endorsed Distributions.
Conversion is not supported for virtual machines that use Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) boot methods. A VM that has EFI boot enabled can be restored as an Azure Stack VM, but the resulting VM is not bootable. For successful conversion results, the source VM must boot using BIOS, because Azure does not support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) or EFI boot methods. The OS volume must use MBR partitioning rather than GPT.
The VM name can contain only alphanumeric characters and the '-' character. The name cannot contain any Unicode Transformation Format (UTF) characters.
Before you perform a backup for a Linux source VM that runs Red Hat, verify that required Hyper-V drivers are installed on the source VM. Those drivers must be present on the source VM backup in order to boot the VM after conversion.
1. Enable Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for the source VM.
2. Take a snapshot of the source VM.
3. Run the following command to modify the boot image:
```
sudo dracut -f -v -N
```
4. Run the following command to verify that Hyper-V drivers are present in the boot image:
```
lsinitrd | grep hv
```
5. Verify that no dracut conf files (for example, /usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d/01-dist.conf) contain the following line:
```
hostonly="yes"
```
6. Run a new backup to use for the conversion.

Procedure

From the CommCell Console, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > VMware > backup_set.
Right-click the subclient that contains the backup for the VMware virtual machine to convert, and then select Browse and Restore.

The Browse and Restore Options dialog box appears.
Select Full Virtual Machine.
From the Restore as list, select Azure Stack.
Click View Content.

The Client tab shows the contents of the most recent backup for the subclient.
In the left pane, select a virtual machine.

The configuration and VMDK files for the selected virtual machine are displayed in the right pane.
At the bottom of the window, click Recover All Selected.

The Restore VM wizard displays the Destination page.
Specify the following information:
- Virtualization Client: Select the virtualization client that was created for Azure Stack.
- Proxy Client: Select a VSA proxy to use for the conversion.
Click Next.

The wizard displays the Virtual Machines page.
Specify the following information:
- VM and Disk: The VM and Disk column displays the name of the virtual machine. Expand the row to list disks for each virtual machine.
- Change VM display name to: To avoid overwriting an existing virtual machine that has the same name on the Azure Stack management portal, click in the first row of the Change VM display name to column, and then enter a new name.
- Resource Group: Select the resource group in which you want to create the converted virtual machine.
- Optional: Storage Account: Select a different storage account for each virtual machine and disk.
  
  You can use the following general-purpose storage accounts for VM conversion:
  - Standard storage
  - Premium storage
- Settings: After selecting the Resource Group, select one or more VMs and click Configure to display the Azure Stack Virtual Machine Configuration dialog box. Any changes you make on this dialog box are applied to all of the selected VMs. The following information is displayed:
  - VM Display Name (if a single VM was selected): Displays the name of the destination VM. You cannot change the value on this dialog box.
  - Edit Destination VM Name (if multiple VMs were selected): Select Prefix or Suffix and enter a string that should be appended to all destination VM names.
  - Resource Group: Displays the selected resource group. You cannot change the value on this dialog box.
  - Storage Account: This list displays the storage account. You can select a different storage account to use for all selected virtual machines or disks.
  - VM size: Select a VM size from the list. The VM sizes in the list are those that are available for the resource group you selected.
  - Operating System: Match the operating system of the source VM.
    
    If necessary, you can select the AUTO option to automatically detect the operating system of the source VM.
    
    The operating system for the destination VM must be an operating system that is supported for Azure.
  - Azure Virtual Network Options:
    
    Create Public IP: If a public IP address is not required on restored VMs, clear this check box.
    
    Network Interface: To specify a network connection for the restored VM, select one of the available network interfaces for the resource group from the list.
    
    If you choose Auto-Select, the first virtual network and default subnet are selected and assigned to the restored virtual machines.
    
    Network Security Group: To specify a network security group for the restored VM, select a group from the list.
    
    If you choose Auto-Select, the restored VMs will not be attached to a network security group.
  - Click OK to save VM configuration values for the selected VMs.
Click Next.

The wizard displays the Restore Options page.
Specify the following information:
- Power ON Virtual Machine after Restore: To start the virtual machine in the Azure Stack management portal after uploading disks and completing the conversion, select this check box.
  
  This option is selected by default.
- Unconditionally overwrite VM with the same name: To replace a virtual machine that has the same name on the Azure Stack management portal, select this check box.
Click Next.

The wizard displays the Job Options page.
Initiate the operation immediately or configure a schedule for the operation.
Click Next.

The wizard displays a Summary page for the operation.
Click Finish.

What to Do Next

If the source VM had dynamic disks that use simple disk spanning, RAID, striped, or mirrored layouts, after VM conversion, the disks in the converted VM might be marked as Failed in Disk Management. You must bring these disks online manually using Disk Management. To bring the disks back online, perform an Import Foreign Disks operation on the guest VM for the disk group that contains failed disks. You need to import the entire disk group in one operation rather than performing a partial import.
If the source VM had multiple disks, the disks after the first disk are added to the converted VM in an offline state. Bring the disks online manually. This approach avoids drive letter conflicts, because the conversion operation creates a temporary drive D:\ and assigns that drive to the converted VM.