> Expert > Backup and Restore Agents > Virtualization > Virtual Server Agent > Cross-Hypervisor Restores (Virtual Machine Conversion)

Converting from Azure Stack Hub to Azure

When you restore an Azure Stack Hub VM from a backup, you can restore it as an Azure VM in the Azure management portal.

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

Before You Begin

  • You must create a virtualization client for Azure. For more information, see Creating a Microsoft Azure Client.

  • You must enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) on the source VM, and the user who performs the conversion must be able to log on to the VM.

  • The conversion does not include configuration of static network connections. If a virtual machine is configured to use a static IP address, change the network configuration to use DHCP before performing the backup.

  • You must have an Azure Standard or an Azure Premium general purpose account.

  • The operating system for the destination VM must be an operating system that is supported for Azure.

  • To access the Serial Console in the Azure portal on Linux, perform the steps found on the page How to set up serial console boot for headless boot on the source VM prior to backup.

Commvault Considerations

  • If you select AUTO for the VM size setting and the VM operating system type cannot be determined from the configuration file, the job will fail. You can resubmit the job by selecting the proper operating system in the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box.

Azure 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.

  • Azure Stack Hub to Azure conversion is not supported for bring-your-own-subscription (BYOS) images.

  • To enable deployment in Azure Resource Manager, define one or more resource groups for the application that is associated with the Azure virtualization client.

  • The VM name can contain only alphanumeric characters and the hyphen ('-') character. The name cannot contain any Unicode Transformation Format (UTF) characters.

  • If you select AUTO for the VM size setting, the system checks the disk count, CPU, RAM, and network card of the source VM to determine the best size for the restored VM.

  • You can create virtual machines with a VM size of A8 or A9 only in new Azure cloud services that do not have any instances. You cannot create A8 or A9 VMs in existing cloud services.

Procedure

  1. From the CommCell Console, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > Azure Stack Hub > backup_set.

  2. Right-click the subclient that contains the backup the Azure Stack Hub virtual machine must convert, and then select Browse and Restore.

    The Browse and Restore Options dialog box appears.

  3. Select Full Virtual Machine.

  4. From the Restore as list beside Full Virtual Machine, select Azure Resource Manager.

  5. Click View Content.

    A Client tab shows the contents of the most recent backup for the subclient.

  6. In the left pane, select a virtual machine.

    The configuration and VHDX files for the selected virtual machine are displayed in the right pane.

  7. Click Recover All Selected.

    The Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box appears.

  8. Set the conversion settings as follows:

Options

Descriptions

Azure Subscription

Specifies the virtualization client created for Azure.

Destination client

Specifies the destination client to act as a staging machine. Disk and configuration files for the Azure virtual machine are copied to the job results folder on the staging machine, then uploaded to Azure.

VM and Disk

Displays the name of the virtual machine and lists virtual machine disks.

Change VM display name to

To avoid overwriting an existing virtual machine with the same name on the Azure management portal, click the first row of the Change VM display name to column, and enter a new name.

Resource Group

(only for Azure Resource Manager)

Select the resource group in which the converted virtual machine should be created.

Storage Account

Displays the storage account created under the selected cloud services. A different storage account can be selected for each virtual machine and disk.

The following general-purpose storage accounts are supported for VM conversion:

  • Standard storage

  • Premium storage

Settings

(only for Azure Resource Manager)

After selecting the Resource Group, select one or more VMs and click Configure to display the Azure 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.

  • 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.

  • Network Interface - Select a network connection for the restored VM. You can specify any subnet in the same region as the selected resource group.

    By default, a public IP address is assigned to Azure Resource Manager virtual machines during restores. If a public IP address is not required on restored VMs, create the nSkipPublicIPconfig additional setting on the VSA proxy that is used for the restore, and then set the value to 1.

    For instructions on adding additional settings from the CommCell Console, see Adding or Modifying Additional Settings from the CommCell Console.

    Property

    Value

    Name

    nSkipPublicIPconfig

    Category

    VirtualServer

    Type

    Integer

    Value

    0 - Disabled (This is the default.)

    1 - Enabled

Power ON Instance after restore

Select this option to power on the virtual machine in the Azure management portal after completing the conversion.

Unconditionally overwrite Instance with the same name

If you are replacing an existing instance in Azure, select this option to overwrite the existing instance and its volumes and replace them with the newly converted instance and volumes.

The overwrite option succeeds only if there is a single instance in Azure with the same name. If there are multiple instances with the same name, the job goes pending.
  1. Click OK.

Post-Conversion Tasks

  • 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.

  • After conversion, configure the network connection for the Azure VM.

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