Converting from Hyper-V to Azure

When restoring a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) from backup, the virtual machine can be restored as an Azure VM in the Azure management portal.

You can use this feature to migrate virtual machines to the Azure cloud.

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

• Before performing backups of source VMs, check whether you meet the following requirements:

  • Create a virtualization client for Azure.

  • Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) must be enabled on the source VM and the user performing the conversion must be able to log on to the VM.

  • For Linux VMs, Hyper-V integration services must be enabled on the source VMs if they will be powered on automatically after conversion.

  • Static network connections are not configured as part of conversion. If a virtual machine is configured to use a static IP address, change the network configuration to use DHCP before performing the backup.

  • Differential disks or checkpoints of virtual machines (files with .avhd or .avhdx extensions) will not be uploaded to Azure. Merge such disks to the original disk before performing the backup.

• For Windows VMs, to enable disks to be brought online as part of the conversion, enable SAN policy for the source VM. For more information, see Enabling Disks to Be Brought Online as Part of a Conversion.

• Azure Standard or Premium general-purpose storage accounts are required for VM conversion to Azure.

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

• Static network connections are not configured as part of conversion. If a virtual machine is configured to use a static IP address, change the network configuration to use DHCP before performing the backup.

• 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

• Converting VHDX formatted 4K sectored disks to Azure is not supported.

• If the AUTO option is selected and the disk 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.

• The Create and Power ON Virtual Machine option is selected by default. If this option is not selected when the VM is restored, only the operating system disk is registered, and any remaining disks are uploaded to the Azure storage account. In this case, you must recreate the VHDs manually through the Azure management portal by using the Create VHD option on the Disk tab:

  1. For each disk, browse to the storage location and open the disk from which the VHD is to be created. Opening the disk registers it as a VHD so that it can be attached to a new or existing VM.

  2. Select the VM to which the VHD is to be attached, and attach one or more registered VHDs from the storage location.

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.

• All necessary Windows drivers are pre-installed. For more information about preparing a Windows virtual hard disk, see Prepare a Windows VM to upload to Azure.

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

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

• The RAM and disk specification for the source VM must match the format of the Azure destination VM. For example, if the source VM RAM is less than 1.75 GB and AUTO is selected as the VM size for the conversion, only two disks will be uploaded, because of Azure restrictions.

Procedure

To access a backup of a Hyper-V virtual machine and create an Azure virtual machine:

1. From the CommCell Console, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > Hyper-V > backup_set.

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

3. In the Browse and Restore Options dialog box, select Full Virtual Machine.

4. From the Restore as list next to Full Virtual Machine, select one of the following options:

   • Azure Classic

   • 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 .

8. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, set the conversion settings:

   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.
   Region/Storage Account	Select the region for the restored VM. Then select an Azure Standard or Premium general-purpose storage account. You can select a different storage account for each virtual machine and disk. The storage accounts listed are only those associated with the selected region for the restored VM.
   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. Region/Storage Account: Select the region for the restored VM. Then select an Azure Standard or Premium general-purpose storage account. You can select a different storage account for each virtual machine and disk. The storage accounts listed are only those associated with the selected region for the restored VM. 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. Restore as Managed VM - To restore virtual machines as managed virtual machines, select this check box. When you select this option, the restore operation creates virtual machine disks in the specified storage account, and then converts them to managed disks and attaches the disks to the restored virtual machine. 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
   Create and Power ON Virtual Machine	Select this option to power on the virtual machine in the Azure management portal after uploading disks and completing the conversion. This option is selected by default.
   Unconditionally overwrite VM and VHDs in destination path	If a virtual machine with the same name exists on the Azure management portal, select this option to overwrite the existing virtual machine.

9. 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.