Microsoft Adds Linux Workloads to Migration Accelerator Tool -- Redmondmag.com

Microsoft Adds Linux Workloads to Migration Accelerator Tool

By Kurt Mackie
01/14/2015

Microsoft has expanded its Migration Accelerator preview tool to handle Linux migrations to virtual machines on the Azure service.

The tool now can be used to move Cent OS 6.4/6.5 physical and virtual workloads, as well as Oracle Linux 6.4/6.5 physical and virtual workloads, to the Microsoft Azure cloud service, the company announced this week. Migration Accelerator just supports moving Linux on a single system disk as Azure doesn't support Linux virtual machines "spread across multiple disks," according to the announcement.

Migration Accelerator is a free tool that's still at the preview stage. Using it requires having a Microsoft Azure account, as well as the completion of a sign-up process, which can be accessed at this page. There are some known issues associated with using it, which are listed in this Microsoft blog post.

The Migration Accelerator tool works by installing agents for automatic asset discovery. Microsoft promises that the tool can move workloads in "minutes" with "near zero downtime and data loss." The tool can also stage multitier applications -- that is, applications with spread-out architectures.

Migration Accelerator was first introduced as a preview in September. Back then, though, it didn't have the capability of moving Linux virtual machines. In addition to moving the new Linux operating system workloads, the tool can move Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 OSes. It also can move Hyper-V, VMware and Amazon Web Services workloads.

In addition to the updated Migration Accelerator tool, Microsoft has another free tool, called "Azure Data Center Migration Solution 1.0, released this week, that's designed to help organizations wanting to move existing Azure accounts. For instance, the Azure Data Center Migration Solution can be used to tap a different Azure service area that's located closer to an organization's premises. Unlike Migration Accelerator, the Azure Data Center Migration Solution doesn't use agents. It also requires some manual configuration.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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