Assess servers using imported data

• 10/23/2019
• 11 minutes to read
• • 
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This article explains how to assess on-premises servers with Azure Migrate: Server Assessment, by importing server metadata using CSV. With this method of assessment, you don't need to set up the Azure Migrate appliance to create an assessment. This is useful if:

• You want to create a quick initial assessment before you deploy the appliance.
• You can't deploy the Azure Migrate appliance in your organization.
• You can't share credentials that allow access to on-premises servers.
• Security constraints prevent you from gathering and sending data collected by the appliance to Azure. With an imported file, you can control the data you share, and lots of data (for example providing IP addresses) is optional.

Before you start

Note that:

• You can add up to a maximum of 20000 servers in a single CSV file.
• You can add up to 20000 servers in an Azure Migrate project using CSV.
• You can upload server information using CSV multiple times to Azure Migrate Server Assessment.
• Although gathering application information is useful when evaluating your on-premises environment for migration, Azure Migrate Server Assessment doesn't currently perform application-level assessment, and doesn't take applications into account when creating an assessment.

In this tutorial, you learn how to:

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Set Azure permissions for Azure Migrate

Your Azure account needs permissions to create an Azure Migrate project.

1. In the Azure portal, open the subscription, and select Access control (IAM).
2. In Check access, find the relevant account, and click it to view permissions.
3. You should have Contributor or Owner permissions.
   • If you just created a free Azure account, you're the owner of your subscription.
   • If you're not the subscription owner, work with the owner to assign the role.

Set up an Azure Migrate project

Set up a new Azure Migrate project as follows.

1. In the Azure portal > All services, search for Azure Migrate.

2. Under Services, select Azure Migrate.

3. In Overview, under Discover, assess and migrate servers, click Assess and migrate servers.

   

4. In Getting started, click Add tools.

5. In Migrate project, select your Azure subscription, and create a resource group if you don't have one.

6. In Project Details, specify the project name, and the geography in which you want to create the project.

   • Review supported geographies. The project geography is used only to store the metadata gathered from on-premises VMs.
   • You can select any target region when you run a migration.

   

7. Click Next.

8. In Select assessment tool, select Azure Migrate: Server Assessment > Next.

   

9. In Select migration tool, select Skip adding a migration tool for now > Next.

10. In Review + add tools, review the settings, and click Add tools.

11. Wait a few minutes for the Azure Migrate project to deploy. You'll be taken to the project page. If you don't see the project, you can access it from Servers in the Azure Migrate dashboard.

Prepare the CSV

Download the CSV template, and add server information to it.

Download the template

1. In Migration Goals > Servers > Azure Migrate: Server Assessment, click Discover.

2. In Discover machines, select Import using .CSV.

3. Click Download to download the .CSV template. Alternatively, you can download it directly.

   

Add server information

Gather server data, and add it to the CSV file.

• To gather data, you can export it from tools you use for on-premises server management, such as VMware vSphere or your configuration management database (CMDB).
• To review sample data, download our example file.

The following table summarizes the file fields to fill in.

Add operating systems

Assessment recognizes specific operating system names. Any operating system name you specify must match one of the options in the supported names list.

Add multiple disks

The template provides default fields for the first disk. You can add similar columns for up to 8 disks.

For example, to specify all fields for a second disk, add the columns:

Disk 2 size Disk 2 read ops Disk 2 write ops Disk 2 read throughput Disk 2 write throughput

Optionally you can add specific fields only for a disk.

Add multiple applications

The template provides fields for a single application. You can add similar columns for up to five apps.

For example, to specify all fields for a second app, add the columns:

Application 2 name Application 2 type Application 2 version Application 2 license expiry

Optionally you can add specific fields only for an app.

Upload the server information

After adding information to the CSV template, import the servers into Azure Migrate: Server Assessment.

1. In Azure Migrate > Discover machines, browse to the filled out template.
2. Click Import.
3. The import status is shown.
   • If warnings appear in the status, you can either fix them, or continue without addressing them.
   • Improving server information as suggested in warnings improves assessment accuracy.
   • To view and fix warnings if they appear, click Download warning details .CSV. This downloads the CSV, with warnings added. You can review the warnings, and fix issues as needed. If errors appear in the status (the import status is Failed), you need to fix these before you can continue with the import. To do this, download the CSV, that now has error details added. Review and address the errors as needed. Then upload the modified file again.
4. When the import status is Completed, the server information is imported.

Updating server information

You can update a server information by uploading the data for the server again with the same Server name. You cannot modify the Server name field.

Deleting servers is currently not supported.

Verify servers in the portal

After discovery, you can verify that the servers appear in the Azure portal.

1. Open the Azure Migrate dashboard.
2. In Azure Migrate - Servers > Azure Migrate: Server Assessment page, click the icon that displays the count for Discovered servers.
3. Click on the Import based tab.

Set up an assessment

There are two types of assessments you can create using Azure Migrate: Server Assessment.

Run an assessment

Run an assessment as follows:

1. Review the best practices for creating assessments.

2. In the Servers tab, in Azure Migrate: Server Assessment tile, click Assess.

   

3. In Assess servers, specify a name for the assessment.

4. In Discovery source, select Machines added via import to Azure Migrate

5. Click View all to review the assessment properties.

   

6. In Select or create a group, select Create New, and specify a group name. A group gathers one or more VMs together for assessment.

7. In Add machines to the group, select servers to add to the group.

8. Click Create Assessment to create the group, and run the assessment.

   

9. After the assessment is created, view it in Servers > Azure Migrate: Server Assessment > Assessments.

10. Click Export assessment, to download it as an Excel file.

Review an assessment

An assessment describes:

• Azure readiness: Whether servers are suitable for migration to Azure.
• Monthly cost estimation: The estimated monthly compute and storage costs for running the servers in Azure.
• Monthly storage cost estimation: Estimated costs for disk storage after migration.

View an assessment

1. In Migration goals > Servers, click Assessments in Azure Migrate: Server Assessment.

2. In Assessments, click on an assessment to open it.

   

Review Azure readiness

1. In Azure readiness, verify whether the servers are ready for migration to Azure.

2. Review the status:

   • Ready for Azure: Azure Migrate recommends a VM size and cost estimates for VMs in the assessment.
   • Ready with conditions: Shows issues and suggested remediation.
   • Not ready for Azure: Shows issues and suggested remediation.
   • Readiness unknown: Used when Azure Migrate can't assess readiness, due to data availability issues.

3. Click on an Azure readiness status. You can view server readiness details, and drill down to see server details, including compute, storage, and network settings.

Review cost details

This view shows the estimated compute and storage cost of running VMs in Azure.

1. Review the monthly compute and storage costs. Costs are aggregated for all servers in the assessed group.

   • Cost estimates are based on the size recommendations for a machine, and its disks and properties.
   • Estimated monthly costs for compute and storage are shown.
   • The cost estimation is for running the on-premises servers as IaaS VMs. Azure Migrate Server Assessment doesn't consider PaaS or SaaS costs.

2. You can review monthly storage cost estimates. This view shows aggregated storage costs for the assessed group, split over different types of storage disks.

3. You can drill down to see details for specific VMs.

Supported operating system names

Next steps

In this tutorial, you:

Now, deploy an appliance for more accurate assessments, and gather servers together into groups for deeper assessment using dependency analysis.