How do you use forklift migration to move VMs to the cloud?

Prepare the VM for forklift migration

Public cloud adopters can use a variety of tools to aid in forklift migration.

Migration preparation might involve a wide range of steps depending on the VM's OS and the VM's use of underlying system resources. For example, preparing a VM for GCP might require you to uninstall VMware Tools from a VMware VM, disconnect any drives, set the network to use dynamic host configuration protocol for dynamic IP addressing rather than using static IP addressing and enable remote desktop protocol under Windows, or secure shell access under Linux. A preparation process will usually conclude with shutting down the VM to be migrated and exporting that VM from the virtual environment to create an image file in a desirable format.

Next, use the appropriate tools to move the VM image file to a suitable storage instance in the public cloud. For example, AWS users would use the EC2 command-line interface to invoke an import such as the ec2-import-instance command, which enables you to specify the VM image name, format, desired target instance type, target storage instance and other parameters. You can then check the status of the import using the ec2-describe-conversion-tasks command, which reports the import status as active, cancelling, cancelled or completed. If the import fails for any reason, you can determine the problem, correct it and try the import to the public cloud again.

Once the import to the public cloud is complete, the VM image will reside in a storage instance, such as an Amazon Simple Storage Service bucket. You can then log onto the cloud provider's regular management console, locate and select the imported instance and start that instance. After the instance starts, you can connect it to other components, test and verify it and delete the imported image from storage, which eliminates the cost of ongoing image storage.

Use tools to make VM migration easier

A forklift migration process like the one described here includes many manual steps. Each poses the possibility for errors and oversights that might require unnecessary troubleshooting and remediation. Fortunately, public cloud adopters can use a variety of tools to aid in forklift migration.

Examples include the AWS Server Migration Service, which can automate, schedule and monitor bulk VM migrations to the public cloud. Microsoft's Azure migration center offers an alternative tool for Azure users. CloudEndure enables the migration of VMs to major public clouds including AWS, GCP, Azure and VMware.

A forklift migration isn't the only approach to workload migration. It's sometimes best to migrate workloads piecemeal. In this process, you would migrate select components or resources to the cloud first, such as data sets, and then migrate other components or dependencies systematically over time, such as databases or other middleware. This ensures that the overarching application continues to work properly each step along the way.

You can also fundamentally rearchitect the workload into a cloud-native form, such as a container-based microservices architecture, and design it to work with the cloud instead of the local data center. Organizations, however, typically reserve cloud-native application initiatives for the newest software development projects rather than for the reworking of existing applications.