Azure VMware Solution
Hear from the experts on extending, migrating or managing VMware workloads on Microsoft Azure.
Don’t Go it Alone!
There is a lot of complexity to migrating and managing VMware workloads on Microsoft Azure—which leads to a lot of uncertainty. If you have a question, our experts are here to help calm the confusion in understanding hybrid cloud environments.
Husam Hilal
Senior Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft
Husam is a Senior Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, with 15 years of experience in the IT industry across various roles. Specializing in Azure Infrastructure, particularly Azure VMware Solution, he empowers partners to achieve customer success and satisfaction through innovative Azure solutions. Husam holds a master’s degree in software engineering and is passionate about contributing to the community by speaking at flagship conferences and staying active on professional social media platforms. There will always be uncertainty when it comes to technology. Don’t go it alone. Let Husam be your guide. Check out the questions asked below for Husam to answer!
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We have a great question here. Milan from Florida is asking, what compliance certification does Azure VMware solution support? Actually, Azure VMware solution provides the most compliance coverage for VMware in the cloud, including FedRAMP High and Azure Commercial and Azure government, PCI for financial services and HIPAA for healthcare providers for the fullest, please visit www.aka.ms/avscompliance.
We have a great question here. Milan from Florida is asking, what compliance certification does Azure VMware solution support? Actually, Azure VMware solution provides the most compliance coverage for VMware in the cloud, including FedRAMP High and Azure Commercial and Azure government, PCI for financial services and HIPAA for healthcare providers for the fullest, please visit www.aka.ms/avscompliance.
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Robert from Indiana is asking, how is management of VMware workloads on Azure is different from on-premises management? That's a great question. In fact, one of the key advantages of Azure VMware solution that it allows customers to manage their VMware VMs in the cloud with the same skillset and similar management and operation processes. As they do on premises, customer can continue to leverage their familiar tools such as vCenter, vSphere client, and NSX Manager to manage their VMware environment in Azure. However, it's important to note here that since a VS is a managed service, there are some limitation on access to certain configurations in vCenter and an SX manager. These restrictions are in place to maintain the integrity of the service and ensure the service level agreement is upheld. For more information, please visit www.aka.ms/AVSmetrics
Robert from Indiana is asking, how is management of VMware workloads on Azure is different from on-premises management? That's a great question. In fact, one of the key advantages of Azure VMware solution that it allows customers to manage their VMware VMs in the cloud with the same skillset and similar management and operation processes. As they do on premises, customer can continue to leverage their familiar tools such as vCenter, vSphere client, and NSX Manager to manage their VMware environment in Azure. However, it's important to note here that since a VS is a managed service, there are some limitation on access to certain configurations in vCenter and an SX manager. These restrictions are in place to maintain the integrity of the service and ensure the service level agreement is upheld. For more information, please visit www.aka.ms/AVSmetrics
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Mir from California is asking, what role does Azure ARC play in managing VMware workloads on Azure? That's actually one of my favorite topics. When we talk about ARC integration with a VS, there are two dimensions. The first dimension is ARC enabled the VMware vSphere environment in a VS, which allows performing CRUD operations such as create, read, update, and delete for vCenter resources, including VMs through the Azure APIs and interfaces. And the second dimension is once we ARC enabled a VS, this allows us to actually onboard VMs running on a VS easily to arc so they become ARC enabled servers, and that unlocks all the features that comes with ARC enabled servers, including Azure update managers to manage updates on those VMs, or even integration with Defender for Cloud, for managing the security posture of those VMs or Azure Monitor for having a full traceability and observability on those VMs. And even the latest integration with Windows Server 2020 fives, such as hot patching, for example. And there are many, many more integrations as well. You will have enabled once you have ARC enabled your VMs on a VS or anywhere else.
Mir from California is asking, what role does Azure ARC play in managing VMware workloads on Azure? That's actually one of my favorite topics. When we talk about ARC integration with a VS, there are two dimensions. The first dimension is ARC enabled the VMware vSphere environment in a VS, which allows performing CRUD operations such as create, read, update, and delete for vCenter resources, including VMs through the Azure APIs and interfaces. And the second dimension is once we ARC enabled a VS, this allows us to actually onboard VMs running on a VS easily to arc so they become ARC enabled servers, and that unlocks all the features that comes with ARC enabled servers, including Azure update managers to manage updates on those VMs, or even integration with Defender for Cloud, for managing the security posture of those VMs or Azure Monitor for having a full traceability and observability on those VMs. And even the latest integration with Windows Server 2020 fives, such as hot patching, for example. And there are many, many more integrations as well. You will have enabled once you have ARC enabled your VMs on a VS or anywhere else.
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We have a question here from Badri from Arizona. He's asking How can organizations optimize costs with migrating to Azure VMware solution? There are multiple ways that the customer can optimize cost. I'll mention three that they have top of mind. The first one is through right sizing their workloads and provisioning the right number of hosts. They really need no more no less. The second one is using external storage options to expand their a VS private cloud storage capacity without provisioning extra host just for storage. For example, today we have three main options, including Azure, NetApp Files, Azure Elastic SAN, and Pure Cloud Block Store. All integrate as additional data stores that you can attach to your Azure VMware solution, private cloud. And third and last one here is keep in mind as a customer when you migrate to Azure VMware solution, you are not only migrating, you are also modernizing. You can easily attach your workloads on a VS to Azure services. For example, you can connect your SQL database to Azure SQL managed instances or move your files from a file share to Azure files. These are just a couple examples, but there are many more that allows you today to modernize and also optimize costs for running your workloads on a VS.
We have a question here from Badri from Arizona. He's asking How can organizations optimize costs with migrating to Azure VMware solution? There are multiple ways that the customer can optimize cost. I'll mention three that they have top of mind. The first one is through right sizing their workloads and provisioning the right number of hosts. They really need no more no less. The second one is using external storage options to expand their a VS private cloud storage capacity without provisioning extra host just for storage. For example, today we have three main options, including Azure, NetApp Files, Azure Elastic SAN, and Pure Cloud Block Store. All integrate as additional data stores that you can attach to your Azure VMware solution, private cloud. And third and last one here is keep in mind as a customer when you migrate to Azure VMware solution, you are not only migrating, you are also modernizing. You can easily attach your workloads on a VS to Azure services. For example, you can connect your SQL database to Azure SQL managed instances or move your files from a file share to Azure files. These are just a couple examples, but there are many more that allows you today to modernize and also optimize costs for running your workloads on a VS.
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Our pitch from Connecticut is asking, what are the key steps involved in migrating VMware workloads to Azure? Wow. That's really a deep question. I'll do my best to really simplify it. Definitely. The first step will be an assessment of the VMs we have today running on your on-premises VMware environment. We encourage customers to work with Microsoft representative or one of our partners such as Connection to kick off an assessment. The assessment will yield key factors for the migration, such as the number of the hardware hosts you need in Azure and other important information such as understanding the dependency mapping between your workloads and VMs that will eventually help you build your migration strategy in structuring and grouping your VMs that you want to migrate. Then you'll need to determine a few things in Azure, like which Azure region you want to deploy, the IP address block that you use for AVS management components.
And if you are new to Azure, you'll probably need to start building and deploying your landing zone that will you use to host your AVS environment. Also, you need to make sure you have some sort of connectivity to Azure, such as Azure Express route, or even simple VPN. Then you need to determine the IP strategy for your VMs that you're planning to migrate. For example, you need to determine if you want to re IP the VMs or maintain the same IPs, and then determine which migration profile like bulk, cold, or vMotion to select when using VMware AT CS, which is the default migration tool we offer to move VMs from on-premises to AVS, so you can start migrating your workloads in waves. Once you migrate, you can perform last configurations such as configuring load balancers and DNS and others, and the final step would be performing end-to-end testing for your applications and workloads to make sure everything is working properly. Keep in mind, this is maybe your last step in the migration, but this is technically your first step to start your modernization. Now you can connect your workloads running on AVS with plethora of Azure services so you can begin your migration journey.
Our pitch from Connecticut is asking, what are the key steps involved in migrating VMware workloads to Azure? Wow. That's really a deep question. I'll do my best to really simplify it. Definitely. The first step will be an assessment of the VMs we have today running on your on-premises VMware environment. We encourage customers to work with Microsoft representative or one of our partners such as Connection to kick off an assessment. The assessment will yield key factors for the migration, such as the number of the hardware hosts you need in Azure and other important information such as understanding the dependency mapping between your workloads and VMs that will eventually help you build your migration strategy in structuring and grouping your VMs that you want to migrate. Then you'll need to determine a few things in Azure, like which Azure region you want to deploy, the IP address block that you use for AVS management components.
And if you are new to Azure, you'll probably need to start building and deploying your landing zone that will you use to host your AVS environment. Also, you need to make sure you have some sort of connectivity to Azure, such as Azure Express route, or even simple VPN. Then you need to determine the IP strategy for your VMs that you're planning to migrate. For example, you need to determine if you want to re IP the VMs or maintain the same IPs, and then determine which migration profile like bulk, cold, or vMotion to select when using VMware AT CS, which is the default migration tool we offer to move VMs from on-premises to AVS, so you can start migrating your workloads in waves. Once you migrate, you can perform last configurations such as configuring load balancers and DNS and others, and the final step would be performing end-to-end testing for your applications and workloads to make sure everything is working properly. Keep in mind, this is maybe your last step in the migration, but this is technically your first step to start your modernization. Now you can connect your workloads running on AVS with plethora of Azure services so you can begin your migration journey.
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Juul from Florida is asking, does Azure ensure performance and scalability for VMware workloads? That's a good question, and there's two parts to into it. First, it's a customer responsibility to monitor their applications and their workloads running on the VMware environment on AVS customer may choose to continue using their existing applications they're using today for their application observability and traceability as they were using on premises. And the second part, AVS inherits the cloud elasticity, so it's a scalable solution. Customers can add additional nodes or remove nodes from the private cloud, or they can even attach additional clusters to the existing private cloud deployment. Customers can also set up alert rules in Azure that will alert the customer and notify them if there's any metrics, reached certain thresholds with CPU consumption, memory consumption, or storage. And that would be the event that the customer can take an action and scale up or potentially down their AVS environment.
Juul from Florida is asking, does Azure ensure performance and scalability for VMware workloads? That's a good question, and there's two parts to into it. First, it's a customer responsibility to monitor their applications and their workloads running on the VMware environment on AVS customer may choose to continue using their existing applications they're using today for their application observability and traceability as they were using on premises. And the second part, AVS inherits the cloud elasticity, so it's a scalable solution. Customers can add additional nodes or remove nodes from the private cloud, or they can even attach additional clusters to the existing private cloud deployment. Customers can also set up alert rules in Azure that will alert the customer and notify them if there's any metrics, reached certain thresholds with CPU consumption, memory consumption, or storage. And that would be the event that the customer can take an action and scale up or potentially down their AVS environment.
Brittany Garcia
Cloud Solution Architect, Microsoft
Brittany is a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, specializing in Azure VMware Solution (AVS) and partner engagements. She joined Microsoft in April 2024 after previously holding a similar role at VMware / Broadcom. Brittany brings extensive expertise in cloud solutions and AVS to her current position. There will always be uncertainty when it comes to technology. Don’t go it alone. Let Brittany be your guide. Check out the questions asked below for Brittany to answer!
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A question from Jessica in Colorado is, are there specific VMware versions or configurations that are required for compatibility with Azure? Great question. AVS supports vSphere version 6, 7, 7.0, and 8.0. There are not too many other requirements. V-hardware version should be on 9 or greater, but this is a requirement for many things, not just for AVS. I think they're up to V-hardware version 20 now, so 9 was a long time ago. If you do plan to do layer two stretch networking, you will need VMware distributed switches as opposed to standard switches. And these are a few things that you will need to kind of double check, but most customers meet these requirements already and are ready to do their AVS migration right off the bat.
A question from Jessica in Colorado is, are there specific VMware versions or configurations that are required for compatibility with Azure? Great question. AVS supports vSphere version 6, 7, 7.0, and 8.0. There are not too many other requirements. V-hardware version should be on 9 or greater, but this is a requirement for many things, not just for AVS. I think they're up to V-hardware version 20 now, so 9 was a long time ago. If you do plan to do layer two stretch networking, you will need VMware distributed switches as opposed to standard switches. And these are a few things that you will need to kind of double check, but most customers meet these requirements already and are ready to do their AVS migration right off the bat.
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A question from Madeam in Arizona is what tools are available to assess and plan the migration of VMware workloads to Azure? So Azure Migrate is an Azure native discovery and assessment tool that can help you migrate to Azure or to AVS. You use it for assessment of your on-prem VMs and it can help you understand how many nodes or hosts you might require, as well as understand whether the on-prem VMs are suitable for migration to AVS. VMware has tools like Network Insight and ARIA operations, and those are also commonly used tools when thinking of the planning process, moving workloads into AVS.
A question from Madeam in Arizona is what tools are available to assess and plan the migration of VMware workloads to Azure? So Azure Migrate is an Azure native discovery and assessment tool that can help you migrate to Azure or to AVS. You use it for assessment of your on-prem VMs and it can help you understand how many nodes or hosts you might require, as well as understand whether the on-prem VMs are suitable for migration to AVS. VMware has tools like Network Insight and ARIA operations, and those are also commonly used tools when thinking of the planning process, moving workloads into AVS.
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Ranga from California asks, how does VMware vMotion enhance the migration experience? So VMware vMotion is not used for migrating workloads into a VS. Instead, AVS leverages something called HCX to migrate workloads into AVS. So the method is similar, but not quite a true vMotion. Once you have HCX up and running between on-prem and AVS, you can use various migration types such as live migration, which uses features like vMotion bulk migration, which is migrating many VMs as a group, and cold migration where the VMs are turned off and then you migrate them and then you can turn them back on.
Ranga from California asks, how does VMware vMotion enhance the migration experience? So VMware vMotion is not used for migrating workloads into a VS. Instead, AVS leverages something called HCX to migrate workloads into AVS. So the method is similar, but not quite a true vMotion. Once you have HCX up and running between on-prem and AVS, you can use various migration types such as live migration, which uses features like vMotion bulk migration, which is migrating many VMs as a group, and cold migration where the VMs are turned off and then you migrate them and then you can turn them back on.
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Thomas from Oklahoma asks, can existing VMware tools like vSphere, vCenter and NSX be used in Azure? The answer is yes. You would use vSphere, vCenter and NSX to manage your VMware workloads in Azure. That's essentially what AVS is. We're saying. Let's kind of pick up this platform that we're used to on-prem and move it into Azure Cloud, and what we interface with is vSphere. It looks like vSphere. It feels like vSphere. It's essentially vSphere. It's just in Azure Cloud, and it's called AVS.
Thomas from Oklahoma asks, can existing VMware tools like vSphere, vCenter and NSX be used in Azure? The answer is yes. You would use vSphere, vCenter and NSX to manage your VMware workloads in Azure. That's essentially what AVS is. We're saying. Let's kind of pick up this platform that we're used to on-prem and move it into Azure Cloud, and what we interface with is vSphere. It looks like vSphere. It feels like vSphere. It's essentially vSphere. It's just in Azure Cloud, and it's called AVS.
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Sampath in Arizona asks, how does Azure VMware solution simplify the migration process? So AVS simplifies the migration process in general because it's like to like it's vCenter to vCenter, not vCenter to the Azure portal directly. So this process as it stands, makes things simplified. Also, AVS comes with a tool called HCX, which is a mobility tool built by VMware. And this tool makes migrating across cloud or from data center to cloud easy. You can choose a few different migration types with HCX, things like bulk migrate vMotion, or live migration or cold migration. And that's a pretty simple process, pretty simple tool to use.
Sampath in Arizona asks, how does Azure VMware solution simplify the migration process? So AVS simplifies the migration process in general because it's like to like it's vCenter to vCenter, not vCenter to the Azure portal directly. So this process as it stands, makes things simplified. Also, AVS comes with a tool called HCX, which is a mobility tool built by VMware. And this tool makes migrating across cloud or from data center to cloud easy. You can choose a few different migration types with HCX, things like bulk migrate vMotion, or live migration or cold migration. And that's a pretty simple process, pretty simple tool to use.
Resources
Microsoft Azure – Compliance Offerings
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Azure VMware Solution Responsibility Matrix - Microsoft vs. Customer
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Create an Azure VMware Solution Assessment
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