With the recent changes in Broadcom’s VMworld portfolio, many organizations are exploring VMware migration to other virtualization platforms. As companies like AT&T voice concerns over unwanted subscription costs, businesses are considering alternatives like Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, and Xen to replace VMware’s ESXi. Some are even going to HCI (hyperconverged infrastructure) solutions like Scale Computing or Nutanix, and the public cloud.
In this blog post, we will guide you through key considerations for a smooth hypervisor transition. This high-level overview aims to help you begin assessing the scope of migration for your organization. We’ve left it up to you to fill in the details.
Introduction: a focus on application requirements
As we’ve already said, this article won’t get into the nitty gritty of ripping and replacing VMware. Instead, it will concentrate on the application requirements that may influence your choice of hypervisor. If you don’t already have this information documented, do yourself a favor and gather the details before you even talk to a VMware competitor.
If you maintain strong relationships with your vendor teams—such as those handling servers, storage, or backups, ask them for help. It is very likely that they are building tools to help your decision-making process, especially if you are a smaller shop that is not Broadcom’s target customer.
Should you face pressure from your own management to make a quick change due to Broadcom’s pricing, you may need to set their expectations for how quickly things can be done. Your team may want to just rip and replace VMware after receiving a ridiculous quote. However, in reality, migrations are always inherently complex. It is comparable to replacing all of your servers or your storage arrays, there are an array of technical dependencies and political reasons things can’t change.
Understanding your application requirements before choosing a new hypervisor is extremely important. This is the only way to ensure you have the features you need to support your applications.
Preparing your infrastructure for VMware migration
Before you can choose a new hypervisor platform for a VMware migration, you must understand the performance and compatibility requirements of your existing infrastructure.
Start with these questions:
- What are the performance requirements of the existing systems that host your current VMware implementation? Get a good handle on the basics: Processing, memory, bandwidth, and IOPS/latency (this is the big one!).
- What versions of VMware do you currently run? Are you already running a vSphere version that is End of Life or End of Support Life? Some of y’all are running v5.5, fess up. The point is that the versions are still functional, you just can’t get support or patches. With the right guardrails in place, this can buy you time to plan your exit strategy in a thoughtful manner.
- Will you need to update the server hardware before the migration? If so, you’ll need to include the budget and timeline for that in your planning.
- Which operating systems are you virtualizing (an overlooked detail!)?
- Can the new platform support the OS you use in your environment?
- What products and services that you currently use for security, backups, automation, networking, accelerator chips, monitoring, etc.? Will they work with a different hypervisor? If not, have you investigated the cost of acquiring new services that will?
- What performance metrics do your current applications require? You’ll want to be sure the new platform can meet those or exceed those requirements.
Does your team need to level up?
The industry widely recognizes VMware certifications. In fact, your administrators probably have one or more under their belts. A hypervisor migration may require additional training, and potentially certifications, for your team on the new platform. Be sure to factor in this extra time and resources when planning your transition.
The good news is that many hypervisors have similar features and functions, so if you already have a solid understanding of virtualization principles, the learning curve shouldn’t be too steep. Still, you’ll need to evaluate what your team needs to level up.
- Which member(s) of your IT team will be responsible for managing the new hypervisor layer?
- Will your staff need extra training on the platform?
- If so, can your new hypervisor vendor bundle training into the price quote? You’ll want to complete the training before the migration process begins.
Ensure consistent security, backup, and recovery coverage
VMware offers a comprehensive ecosystem of support tools for their platform. It’s likely you’re already using at least one of them. Do your current backup and security products support the new hypervisor you’re considering? Verifying this can prevent coverage gaps and reduce the need for additional staff training.
Naturally, you’ll need to utilize your backup platform during the migration process. Before beginning, ensure you have a complete, clean backup. After you establish the virtual machines and applications on the new hypervisor, perform another full backup. While this might be time-consuming depending on the application, having a pristine fallback copy of your data justifies the extra effort. Make sure to include this time in your planning!
Check to see if your backup provider has workflows for the actual migrations. They want your migration to succeed, so rely on their expertise.
Examining the total cost of ownership
Once you’ve gathered all your data from the previous steps, consider the costs involved. While licensing fees are significant, don’t overlook future renewal expenses and support costs. Understanding these aspects will ensure a total view of your financial commitments.
Another thing to consider is if the platform you choose also supports any potential growth in applications and services. Questions to ask yourself:
- What is your company’s five-year plan?
- Will you be moving workloads to the cloud?
- Are you planning to modernize applications using technologies like containers and infrastructure as code (IaC)? If so, do you need all the features VMware offers?
You may find out that a simple hypervisor works best for your business needs. Or you may discover that VMware is the right solution after all.
Engaging in this thought exercise can aid in planning your migration phases. Identify any services you can promptly transition away from VMware, allowing you to postpone more critical and potentially complex migrations to a later phase.
Planning your VMware Migration strategy
Having completed much of your analysis planning, it’s now time to focus on the technical migration essentials.
What key information do you need to consider?
- Prepare for potential downtime and develop a backout plan to address any unforeseen challenges that may arise.
- You’ll need a run list for how the migration will actually happen. Which VMs need to migrated first? Which machines have dependencies on others? What is the order of operations?
- Once the migration has completed, test your new environment. Ensure that all applications are performing well. This will mean performing load testing and monitoring system performance. Hopefully you did your homework in the that first step of preparing your applications for VMware migration, and you have the tools you need for this.
Remember, the companies eager for your virtualization business have already developed migration guides from VMware to their platforms. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel—reach out to your trusted partners for assistance!
Conclusion
In conclusion, a successful VMware migration is not a lift-and-shift activity. It requires meticulous planning, comprehensive evaluation of technical requirements, and a strategic approach to maintain operational continuity. By examining infrastructure needs, training staff, ensuring security and backup compatibilities, and considering the total cost of ownership, organizations can lay a solid foundation for their virtualization transition.
Remember even though the migration process may seem daunting, you have accesses to people with deep expertise. You don’t have to do this alone!
Vendors, do you need help explaining how you can help customers looking to move to a different virtualization platform? Digital Sunshine Solutions can help you explain your VMware migration solutions to prospective customers. Schedule a quick meeting with us today!
This is the last post in a three-part VMware series. If you liked this one, check out the others:
