{"id":28721,"date":"2023-01-09T17:25:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T17:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/09\/amd-migration-tool-takes-aim-at-virtual-machines\/"},"modified":"2023-01-09T17:25:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T17:25:25","slug":"amd-migration-tool-takes-aim-at-virtual-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/09\/amd-migration-tool-takes-aim-at-virtual-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"AMD migration tool takes aim at virtual machines"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A recently released VMware Architecture Migration Tool, from Advanced Micro Systems Inc., significantly speeds up CPU-to-CPU migrations on x86 systems, according to a technical expert at AMD.<\/p>\n

Channel partners, who are involved in small- and mid-sized organizations, looking to add value, could benefit, along with large deployments in enterprise, says\u00a0Jason Collier<\/a> (pictured), principal member of technical staff at AMD.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing when you\u2019re doing 10 machines, but when you\u2019re doing 10,000 virtual machines, that\u2019s a different story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Collier spoke with theCUBE industry analysts Lisa Martin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0David Nicholson<\/a> at the recent\u00a0VMware Explore<\/a>, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media\u2019s livestreaming studio. They discussed the new migration tool from AMD. (* Disclosure below.)<\/em><\/p>\n

How it works<\/h3>\n

A command-line PowerShell module using VMware PowerCLI runs the interface and performs the majority of the open-source work, he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a point-and-click GUI kind of thing,\u201d Collier stated, as cold migrations only are performed. \u201cWhat we do is you create a list of all of the virtual machines that you want to migrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

One then builds a comma separated value (csv) file and imports it into the tool. That file needs to include fields such as Name; where you want to import it \u2014 say one cluster to another; where you want to migrate it to; the networks you want to move it to; and the storage platform.\u00a0Storage can be shared storage, like vSAN-to-vSAN software-defined, traffic isolating virtual machine storage, for instance.<\/p>\n

The second stage is that the tool shuts down the virtual machine and takes a snapshot. It then moves the compute and storage resources over.\u00a0Once it has completed the move on that VM, it powers it back up, Collier explained. Validation then takes place, which verifies that VMTools comes back up, and \u201cit didn\u2019t blue screen or anything like that.\u201d It then moves on to the next job. Parallelizing is built in. In other words, you define how much time you have and how many machines should be migrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it could be, say, 10 machines, 50 machines, 100 machines at a time that you want to go through and do this move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Failures, such as a blue screen, will cause the tool to go into a protective mode: \u201cIt will roll it back to that snapshot on the origin cluster,\u201d Collier added.<\/p>\n

Audit tracking, logging and e-mail reports are also included. \u201cSo, you can say, run this and then shoot me a report when this is over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Queuing and schedules are also part of the kit. \u201cYou can define a change window,\u201d Collier explains. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t want to do this in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday. I want to do this later at night, over the weekend; you queue this up, set it, schedule it [and] it\u2019ll run.\u00a0Then it\u2019ll effectively stop, finish up, clean up the tasks and then send you a report on what was successfully moved.\u201d<\/p>\n

A target market for the product would be organizations running five-to-seven years on architecture that they want to upgrade, according to Collier.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to move to a new architecture \u2014 this is really going to help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE\u2019s and theCUBE\u2019s coverage of VMware Explore<\/a>:<\/p>\n