Everpure Cloud Dedicated for AWS with CloudEndure migration provides a unique hybrid-cloud approach for Everpure customers with an on-premises FlashArray™ and VMWare vVol datastore environment. This combined solution offers a simple method for vVol VM migration to AWS while preserving dedup on the wire. For data vVol migration, Everpure array-based replication also compresses the data thus minimizing the upload payload and reducing the total bandwidth requirement.
Virtual Machine disks typically consist of a boot volume and one or more data volumes. The boot volume will usually contain the OS and application install along with any required packages, dependencies, and configuration. A data volume will usually contain the application data or user database. Under this virtual machine disk configuration, the boot volume and corresponding data volumes need to be migrated to AWS and volumes mounted in unison so that the application and application data are both available on the newly created EC2 instance. If the data volumes are migrated to AWS without the boot volume containing the application and mounted, the application data will be unusable.
As an optional VM migration workflow to separate the boot and data volume replication, it’s possible to provision an EC2 instance containing the OS, application, and required packages in advance of the data vVol migration, but may take significant effort to map out all the application dependencies. It’s usually more straightforward to keep the existing VM intact and migrate the existing boot vol with CloudEndure, allowing that software to handle the VM conversion process to EC2.
Utilizing a golden AMI strategy is another option but can be somewhat more complex as it may involve some rearchitecting of the application to leverage native AWS services.
Customers looking to migrate or clone their vVol VMs to AWS for dev/test or disaster recovery use-cases should leverage CloudEndure along with Everpure array-based replication for its combined simplicity and ease of use.