Prerequisites for assessments

Azure Migrate assessments identifies the readiness and right-sized Azure targets using the configuration and performance data collected from the source workloads. The quality of assessments depends on the quality of the data available for assessments. Thus, to get high quality assessments ensure you have all the prerequisites fulfilled. Before creating the assessments, ensure the following:

• You discovered the inventory of all the workloads and applications you intend to assess.
• You resolved any data collection issues that your workloads are flagged for.
• You have enough performance data collected before you create the assessment. You can create assessments anytime, but we recommend letting the appliance collect the performance data for at least 24 hours.
• In the case of appliance-based discovery, for better results. Ensure that the appliances are in a connected state and performance data is flowing.
• If you have an Enterprise agreement with Azure and want to use the negotiated prices to identify the resource cost, ensure that you have access to the required subscriptions.

Discovery sources

The discovery source might vary for different workloads depending on the data required for creating the assessments. You can discover your on-premises servers by using either of the following methods:

• Deploying a light-weight Azure Migrate appliance to perform agentless discovery.

The recommended discovery source is the Azure Migrate appliance as it provides an in-depth view of your machines and ensures regular flow of configuration and performance data, and accounts for changes in the source environment.

What data does the appliance collect?

If you're using the Azure Migrate appliance for assessment, see metadata and performance data collected as an input for the assessment.

Tag workloads correctly

It is recommended to correctly tag all the servers and workloads for appropriate target recommendations. Assessment uses special tags for identifying the machines and workloads operating in the Dev/Test environment and to mark the workloads and servers for retention or retirement.

In case the workloads and servers are operating in the Dev/Test environment they should be tagged with the tag AzM.Environment: Dev. In case this tag is absent on the servers or workloads, they are considered as production workloads by default.

In case the workloads and servers are to be retained or retired they should be tagged with the tag AzM.MigrationIntent: Retain or AzM.MigrationIntent:Retire respectively. In case these tags are absent on these servers or workloads, they are considered for migration or modernization. It is recommended that the servers and all the associated workloads are tagged consistently for appropriate and consistent recommendations. For eg. In case Server 1 hosts Database 1 and Database 2 and the server has to be retained, it is expected that the tag exists on server as well as the databases for appropriate recommendation.

Next steps

Migrate VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs, and physical servers.