Region constraints for server migration to Cloud

Problem

When attempting to create the migration manager for a VMware server from on premises to Google Cloud Platform, you are not able to create an instance using an n1-standard-4 machine type as required. Migrate for Compute Engine documentation indicate that this machine type is required. The n1-standard-4 machine type could not be obtained in a certain region (i.e eurpoe-west8). The error message will look similar to:
Machine type with name 'n1-standard-4' does not exist in zone europe-west8

Environment

  • M4CE version 4.11.9

Solution

  1. Run the following gcloud CLI command to create the migration manager with a specified machine type. In this example n2-standard-4 was selected as it was close in performance benchmarks to the n1-standard-4 machine type. You will need to provide the additional details enclosed in square brackets below.
    gcloud beta compute --project=[PROJECT_ID] instances create [VM_NAME] \
    --zone=[ZONE] --machine-type=n2-standard-4 --subnet=[SUBNET_NAME] \
    --no-address --metadata=apiPassword=[VELOSTRATA_PASSWD],secretsEncKey=[VELOSTRATA_KEY], defaultServiceAccount=[VELOSTRATA-CLOUD-EXTENSION-SERVICE-ACCOUNT], google-monitoring-enable=1,google-logging-enable=1 \
    --maintenance-policy=MIGRATE --service-account=[VELOSTRATA-MANAGER-SERVICE-ACCOUNT] \
    --scopes=https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform --tags=[NETWORK-TAGS] \
    --image=velostrata-mgmt-4-9-1-30369 --image-project=click-to-deploy-images \
    --boot-disk-size=60GB --boot-disk-type=pd-standard --boot-disk-device-name=[VM_NAME]

Cause

The n1-standard-4 is identified in documentation and UI as the default and required machine type to be used for the migration manager. However, not all machine types are available in all regions, and in this scenario, the machine type was not available in europe-west8 at the time of writing. If the specific region isn't required, another region can be used where the machine type is available. If the region is required due to some internal policy, a similar machine type can be used instead of n1-standard-4.