Deploying the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend

The Migrate for Compute Engine On-Premises Backend virtual appliance connects to VM disks in your on-premises data center and streams or migrates them to Google Cloud using Cloud Extensions.

The Migrate for Compute Engine On-Premises Backend virtual appliance includes an optional vCenter plug-in that exposes migration operations within the vCenter user interface. The plug-in can be useful when you want to migrate VMs one at a time, or when you want to use the vCenter user interface. However, you can perform migrations using the Migrate for Compute Engine Manager, which supports migrating VMs in batches with waves.

The Migrate for Compute Engine Backend is distributed as an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) package.

Sizing a VM for the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend

The Migrate for Compute Engine Backend requires the following, based on the number of VMs to be migrated concurrently:

Migration Size Resources
<=100 concurrent migrating VMs 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM
>100 concurrent migrating VMs 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM

Deploying and configuring the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend

  1. Download the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend OVA file, available from the Downloads page. You can verify the integrity of the files using the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend sha256 available from the Downloads page.
  2. Sign in to vSphere via the Flash Web Client.

  3. Right-click a parent object of one of the VMs to be migrated (such as a datacenter) and select Deploy OVF Template.

  4. Select the Migrate for Compute Engine OVA file.

  5. Choose the Host/ Cluster in your vSphere datacenter where you want to run the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend.

  6. Select a Disk Format, and click Next.

  7. Select the Network information that will host the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend. Click Next.

  8. Expand the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend Configuration section.

  9. Paste the token you copied from the Migrate for Compute Engine Manager on Google Cloud into Velostrata Backend Token. This is the token you copied when configuring the migration manager in the procedure Configure logging from Migrate for Compute Engine Manager.

    Note that this token includes the IP address of the Migrate for Compute Engine Manager so that the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend can access it.

  10. Enter and confirm a Password for the admin user on the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend. After installation, the password should be changed by connecting to the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend using SSH as admin and using the passwd command.

  11. Expand the Networking Properties section. Enter the Hostname for the Virtual Appliance. Enter a static IP Address, Netmask, Default Gateway, and DNS server for the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend. You can change these properties at any time later, but you must reboot the Virtual Appliance afterward in order for the changes to take effect.

  12. If you want to use an HTTP proxy for metrics and log uploads to Google Cloud Observability, fill in the HTTP Proxy parameter.

  13. If your VPN to Google Cloud is not configured with dynamic routing, you can enter the Static network route to reach subnets on Google Cloud. The address is in the form x.x.x.x/x y.y.y.y, where x.x.x.x/x is the Google Cloud VPC network address in CIDR format and y.y.y.y is the on-premises VPN Gateway IP address.

  14. Click Next and review the Ready to complete page.

  15. Click Finish. The Deploy OVF template task appears.

Configuring the Migrate for Compute Engine Service Role and Permissions in vCenter

This procedure describes how to manually add a service role to the vCenter Server for Migrate for Compute Engine. A PowerShell script is also available for creating this Role. Download the vSphere Service Role configuration from the Downloads page.

Configuring the Migrate for Compute Engine service role and permissions in vCenter

  1. Log in to the vCenter Web Client.
  2. Select Home > Administration > Roles.
    Screenshot of the Role dialog box(click to enlarge)
    Role dialog box (click to enlarge)
  3. Click + to create a new role.
  4. Check the boxes for the following privileges:
    • Alarms
      • Create alarm
      • Modify alarm
      • Remove alarm
      • Set alarm status
    • Datastore
      • Low level file operations
    • Extension
      • Register extension
      • Unregister extension
      • Update extension
    • Global
      • Cancel task
      • Enable methods
      • Disable methods
      • Licenses
      • Log event
    • Task
      • Create task
      • Update task
    • Virtual Machine
      • Provisioning > Allow disk access
      • Provisioning > Allow disk read-only access
      • Provisioning > Allow virtual machine download
      • Snapshot management > Create snapshot
      • Snapshot management > Remove snapshot
      • Snapshot management > Revert to Snapshot
      • Snapshot management > Rename Snapshot
      • Configuration > Configure managedBy
      • Interaction > Power On
      • Interaction > Power Off

To configure permissions for the Migrate for Compute Engine Service user in vCenter:

  1. Select Home > Global Inventory Lists > vCenter Servers.
  2. Right-click on the required vCenter server, and select Add Permission.
    Screenshot of the Add Permission menu (click to enlarge)
    Add Permission dialog box (click to enlarge)
  3. Select a user in the left pane, and assign the Migrate for GCE Service Role (in the right pane) to the user.
  4. Select Propagate to children, and click OK.

Registering the VMware vCenter environment

Once the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend has successfully connected and registered with the Migrate for Compute Engine Manager, you can register and deploy VMware vCenter environment.

When registering, you can also optionally register a vCenter plug-in that provides Migrate for Compute Engine migration operations and monitoring in the vCenter UI. The plug-in is not necessary for migrating VMs from vSphere.

To register the vCenter environment

  1. Make sure that a Migrate for Compute Engine vCenter Service Account (user) and Role have been created before proceeding.
  2. Sign in to your Migrate for Compute Engine Manager.
  3. On the Home page, click System Settings.
  4. If the Migrate for Compute Engine Backend is able to connect to the Migrate for Compute Engine Manager, the IP for the backend appears with a status of Registered and Connected.
    Screenshot of a registered and connected appliance(click to enlarge)
    Screenshot of a registered and connected appliance (click to enlarge)
  5. Click the vCenter Environment tab, then click Register.
  6. Under vCenter Environment Registration, enter values for the following settings:

    Setting Description
    vCenter address Address of your vCenter server.
    vCenter user Username for logging in to vCenter.
    vCenter password Password for logging in to vCenter.
    Register Migrate for Compute Engine vCenter Plugin Select to have the optional Migrate for Compute Engine vCenter plug-in installed on vCenter. The plug-in provides vCenter user interface for performing Migrate for Compute Engine management and migration actions.
    Screenshot of registering a plug-in (click to enlarge)
    Registering a plug-in (click to enlarge)
  7. Click Register to register the vCenter environment.

If you installed the plug-in, you can confirm that its UI is present in vCenter. Log out of vCenter, log in again, then right-click Datacenter to view Migrate for Google Compute Engine Operations in the menu.

Finding your vCenter server's fingerprint.

The manager registration process displays the SHA-1 SSL fingerprint of the vCenter server used for HTTPS connections. You can find the fingerprint from your browser. The following instructions explain the process using Google Chrome.

  1. Open the vCenter vSphere URL in Chrome
  2. Click on either the Lock icon or Not Secure to the left of the URL bar. Your HTTPS connection status is displayed.
  3. Click Certificate
  4. Expand the Details section.
  5. Scroll down to the SHA-1 fingerprint.

What's next

Deploy a Cloud Extension