If you site management goals include improving performance or reducing costs, you can use the migration assessment in VMware Aria Hub to define the scope of the resources to be evaluated, try different scenarios, and save your assessments for future consultation.

A migration assessment begins with adding data sources and then scoping the migration to determine what resources might need to be moved from one infrastructure node or platform to another.

Add data sources and review the inventory

Data sources can be discovered resources from your configured accounts or you can import workload information from a saved RVTools CSV file to use as the inventory for the assessment.

  1. In VMware Aria Hub, select Migration > Inventory and Discovery.
  2. Add a data source or import an inventory.
    • To work with resource information collected from your vCenter Server, click Add Data Source and following the on-screen instructions. For more information about adding the vCenter Server, see Add a vCenter Server account.
    • To work with resource information from a static file downloaded from you vCenter Server instance, click Import Inventory.
      1. Select RV Tools in the Choose import type drop-down menu.
      2. Click Browse and open the saved file.
      3. Click Import.
  3. To review the discovered or imported resources in an inventory list, select Migration > Inventory and Discovery > .

Define the scope of the assessment by group

The following procedure guides you through the scoping phase of creating an assessment. By focusing on broad groups, you begin to evaluate the resources that you want to consider for migration.

  1. In VMware Aria Hub, select Migration > Migration Assessment and click Start New Assessment.

    The numbers on the following image point out the UI elements used in the following steps.

  2. Define the assessment details.
    1. Select the Target Cloud where you want to assess moving the resources.
    2. Enter an assessment name that is unique enough to help you identify different assessments.
    3. Select an assessment criteria in the Assessment by drop-down list.
      Select one of the following options. The examples in this workflow use vLAN.
      Base assessment scope Description
      Potential Application

      Default scope

      Potential application based scoping provides a detailed analysis of dependencies and constraints between resources where the machines are not currently part of a defined business application.

      Business Application

      Application based scoping provides a detailed analysis of dependencies and constraints between resources.

      Each hexagon in the graphical view represents an application with a group of virtual machines in it. Applications are discovered by VMware Aria Hub based on constant network communication between virtual machines.

      After the initial discovery, application groups will appear a few hours later. To work with high-confidence data, the you must wait for 7-10 days for migration service to evaluate and identify the application connections.

      vLAN

      If you are concerned about resource connections and constraints, network based scoping provides a simplified grouping that is not as detailed as application based scoping.

      Each hexagon in the graphical view represents a vLAN with a group of virtual machines in it.

      Cluster Cluster based scoping is useful if you already have workloads in mind that you want to migrate from on-premises to SaaS, for example, evacuating a data center. It is also useful if you less concerned about dependencies, who is managing the applications, or how your applications are organized.
    4. Click Start.

    The starting Migration Assessment page where you can see the default groupings of resources and begin scoping.
  3. Review the Total Cost of Ownership.

    After you select a general scope, familiarize yourself with the cost of ownership. The changes that you make to the scope affect cost.

    To request an updated calculation based on the current definition, click Recalculate TCO.

  4. To change how the entities are grouped, select a View {resource type} by category.
    Select on one of the group by options.
    Group by Description
    CPU Utilization The low, medium, and high groupings are based on how much processor capacity is consumed by the underlying machines in each entity.
    Memory Utilization The low, medium, and high groupings are based on how much memory capacity is consumed by the underlying machines in each entity.
    Storage Utilization The low, medium, and high groupings are based on how much storage capacity is consumed by the underlying machines in each entity.
  5. To add more constraints to your groups, you can define one or more filters.

    Configure one or more filters. As you implement a filter, you can review the cost.

    For example, to work with entities in your Dev and Test environments, and excluding Prod, you can construct a filter using the appropriate tags.
    Filter Description
    Tag

    Enter or select the existing tag currently assigned to the entities using the following format:

    • family=value
    Memory Using the operators, define the amount of memory on the entities.
    Cluster Enter or select one or more existing cluster names.
    Folder Enter or select one or more existing folder names.
  6. Move groups out-of-scope or bring them in-scope.
    Assessment page the details active for the High Storage group.
    1. If you see any groups that are in-scope and should be out-of-scope, or conversely, select the group and review the details.
    2. To change the scope, click Push out of Scope or Bring in Scope.

      The Push out of Scope or Bring in Scope options are available depending on the status of the selected group. If you select two groups, where one group is in-scope and one is out-of-scope, both groups are scoped to the label value. Consider processing each group individually to avoid confusion.

    3. Click Recalculate TCO to see the cost changes based on your current scope.
  7. Continue to the next section in this procedure to refine your scope based on individual entity information or click Save and provide a name.

To evaluate the entities in more detail, continue to the next section.

Refine the assessment scope based on entity analysis

Next, look more closely at the details of the entity details so that you can add or remove resources from the scope.

  1. Review the nodes of your in-scope entities.
    • If you are continuing from the previous procedure, go to the next step.
    • If you are returning, select Migration > Migration Assessments and click the name of your saved assessment. Click the Selected Workloads tab, click Re-Scope Assessment.

    The process of evaluating individual entities begins with opening a detailed page where you can modify scope.
  2. To see the dependencies, click the entity.

    The details pane on the right provides more information about the dependent entities.

    1. Use the right pane to groom what is in-scope or out-of-scope.

      If most of the dependencies are out-of-scope and you want to remove the entity from the assessment, you can push the entity out-of-scope. You can review entities with complicated dependencies at a later time.

      In this example, there are not dependencies.

  3. For more in-depth grooming options, click View VMs.
    You can us the details to move individual resources in and out of scope.
    1. If you want to change the scope, you can use the Actions menu on the In Scope and Out of Scope tabs.
    2. To view the virtual machine details, click the expansion arrows for the virtual machine on either tab and review the details in the right pane.

      You can toggle the VM in or out of scope.

  4. Click Recalculate TCO.
  5. When you've groomed the assessment to your satisfaction, click Save or Update Assessment.

    You can continue by scoping a new assessment, perhaps for comparison, or update an existing assessment.

Review and manage migration assessments

After you save an assessment, you can still groom the contents.

  1. Select Migration > Migration Assessments and click the name of your saved assessment.
    You use the Overview, Assumptions, and Workloads tabs to review and modify your saved assessments.
  2. Review the assessment costs.
    1. On the {data source} Resources and Cost tab, the current savings and total costs on the source and target providers provides a snapshot of the current cost of the current assessment.
    2. For a more detailed analysis of the total cost of ownership for the source and the target, review the Cost of Ownership Details card.
    3. To better understand how your on-premises and cloud costs are calculated, click Assumptions.
    4. When working with Assumptions, if you have detailed contractual information, click Edit Assumptions to update the values.

      For example, perhaps you know that you have private cost per unit discounts with your on-premises resources. You can update the values so that the calculated total cost of ownership better reflects you actual costs.

      The values you provide are included in the costing calculations.

  3. Now that you understand the cost of your current assessment, click the Workloads tab, click Re-Scope Assessment, and continue to refine the scope of the assessment.
    1. Make any changes based on the procedures provided in the previous sections.
    2. Click Save Assessment.
  4. Recalculate your TCO and continue to refine your assessment as needed.
  5. If you need a copy of the assessment for external reporting or comparison, you can click Export to download a zipped .csv file.