Overview of Azure Resource Mover Service

The Azure Resource Mover is a dedicated service to move resources seemlessly. Currently, the service supports three ways to move resource, though it depends on business requirement which one to choose. The supported options are :-

• Move resources to another subscription
• Move resources to another resource group
• Move resources to another region

The post will focus on Move resources to another region. There could be one or many reasons to move resources to another region. Some of them are listed below :-

• Newly launched Azure Region which closure to your business proximity
• Some services are only available in partcular region
• To meet data residency requirements, or data classification needs.
• Response to business, such as mergers
• An Azure Region is going to be decommision.

Stateless vs Stateful Resources

A resource group can contain both stateless and stateful resources. The Azure Mover Service moves the resources based on resource type. The table shows the difference Stateless and Stateful resources.

Stateless resources	Stateful Resource
Only have configuration	Have both configuration and data which need to copy
No downtime in source region while creating resource in target region	Downtime might be in source region while creating in resource target region
Move process generates ARM template	Involve replication to create resource in target region
Ex- Load balancer, VNets	Ex- SQL Server Databases, Virtual Machine

Service Movement Steps

1. Select resources from a resource group
2. Validate dependencies
3. Pre-work for move
4. Start the movement
5. Commit or Discard move
6. Delete Resources

Across Region Supported Resource

• Azure SQL databases and elastic pools
• Azure VMs and associated disks
• Internal and public load balancers
• Availability sets
• Azure virtual networks
• Public IP addresses
• NICs
• Network security groups (NSGs)

Demo

In the Demo, we will use a VM instance to move from the region <EastUS> to another region <EastUS2>. Let suppose you have already created VM <VM01> and you want to move a different region. There is no restrication on VM configuration with Azure Mover Service. You can move any type of VM(s) just following the same process.

We will see that Azure Resource Mover Service not only moves the Virtual Machine in target region, but also copies content to target region.

Click on <VM01> resource > Overview > Copy the public IP address, then connect the <VM01> using Remote Desktop. Let’s create a source.txt file and put some text if you want.

Go to global Azure search > type Azure Resource Mover > click on the Azure Resource Mover

Choose Move resources to another region option to open Mover Service Window

The Source + Destination tab allows to choose target region, and we can select East US 2, though it is up to you which target region to select, then click on Next

The Resources to move tab allows you to select either all or individual resource. Here, we will be moving all the resources to target region to show complete working demo so select top Checkbox.

Next, the below steps are performed one after another to complete the move. If any issue during the mover process, refer the information, validation message and depedencies as pointed by mover wizard

1. Prepare – Starts the prepare the process depends on resouce type (stateless or stateful)
2. Initiate Move – Starts the move the process that depends on resouce type (stateless or stateful)
3. Commit Move – The commit option should be used only when you are sure to move all resources to target region.

1. Discard Move – Choosen when you want to discontinue the movement in between process.
2. Delete Source – Selected when you want to delete the source resouces after the successful movement completion.

Output

Once every resource has been moved to target region, then the target resource group would extract look like same a source resource group. The name of the target region resource group would be different.

Navigate to target region resource group > VM > Overview > Copy public IP > do remote desktop.

You will have to use same user name and password which was used in source region to connect and create the file.

Here, you can see that same source file is present in temp folder.

The last and final step of Azure Resource Mover Service is delete action. if you want to delete source resource, then click the Delete Source

So, we have seen how we can leverage Azure Resource Mover service to move resources one region to another region.

If you have any suggestions/feedback, please put them in the comment box.

Happy Learning 🙂