22.1 About Platforms

A Target Platform defines a specific virtualization host or cloud infrastructure and its associated resources. PlateSpin Transformation Manager discovers the platform’s available resources and displays them under Associations.

PTM discovers resources for VMware vCenter Servers by using a PlateSpin Migrate Connector in the target network. PTM discovers resources for Microsoft Azure by using HTTPS connections with the target Azure Cloud.

NOTE:Target platform discovery for VMware platforms is available only when a PlateSpin Migrate Connector is available to the project and the target platform is supported for automated migrations.

Platform properties and associated resources vary based on the platform type. You can optionally exclude discovered resources for a target platform from being used during planning.

22.1.1 Platform Properties

Each Platform provides the following information about the target platform.

Status

The discovery status for the target platform and the date and time stamp when its resources were last discovered.

Rediscover

Click Rediscover to initiate rediscovery of the resources for the platform.

Retry

Click Retry to connect to the target location and retrieve information about the resources for the platform. This option is available if resources have not yet been discovered for the target platform.

Name

The friendly name for the platform that is unique to your transformation project. The name must begin with a letter or number. It can contain only letters, numbers, and the following special characters: space, hyphen, underscore, apostrophe, percent, ampersand, comma, and period.

Organization

The parent organization for the project.

Project

The parent project for the platform.

Description

(Optional) Specify a brief description of the platform. This text appears by default in the Platforms list.

Platform Type

Specify the type of platform to create. The type determines the characteristics and restrictions on the workload that can be migrated to the target platform. Options include:

  • Amazon Web Services

  • Microsoft Azure

  • VMware vCenter Server

Platform Type: VMware vCenter Server
Credential

The name of the VMware vCenter Server Credential resource to use for accessing the platform environment.

NOTE:After it is set, you cannot change the Credential resource. If a change of login credentials is necessary, you must modify the values in the assigned Credential resource.

Cluster

(VMware Host, Optional) The name of the VMware Cluster.

IP or FQDN

Specify the IPv4 address or FQDN of the VMware vCenter Server that manages your VMware clusters. Examples: 10.10.10.101, sydney.vcenter1.example.com

Site

(Optional) Specify a textual description of the facility or location where the platform environment resides. If a match is not found, Transformation Manager adds a new Site type in the database. Examples: HQ data center, West campus, Sydney.

Migrate Agent

Select the Install agent on source workload check box if you want PTM to install the Migrate Agent on the source workloads. When it is installed, PTM controls replication and migration using Migrate Agent.

Associations

After a successful platform discovery, the Associations panel shows information about discovered resources and assigned workloads.

  • Clusters

  • Hosts

  • Networks

  • Datastores

  • Resource Pools

  • Workloads

Platform Type: Microsoft Azure
Cloud Instance

Specifies the target Azure IaaS environment (or service endpoint types) for migrations, such as the global cloud or a sovereign cloud where you can set up virtual machines. Options include:

  • Azure Global (default)
  • Azure China
  • Azure Germany
  • Azure US Government
Credential

The name of the Microsoft Azure Credential resource to use for accessing the platform environment.

NOTE:After it is set, you cannot change the Credential resource. If a change of login credentials is necessary, you must modify the values in the assigned Credential resource.

PS PRE Image

The PlateSpin Replication Environment (PRE) image used by the platform. The administrator of your Azure cloud account sets up the PRE image in the Azure Marketplace.

Migrate Agent

Select the Install agent on source workload check box if you want PTM to install the Migrate Agent on the source workloads. When it is installed, PTM controls replication and migration using Migrate Agent.

Associations

After a successful platform discovery, the Associations panel shows information about discovered resources and assigned workloads.

  • Locations

  • Networks

    • Virtual Networks

    • Subnets

  • Datastores

  • Resource Groups

  • Workloads

Platform Type: Amazon Web Services

NOTE:PTM supports AWS platforms for external migrations for workloads in Manual (tracking) mode. It does not support automated migrations to AWS platforms.

Cloud Instance

Specifies the target AWS EC2 environment (or service endpoint types) for migrations, such as the global cloud or a sovereign cloud where you can set up virtual machines. Options include:

  • AWS Global (default)
  • AWS US Government
Credential

The name of the Amazon Web Services Credential resource to use for accessing the platform environment.

NOTE:After it is set, you cannot change the Credential resource. If a change of login credentials is necessary, you must modify the values in the assigned Credential resource.

Migrate Agent

Select the Install agent on source workload check box if you want PTM to install the Migrate Agent on the source workloads. When it is installed, PTM controls replication and migration using Migrate Agent.

Associations

After a successful platform discovery, the Associations panel shows information about discovered resources and assigned workloads.

  • Regions

  • Virtual Private Clouds

    • VPCs

    • Subnets

  • Datastores

  • Security Groups

  • Placement Groups

  • Key Pairs

  • Encryption Keys

  • IAM Roles

  • Workloads

22.1.2 Platform Associations

The Platform enables you to track associated resources for platforms. The associations vary by platform type. Workload associations are populated as you plan target workloads for transformations.

The platform’s resources are initially discovered when you create the platform. Rediscovery occurs whenever you modify a platform or select the Rediscover option. Automatic rediscovery occurs for all platforms every six hours. (The run interval and schedule for rediscovery are not configurable.) You can select Rediscover to update the resources on demand at any time. For each discovered resource, you can add a description, but you cannot modify its reported properties.

The Platform dialog and each of its Resources’ dialog lists associated workloads as you configure them for migration to the target platform. You can quickly see which workloads are using any resource. PTM does not reserve resources nor give priority to their consumption. Viewing the planned resource usage can help you assess resource availability and future demands for them.

Each tab offers an Exclude action that you can use to hide a resource in planning dialogs so that it cannot be used for migrated workloads. Excluding a parent resource automatically excludes its children. Excluded resources are dimmed in the resource list.

VMware vCenter Server

The following associations tabs are available for the VMware vCenter Server Platform. Use the Cluster filter on a tab to view resources available in all clusters or for a specified cluster. You can also filter using the Search field.

Clusters

A list of VMware Clusters managed by the VMware vCenter Server.

  • Name

  • Hosts (the number of member nodes). View the Hosts tab for information about each member node.

  • Processors (the number of processors)

  • Total Memory

  • Datastores (the number of shared datastores in the cluster). View the Datastores tab for information about each available datastore.

  • Total Storage

  • Automation Level

Hosts

A list of member nodes of the VMware Clusters managed by the VMware vCenter Server.

  • Name

  • Hardware Type

  • Cluster

  • Memory

  • Cores

  • NICs

  • vMotion

  • Host

Networks

A list of the virtual networks defined for the cluster host.

  • Name

  • Cluster

  • Host Name

  • Hosts

  • VMs

Datastores

A list of datastores associated with VMware Clusters managed by the VMware vCenter Server.

  • Name

  • Host

  • Type

  • Capacity

  • VMs

  • Status

Resource Pools

A list of resource pools associated with VMware Clusters managed by the VMware vCenter Server.

  • Name

  • CPU Allocation

  • CPU Usage

  • Memory Allocation

  • Guest Memory Usage

  • Host Memory Usage

Workloads

A list of workloads associated with VMware Clusters managed by the VMware vCenter Server.

  • Name

  • Batch

  • Transformation

  • Status

Microsoft Azure

The following associations are available for the Microsoft Azure Platform. Use the Location filter on a tab to view resources available for a specified location. You can also filter using the Search field.

Locations

A list of the geographic regions available to the specified platform. Cloud locations are retrieved from Azure based on the account in the specified Credentials resource.

  • Location Name

  • Instances

Networks

A list of the virtual networks and their subnets defined in the cloud environment for the cloud account.

  • Virtual Networks

    • Name

    • Location

    • Address Space

  • Subnets

    • Name

    • Location

    • Network

    • Address Space

Datastores

A list of datastores associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Location

  • Replication

  • Performance

  • Status

  • Encryption

Resource Groups

A list of resource groups associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Location

  • Deployments

  • Items

Workloads

A list of workloads associated with VMs in platform.

  • Name

  • Batch

  • Transformation

  • Status

Amazon Web Services

NOTE:PTM supports AWS platforms for external migrations for workloads in Manual (tracking) mode. It does not support automated migrations to AWS platforms.

The following associations are available for the Amazon Web Services Platform. Use the Region filter on a tab to view resources available for a specified region. You can also filter using the Search field.

Regions

A list of the geographic regions available to the specified platform. Cloud regions are retrieved from AWS based on the account in the specified Credentials resource.

  • Region Name

  • Availability Zones

  • Instances

Virtual Private Clouds

A list of the virtual networks and their subnets defined in the cloud environment for the cloud account.

  • VPCs

    • Name

    • Region

    • Address Space

    • Tenancy

  • Subnets

    • Name

    • Region

    • VPC

    • Address Space

Datastores

The Datastores list shows the type of disks that AWS supports for the account. See Amazon EBS Volume Types in the AWS Documentation.

A list of datastores associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Region Name

Security Groups

A list of security groups associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Region Name

  • Inbound Ports

  • Outbound Ports

In the Security Groups list, pause over a security group to view the Security Group Rules tooltip, which displays the following information for each rule for the security group: Type, Protocol, Port Range, and Source information.

Placement Groups

A list of placement groups associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Region Name

  • Strategy (for shared tenancy)

  • State

Placement Groups are available for use in AWS if you set the Tenancy to run your VM instance as a shared instance.

Key Pairs

AWS EC2 Key Pairs are used for logging in to your AWS target instance.

A list of key pairs associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Region Name

  • Fingerprint

Encryption Keys

An encryption key enables encryption of AWS target instance disks.

A list of encryption keys associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Region Name

  • Status

IAM Roles

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles with sufficient permissions to perform migrations into the VPC using the AWS APIs.

A list of IAM Roles associated with the platform.

  • Name

  • Policies

Workloads

For enhanced tracking, PTM matches imported workloads to workloads on Migrate Servers associated to the project. The matched workloads appear on the Workloads tab in Manual (tracking) mode.

A list of workloads associated with VMs in platform.

  • Name

  • Region

  • Batch

  • Transformation

  • Status

22.1.3 Discovery Process for Platforms

The automated discovery process for target platforms performs the following actions:

  1. The Create Platform dialog creates a new Platform object.

  2. Auto-discovery begins for the platform, using the provided Credentials resources to log in to the platform.

  3. PTM creates new resources for each newly discovered resource in the platform.

  4. On successful platform discovery, the Platforms list or Edit Platform dialog displays the platform information and associated resources.

22.1.4 Troubleshooting Platform Discovery Failures

Platform discovery fails for any of the following conditions:

  • A Migrate Connector is not available.

  • The target platform type is not supported for automated discovery.

  • The Credentials resource is not provided.

  • The Credentials resource has an invalid value for the user name and password.

  • The platform is not running at the time of discovery.

  • Network connectivity fails between the PTM Server and the Migrate Connector, or between the Migrate Connector and the target platform.

After you resolve Migrate Connector, network, or credentials issues, you can retry discovery for supported platforms.