Migrating from VMware to OCI

[miyu.masuda]

I would like to migrate from VMware to OCI using Veeam. How is this generally done in practice?

[Mildur]

Hi Miyu

For Oracle Cloud VMware Solution, either Replica Jobs or Direct Restore should work (KB4007).

However, for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), we currently don’t have any native Backup or Restore integration other than using the Veeam Agent inside the guest VMs.
For migration purposes, you could test taking a backup with the Veeam Agent on a VMware VM and then perform a BMR restore on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) using our Recovery Media — but this will only work if OCI Compute supports booting from ISOs.

I recommend checking out Oracle’s own solution for such migrations: Oracle Cloud VM Migration.

Best,
Fabian

[miyu.masuda]

Sorry for the delayed response.
For example, assume that OCI Object Storage is used as a backup repository—either by storing VM backups directly in OCI Object Storage, or by copying backups from a primary backup repository to OCI Object Storage as a secondary backup target.
In such a scenario, is it possible to import a file stored in Object Storage onto OCI and launch it from there?

[Mildur]

Hi Miyu,

No — you won’t be able to restore Veeam backup files from an OCI Backup Repository directly as an OCI VM.
You’ll need a Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) server to read the backup data objects from OCI Object Storage.
And to restore the data directly as an OCI VM, you would need a native integration between VBR and OCI, which we don’t have today.

What you can try instead:
1.) In the backup server console, export the VM disks from your backups on OCI Object Storage as VMDKs to a temporary storage
2.) Import the VMDKs in OCI Cloud and create new OCI VMs following Oracle’s image import workflow: https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Cont ... import.htm

Test this first with a test VM.

Best,
Fabian

[miyu.masuda]

Thank you.
Just to confirm, if I back up object storage as a backup repository using Veeam, is my understanding correct that the data will be stored on the object storage side as VMDK files?

[Mildur]

Hi Miyu,

None of our backup jobs (VM or unstructured data) store VMDK files on a backup repository. A backup job stores the content in native Veeam backup files. There is also a different format depending on whether you use unstructured data backup jobs (VBLOB files) or machine backup jobs (VBK, VIB). The data format you will see is also different when you use object storage as a backup repository.

f I back up object storage as a backup repository using Veeam, is my understanding correct that the data will be stored on the object storage side as VMDK files?

I’m not sure I understand. Do you mean using an “Object Storage” backup job to back up the content of a Veeam Backup Repository? It will store your VM backups as VBLOB files. That won't have any benefit for your request.

Best,
Fabian

[miyu.masuda]

Thank you.

What I want to do is:
Set object storage as the destination for VM backups.
After the backup is complete, extract the VMDK files from object storage, copy them to block storage, and launch them on OCI.
That’s it.
Based on the answer above, I understand that after a VM backup is taken, the file formats visible on object storage are VBK and VIB.