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4 Planning the migration
Planning a migration strategy
One challenge in migrating operating systems, applications, and data is modifying the migrated
operating system to boot on the destination server and to function properly on the hardware. Insight
Control server migration makes the required operating system changes for you.
To best prepare for a migration, consider developing a migration strategy before you run a
migration. Migration strategies vary depending on machine hardware, network landscape, and
applications. To develop a migration strategy, review the following before beginning your migration.
Preparing a schedule
Schedule preparation is an essential part of planning a migration strategy.
Be sure to include adequate time for copying data, because the source server will be offline until
the migration is complete. Large volumes take time to migrate. Under optimal conditions, 1 GB of
data requires 2 to 3 minutes to migrate. Using 2 minutes as a best-case scenario, migrating 500
GB of data might take more than 17 hours.
When a migration starts, the source server reboots to a minimal configuration so that no updates
occur on the source server during migration. Only those services required for the migration are
enabled.
Applications that normally run on the server are not available during migration. After the migration
is complete, the source server is restored to its premigration state.
Schedule the migration to occur at a time when the source server can be offline.
Considerations for multiboot systems
Although Insight Control server migration supports migrating multi-boot systems, consider the
following:
• A supported operating system must be set as the default operating system for the boot disk.
• The migration wizard enables the migration of all partitions with supported file systems.
Unsupported operating systems on those partitions are also enabled for migration, but Insight
Control server migration does not support them.
• If unsupported operating systems are migrated, they might be detected, but proper drivers
might not be installed. This issue can leave the unsupported operating system on the destination
server unable to be booted.
Migrating large NTFS partitions
Insight Control server migration cannot migrate NTFS partitions greater than 2 TB in size.
Resizing file systems for migration
During the migration progress, the partitions being migrated can be resized. There are some file
system caveats to be aware of that might affect the migration of your data.
Resizing Windows file systems
Insight Control server migration supports resizing and migration of NTFS volumes. However, some
conditions may prevent server migration from resizing NTFS partitions:
• Large NTFS partitions or NTFS partitions that have too many clusters, resulting in large volume
cluster bitmaps that cannot be resized. In some cases, the volume might be recognized as
18 Planning the migration