AWS and Microsoft and how to migrate your on-premise workload to AWS.

A quite number of people asked me about running Microsoft workload on AWS. I realized that some guidance I provided maybe beneficial for other that want to run Microsoft workload on AWS. here I want to share several information/links that can help you make that decision.

The complete FAQ can be found here.

I want to highlight several questions that frequently asked and also share several tools that can help you migrate your Windows based workload to AWS.

Q: Is Microsoft software supported on AWS?

Yes. AWS Support has been successfully supporting our customers who run Microsoft Windows-based EC2 instances in the AWS cloud since 2008 when we first launched Windows Server on EC2. Our support engineers have deep experience with Microsoft technologies on AWS including Amazon EC2, Amazon ECS, Amazon RDS, Amazon Workspaces and others. Now AWS has further enhanced our support capabilities with a new additional direct engagement between AWS Support and Microsoft Support, to help ensure high quality support and issue resolution for our customers. To find more information on end of support (EOS) for Microsoft products go?here.

AWS is a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, licensed to sell Microsoft software under the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA), and a Microsoft Gold Certified Hosting Partner. AWS is an authorized Microsoft License Mobility Partner and has an active Premier Support agreement with Microsoft.

Q. Can AWS open a support case with Microsoft on issues I might encounter?

Yes, AWS Support can work directly with Microsoft support engineers to escalate a support case if necessary to resolve issues encountered by AWS Support customers at the Business or Enterprise tier. AWS will not share any Customer information or specific details without your permission.

Q. How does AWS work with Microsoft to resolve customer issues?

Customers who subscribe to AWS Support at the Business or Enterprise tier can submit issues through the AWS Support Center console. If the AWS Support Engineer finds that the problem is due to a Microsoft product or driver, the AWS Support Engineer can file a case with Microsoft and proceed with joint troubleshooting. The customer may be asked to document their authorization and permission for jointly engaging directly with Microsoft before AWS shares any Customer information or specific details.

Q. What types of Microsoft software can I run on AWS?

You can run many types of Microsoft software on AWS, including but not limited to: Microsoft Office, Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Microsoft Dynamics products, System Center, BizTalk, and Remote Desktop Services. You can use license included instances that include the license for Windows Server and SQL Server on Amazon EC2 or Amazon RDS. AWS customers have the flexibility of bringing on-premises Microsoft volume licenses and deploying them on Amazon EC2 instances subject to Microsoft license terms.

Q. What are my options for running Microsoft software that is approaching EOS?

AWS customers running EOS software on EC2 instances have several options:

Remain on EOS software: Customers may decide to remain on EOS software. There will be no impact to existing instances, or to custom AMIs.

Automated upgrade: For customers with SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2, AWS Systems Manager automates the performance of non-destructive in-place upgrades. SQL Server 2008 R2 customers can upgrade to SQL Server 2012 R2 and again to SQL Server 2016 (BYOL only). Windows Server 2008 R2 customers can upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2. For customers with a License Included (LI) version of Windows Server or SQL Server, there is no additional licensing cost to upgrade. For more information, please?click here.

Manual in-place upgrade for Microsoft Windows Server:

License Included: Customers using Amazon License Included for Windows Server can perform in-place upgrades for their Windows instances. For more information,?click here.

BYOL: Customers using the BYOL model can perform a manual in-place upgrade for Windows Server following the steps referenced in the License Included option above, using their own Media.

Manual in-place upgrade for Microsoft SQL Server:

License Included: AWS customers using License Included SQL Server can perform in-place upgrades on running instances. Please contact AWS support for additional assistance and detail on upgrade paths.

BYOL: Customers using the BYOL model can perform a manual in-place upgrade for SQL Server using their Media. For more information,?click here.

Explore other platform options. AWS is committed to offering its customers the most flexibility in the cloud. AWS customers interested in the benefits of migrating certain SQL Server or Windows workloads to a different platform can contact their AWS account teams for more information.

For more information on all of Amazon’s products and Services,?click here.

AWS provide service called EMP for Windows Server

AWS helps customers with migration of their legacy Windows Server applications to the latest, supported versions of Windows Server on AWS, without any code changes. Many organizations struggle with migrating their legacy applications due to tight dependencies on older, unsupported operating systems (OS), limited in-house expertise, and/or missing access to installation media or source code. Moreover, getting extended support for these applications does not resolve the inevitable end of support problem, it just delays the inevitable. To mitigate these challenges, AWS offers the End-of-Support Migration Program (EMP) for Windows Server.

EMP for Windows Server includes tooling to migrate your legacy applications from Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 to newer, supported versions on AWS, without any refactoring. The EMP tool decouples the applications from the underlying OS, enabling the migration of your critical applications to newer, supported versions of Windows Server on AWS.?Customers can use the EMP tool freely as a?self-service option?or with the help of AWS Partners or AWS Professional Services. A?user guide?is also available for customers who want to use the tool themselves.?

Q. Can I purchase Extended Security Updates to cover instances that run on AWS, utilizing Microsoft EOS software?

Yes, Extended Security Updates are available directly from Microsoft or a Microsoft licensing partner. Read more about Microsoft's Extended Security Updates?here.

Q. If I have further questions around the use of Microsoft EOS on AWS, whom should I contact?

Please email [email protected].

Q. How frequently does AWS patch Windows AMIs?

AWS provides updated, fully patched Windows AMIs within 5 business days of Microsoft’s patch Tuesday (second Tuesday of each month).

Q. How can I run Windows containers?

Launch an instance with the new Windows Server 2019 with Containers AMI. You can find a sample walkthrough in the?AWS Blog.

Q. What AWS regions support Windows Server 2019?

Windows Server 2019 is available in all public and GovCloud AWS regions.

Q. Does Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) support Windows containers?

Yes.?Amazon ECS supports Windows containers on container instances that are launched with the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows AMI.

Migration from On-premise to AWS

Migration Tools/Resources

AWS can help you to Assess -> Mobilize -> Migrate or Modernize with these tools/resources:

TO ASSESS:

Migration Evaluator?(Formerly TSO Logic) delivers accurate data-driven recommendations to right-size and right-cost compute. Our predictive analytics provide insights on an ongoing basis to ensure that you are always running each application in the best place, with the right software and at the lowest TCO—even as your environment, cloud options, and prices change. Migration Evaluator helps you build a clear business case to accelerate your migration planning.

AWS Migration Hub?provides a single location to track the progress of application migrations across multiple AWS and partner solutions. Migration Hub allows you to choose the AWS and partner migration tools that best fit your needs, while providing visibility into the status of migrations across your portfolio of applications. Migration Hub also provides key metrics and progress for individual applications, regardless of which tools are being used to migrate each of the applications. When you just need to generate right-sized EC2 instance recommendations for running on-premises workloads in AWS, use Migration Hub.

AWS Prescriptive Guidance?provides time-tested strategies, guides, and patterns from AWS and AWS Partners to help accelerate your cloud migration, modernization, or optimization projects. These resources were developed by experts and are based on years of experience helping customers realize their business objectives on AWS.

use this link to get started.

TO MOBILIZE

AWS Application Discovery Service?helps you plan migration projects by gathering information about your on-premises data centers. AWS Application Discovery Service collects and presents configuration, usage, and behavior data from your servers to help you better understand your workloads.

AWS Management and Governance

With?AWS Management and Governance?services, customers don’t have to choose between innovation and control—they can have both. Customers choose AWS to help manage and govern their AWS and non-AWS resources. AWS provides services for end-to-end IT lifecycle management, helping customers control and secure their environments, reduce costs, simplify compliance, and enhance operational efficiency.

AWS Landing Zone?solution helps you set up a secure, multi-account AWS environment based on AWS best practices. Before you start to migrate first few applications, Landing Zone solution helps set-up your initial security baseline for your core accounts and resources.

AWS Control Tower?helps setup an automated landing zone, which is a well-architected, multi-account AWS environment. You can use Control Tower to manage your AWS environment during and after the migration. During the application migration process, Control Tower dashboards provide continuous visibility into your AWS environment.

TO MIGRATE

AWS Application Migration Service (AWS MGN)?to quickly lift and shift (rehost) a large number of servers from physical, virtual, or cloud infrastructure to AWS. AWS MGN automatically converts your source servers to run natively on AWS, and simplifies your migration by enabling you to use the same automated process for a wide range of applications

AWS Server Migration Service?is an agentless service which makes it easier and faster for you to migrate thousands of on-premises workloads to AWS from a snapshot of the existing serve (use this if you cant use agent base service to be installed in your servers).

If you have VMware Cloud Foundation-based environments,?VMware Cloud on AWS?allows you to quickly relocate hundreds of applications virtualized on vSphere to the AWS Cloud in just days, while maintaining consistent operations with your on-premises environments.

AWS Database Migration Service?keeps the source database fully operational during the migration, minimizing downtime to applications that rely on the database.

With AWS broad partners in Marketplace, you potentially still can use solution that you are using on-premise to be utilized in AWS.

AWS Marketplace?is a curated digital catalog that helps you reduce costs by not over-purchasing with an in-perpetuity license. You can find, buy, deploy, and manage over 7,000 third-party software listings and services from more than 1,500 unique ISVs to build solutions for your business.

AWS DataSync?automates moving data between on-premises storage and Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS), or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server transferring data at speeds up to 10 times faster than open-source tools.

The?AWS Snow Family, comprised of AWS Snowcone, AWS Snowball, and AWS Snowmobile, offers a number of physical devices and capacity points, most with built-in computing capabilities.

To transfer files directly into or out of Amazon S3 using the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), File Transfer Protocol over SSL (FTPS), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), we have?AWS Transfer Family. No matter the use case, we have a data transfer method that fits your needs.

Service Catalog?is a service to create and manage catalogs of IT services that are approved for use on AWS. These IT services can include everything from virtual machine images, servers, software, and databases to complete multi-tier application architectures. AWS Service Catalog allows you to centrally manage commonly deployed IT services, and helps you achieve consistent governance and meet your compliance requirements, while enabling users to quickly deploy only the approved IT services they need.

Also I would like to mention this program called OLA (Optimization and Licensing Assessment)

When you are evaluating options for migrating to the cloud or reducing licensing costs, you can take advantage of an AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (AWS OLA) to save on third party licensing costs and run your resources more efficiently.

AWS OLA is a free program for new and existing customers to assess and optimize current on-premises and cloud environments, based on actual resource utilization, third-party licensing, and application dependencies. Click?here?to sign up so the AWS OLA team can help you.

Use AWS OLA to help you build your migration and licensing strategy on AWS. AWS OLA will provide you with a report that will model your deployment options, using existing licensing entitlements. These results can help you explore available cost savings across our flexible licensing options. AWS OLA can also be used in combination with?MAP for Windows, providing you with tools, support, and resources during your cloud migration.

I also want to highlight this tool to troubleshoot your EC2 running Windows Server

EC2Rescue for EC2 Windows

What is EC2Rescue for Windows?

EC2Rescue for EC2 Windows is a convenient, straightforward, GUI-based troubleshooting tool that can be run on your Amazon EC2 Windows Server instances to troubleshoot operating system-level issues and collect advanced logs and configuration files for further analysis. EC2Rescue simplifies and expedites the troubleshooting of EC2 Windows instances. For more information, visit?here.

Disclaimers: Information above are collected from various AWS websites to give readers a high-level knowledge on how AWS supporting Microsoft workloads and the options to migrate those workload from on-premises to AWS. For the most updated information, please refer to AWS websites.

as always, if you have questions, feel free to ping me on Linkedin.

#AWS #Microsoft #Cloud #migration #OLA #EMP #Windows #SQL