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Inquiry: Migration tools for transitioning from Azure Lab Services to DevTest Labs

Cai, Peter 20 Reputation points
2026-03-30T19:10:53.86+00:00

Hi Azure Support Team,

With the upcoming retirement of Azure Lab Services, we are currently planning our transition and evaluating Azure DevTest Labs as our target platform.

Could you please advise if Microsoft provides any official migration services, automated tools, or scripts to help seamlessly migrate our existing Lab Services assets (such as custom images, templates, user quotas, and schedules) over to DevTest Labs?

Any guidance, documentation, or best practices you can share regarding this specific migration path would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards,

Peter

Azure DevTest Labs
Azure DevTest Labs

An Azure service that is used for provisioning development and test environments.

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  1. Jilakara Hemalatha 13,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-30T20:56:13.0066667+00:00

    Hello Cai,

    Thanks for reaching out about transitioning from Azure Lab Services to Azure DevTest Labs.

    At this time, there isn’t an official Microsoft tool or automated method to migrate resources directly between these two services. Based on the available documentation and internal confirmation, we don’t currently have any migration tool, and the setup would need to be recreated in DevTest Labs.

    Since both services are built differently, configurations like lab templates, user quotas, and schedules won’t carry over automatically and need to be set up again.

    As a recommended approach, you can consider the following:

    • Export or capture your existing VM images and reuse them in DevTest Labs (for example, via Azure Compute Gallery)
    • Recreate your lab configurations, VM sizes, and policies in DevTest Labs
    • Set up users, quotas, and schedules again using DevTest Labs features

    You can also use ARM templates, Azure CLI, or PowerShell to automate parts of this process, although there isn’t a single script that handles everything end-to-end.

    Please refer below documentations

    Azure Lab Services retirement guide

    Azure Lab Services to Azure DevTest Labs Transition Guide

    Configure a shared image gallery in Azure DevTest Labs

    Manage lab policies in Azure DevTest Labs

    Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any queries.

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  1. Marcin Policht 89,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-03-30T19:35:06.54+00:00

    Unfortunately, there are no natively available tools to streamline the migration. However, Microsoft provide some guidance regarding the process to follow. For details, refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/lab-services/transition-devtest-labs-guidance

    Transition steps

    1. Verify compute quota limits - DevTest Labs uses quota assigned to Compute when creating VMs. Increase compute quota, if needed.
    2. Configure Lab settings
      1. Images
      2. Restrict Marketplace images students can use. You can prevent students from using Marketplace images in totality.
      3. Enable custom images as applicable by connecting your DevTest Labs to a Shared Image Gallery. The gallery can be the same gallery you used with Azure Lab Services.
      4. DTL also supports creating VMs from uploaded VHD files.
      5. SKU selection - Consider enabling VM sizes equivalent to Azure Labs SKUs. See Azure Lab Services VM Sizes for mappings to make sure to choose sizes that supported the shared ip configuration option.
      6. VM Limitations - Set max number of VMs per user to 1.
      7. Shutdown policies
      8. Set autoshutdown time to ensure VMs are automatically turned off every day.
      9. Set autoshutdown policy to 'User has no control over the schedule set by lab administrator.' If students are in multiple time zones, choose 'User sets a schedule and can't opt out' instead.
      10. Turn off autostart for the lab.
      11. Virtual Network. If your lab needs access to a license server, add a virtual network in Azure DevTest Labs.
      12. Web browser access - Optionally, enable browser connection to DevTest Labs VMs with Azure Bastion.
    3. Create lab - Quickstart: Create a lab in the Azure portal - Azure DevTest Labs.
      1. Cost Tracking - Use custom tags for cost tracking in Microsoft Cost Management as it allows more nuanced cost analysis of underlying resources. Allow tag inheritance and add tags to lab resource.
    4. Claimable VMs - Optionally, precreate claimable VMs to ensure VMs are created with expected settings. Students can use the 'claim any' command to assign a precreated claimable VM to themselves.
      1. Using advanced settings, multiple identical VMs can be created at once.
      2. Using advanced settings, set the expiration date for claimable VMs. VMs will automatically be deleted after their expiration date and avoid unnecessary storage charges.
    5. Add Users - Add lab owners, contributors, and users in Azure DevTest Labs.
    6. Configure Dashboard - Optionally, create a dashboard in the Azure portal to allow students to find their labs more easily.

    If the above response helps answer your question, remember to "Accept Answer" so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution. Your contribution is highly appreciated.

    hth

    Marcin

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