Migrating small On-Prem Server w/SQL Server and IIS website

Question

After consolidating and moving much to SaaS I have a small footprint with a local server that I am trying to migrate to Azure. It's Windows Server 2016 running SQL Server 2016 with about 200 GB of data in about 12 databases. Also, running an IIS website on a different server. Currently using VMware.

I want to throw everything onto one VM server in Azure.

My question is can I do this? When I had completed a build, it peeped at me about using Azure Resource Manager as classic is going away and I would need to migrate it all before August. I don't see ARM is it because I am still on the free trial $200 deal?

Anyways, thanks ahead for the help. Trying to get help from MS is strange, I asked a question and then got bombarded with MS partners trying to see their services. I will take any help but thinking Freelancer or something for overwatch.

Answer 1

Hello, @Jesse Verdi ! I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

Can I throw everything onto a single server?

To the best of my knowledge, this is more a question of best practices (which is to run as few instances as possible) vs whether or not it can be done. Having a single point of failure could be mitigated by splitting the load on less powerful and less expensive VMs (the Azure Pricing Calculator can help with planning).

• VM size: Performance best practices for SQL Server on Azure VMs

If you already have everything on a single server and that how you would like to move forward, there are a couple callouts that I've found especially with SQL server:

Q&A: Multiple manage instances on the same VM Server:

• Best practices is to run as few instances per VM as possible (more complexity and risk, less efficient)
• Do not put all files in F:\SQLDATA
• Use separate drives for management of data and logs
• Monitor max memory and don't forget about OS when configuring the VM
• Blog by David Klee: Multiple SQL Server Instances on a VM
• Blog by Brent Ozar: Should I Install Multiple Instances of SQL Server?

Q&A: Deploy Multiple SQL Server Instance in Azure SQL VM

• Performance tuning and maintenance adds challenges
• Install SQL server instances in order from oldest to newest
• Some components will be shared by all instances by default
• SQL Server SysPrep does not fully support multiple instances

What about ARM?

You'll want to use Azure Resource Manager as that is now the standard deployment model. ARM is used behind the scenes when you deploy resources with the Azure portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure SDKs, and Azure Rest clients (even with free/trial subscriptions):

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/overview

How do I migrate?

Migration is a very large subject so I'll include some documentation that should get you started:

• Migrate machines as physical servers to Azure
• Migrate on-premises machines to Azure

That's a lot to cover but hopefully this has been helpful and has provided you with information that you need.

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