Dr. Migrate Documentation
Dr Migrate
User Guide
Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

When generating costing in Azure for ASR, what site is selected as the recovery region?
When calculating Azure Site Recovery pricing the cost of the primary region is used.c The cost is derived for ASR as: (FLAT RATE PER VM x COST OF STORAGE FOR VM).

What is a zombie server?
A zombie server is a server that has a combined CPU utilization + RAM utilization of < 10%.
For example a server with peak RAM usage of 3% and CPU usage of 4% would qualify.

What security due diligence do uncertified Power BI visuals receive?
While a “Power BI certified” badge requires a higher level of review to achieve, every single application published to App Source undergoes a rigorous base set of testing by the Microsoft App Source team. It is not possible to publish any random codebase to AppSource. As such, uncertified custom visuals meet a satisfactory minimum level of security. These review steps are documented here

Will the SQL assessment scan row level data in databases?
No, the SQL assessments collect metadata at the instance and database level but do not have visibility to data within the databases themselves.

Can a Government customer request a Dr Migrate SaaS instance?
No, if the customer has a Government tenant they will not be able to consume Dr Migrate SaaS.

How is AI used in Dr Migrate, is it connected to an external model?
We’d all be familiar with the latest LLMs like Claude, Grok, GPT etc. As opposed to these LLMs, Dr Migrate utilizes a localized, non-internet connected SLM. This SLM has been built to perform the specific tasks of classification within the Dr Migrate context and does not reach out to the internet.

Functionally the SLM performs the following main tasks:

  1. Examines machine data (VM name, description, network data, installed applications) in order to predict business application groupings
  2. Processes all server data to assess and recommend application sizing
  3. Processes application groupings and sizing to create a wave-plan for delivery execution.

Can Azure Migrate be used to scan AWS or GCP workloads?
Yes

Can Dr Migrate be installed from Azure Marketplace into the Korean Azure regions?
Currently Dr Migrate cannot be installed to Korean Azure tenants. If you are a Korean customer looking to deploy Dr Migrate please reach out to support@altra.cloud to understand your options.

For TCO estimates, can a specific retention rate be customised for backup?
Retention policy of backup regardless of configuration ultimately ends up in the required backup storage being a multiple of the allocated storage.

For example:
A backup policy of once yearly would be very close to a backup storage factor of 1.0.
The more frequent the backup policy the higher storage factor.
This factor defaults to ‘2.5’ and is exposed in the TCO settings in Dr Migrate under:
Setup → TCO Config → On-Premises Benchmark → Storage Cost

To determine your own custom factor:

  1. Head to Pricing Calculator | Microsoft Azure
  2. Load Azure Backup
  3. Set storage at 10 GB and configure the policy.
  4. Next divide the average monthly backup requirement by the storage (17/10 = 1.7)
  5. Update your new backup factor as 1.7 and save in the Dr M TCO settings.

Can the bulk tag or app to server template imports from spreadsheet remove data?
The best way to ensure you don’t lose data when using the bulk tag feature is to consistently generate a new export template each time you want to make changes. Each time an export is run it effectively “snapshots” the current dataset. So to ensure you have the latest dataset remember to generate a new template each time you want to make major changes. If you want to make a singular change to a single server then I’d recommend using the server of app feature in the Inventory section.

For Dr Migrate SaaS where is data hosted and how long is data retained for?
Each customer deployed to the SaaS solution has their solution placed in a dedicated resource group that can be tailored to a specific region. The data for any Dr M deployment is held on the storage account and virtual machine disk / database that resides in that particular solution.

For example, an ANZ customer will currently have all their Dr M solution resources placed within the Australia South East region, each customer will have their own dedicated resource group.

Once a license expires the customer receives a final notification asking if they would like a copy of their data or if they would like to extend their license. If they choose to end their use of Dr Migrate, the managed application and resource group are scheduled for deletion typically within 7 days after which point no data remains.

For Power BI configuration, Service Principles can use Fabric APIs – Why is this required and what APIs will it be connecting to?
The Dr Migrate SPN is leveraged to refresh the Power BI report so that the embedded report in the Dr Migrate Web UI can stay in sync with the latest data. Find here a list of all Dr Migrate API calls (including Power BI)

For Power BI configuration, Allow Service Principles to create and use profiles – Why is this required?
This setting allows the publishing of multiple reports all rehomed to a single dataset in the workspace.

For Power BI configuration, why is an on-premise data gateway required and who will be responsible/administering the gateway?
The gateway allows the SQL database that sits on the Dr Migrate VM to refresh data to the dataset that resides within the Power BI workspace. The gateway is created and configured by automation. Should you wish, you can update the contact details of the gateway to point to a relevant team member contact. Typically the Dr Migrate on prem gateway requires little to no administration.

For Power BI configuration, why is it an already existing data gateway cannot be used? Why does a new one need to be deployed?
You cannot use an already existing data gateway because the Dr Migrate code does not cater to such a scenario. This provides a cleaner solution, keeping Dr Migrate in a bubble.

What API security protocols there in place with access to 3rd parties and how this is managed?
No 3rd parties have any access to the APIs run in Dr Migrate. In essence all API calls are made from the Dr Migrate host that sits on the customer’s tenant.
Altra is considered a secondary party that could access some of these API’s but this could only be done from the Dr Migrate host itself which has the following protections:

  1. Bastion ensures all access is logged and auditable through Azure Activity Logging.
  2. Strict AD controls within Altra significantly limit and control the parties able to access a host (only break-fix support scenarios).
  3. Altra adheres to SOC and GDPR security standards.
  4. All data sent to and from the Dr Migrate host is encrypted at rest and in transit.
  5. Dr Migrate is routinely Pen tested.