VMware teams are facing growing pressure to modernize infrastructure and reduce costs while maintaining fast, reliable, and secure operations.
To meet these demands strategically and at scale, Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS) can be the next step for these teams, offering scalability and access to a wide range of other AWS services.
Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (FSx for ONTAP) is an AWS-certified external storage option that provides even more benefits from Amazon EVS. To help access the cost and performance benefits of using FSx for ONTAP for Amazon EVS, NetApp® Workload Factory now provides the Amazon EVS migration advisor wizard. This guided planning tool transforms VMware workload migration to Amazon EVS with FSx for ONTAP, creating optimized, data-driven designs that align with AWS Well-Architected Framework recommendations as well as VMware and NetApp best practices.
This article is part of a Workload Factory migration advisor series. Part 1 explored manual mode, where the user defines their configuration parameters. In this post, we’ll show you how to use the migration advisor inventory upload mode to automatically build a migration plan that supports faster, more cost-aware VMware workload migration to Amazon EVS with FSx for ONTAP, using your current VMware inventory and performance data.
Read on as we cover:
How the inventory upload mode works
How to build your migration plan with the inventory upload mode
Prerequisites
Step 1. Upload your VM inventory
Step 2. Specify planning parameters
Step 3. Select storage workload placement
Step 4. Design the datastore layout
Step 5. Review your migration plan
Step 6. (Optional) Provision your migration plan
Ready to build your Amazon EVS migration plan?
How the inventory upload mode works
As VMware environments expand to support consolidated enterprise compute estates, manual resource cataloging becomes increasingly time-consuming and error-prone, making large-scale migration planning difficult. Inventory upload mode in the Workload Factory Amazon EVS migration advisor eases that bottleneck by automatically parsing VMware inventory data and pre-filling migration advisor parameters, producing a complete, best-practice migration plan in minutes.
At the center of this capability is the VMware Planning Center, the management hub for all migration data in Workload Factory. From this screen, VMware architects can upload datasets, track their analysis status, launch migration advisor sessions for each environment, and deploy resources to their Amazon Virtual Public Clouds (Amazon VPCs) based on the migration plans they create.
VMware environment data can be collected using three methods, each designed to provide a different level of detail and insight:
1. RVTools: A free Windows-based utility that can export VMware environment configuration data directly from vCenter. It captures VM names, CPU and memory allocation, storage usage, and datastore mappings, but does not collect runtime performance metrics.
Best for quick assessments where performance data isn’t required.
2. Data Collector: A PowerShell or PowerCLI-based script developed by NetApp. It gathers the environment configuration and collects runtime performance data (IOPS, throughput, latency, etc.) on a user-defined schedule. The data runtime collection captures workload peaks and uses them later to improve planning accuracy.
Best for performance-aware migration planning and well-architected right-sizing.
3. NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights (DII): A Software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based observability platform from NetApp that continuously collects performance metrics across storage, compute, and networking.
Workload Factory connects directly to DII tenant accounts to automatically import environment configuration and runtime performance data. This is similar to Data Collector but without any scripts or manual exports.
Best for continuous, tenant-level analysis at enterprise scale.
Once your VMware inventory and performance data are uploaded, Workload Factory automatically analyzes the information, applies your selected planning parameters, and generates an optimized migration plan for your entire VMware estate. The result is quick, data-driven decision-making and consistent alignment with AWS and VMware best practices, whether you are migrating a handful of workloads or thousands of virtual machines (VMs).
To learn more about how DII supports visibility and clarity in complex environments, read From Unmapped Chaos to Cloud-Ready Clarity: How DII Makes Workload Visibility Simple.
How to build your migration plan with the inventory upload mode
The inventory upload mode workflow in the Workload Factory Amazon EVS migration advisor transforms VMware migration planning into an automated process that produces well-architected results. This section shows how to set up your migration plan using upload mode, step by step.
Note: Inventory upload mode supports migrations from on-premises VMware environments and from VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) sources.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
- A source VMware environment.
- A Workload Factory account with VMware planning access.
- (Optional) AWS account view permissions, if you plan to deploy directly using CloudFormation.
- (Optional) VMware vSphere credentials, if you plan to mount datastores to an Amazon EVS cluster during provisioning.
Step 1. Upload your VM inventory
From your Workload Factory home, open the menu options (three-line icon) in the upper-left corner, and then select the VMware workload.
This will take you to the VMware planning center, where all inventory data and migration projects are managed.
In the VMware planning center, select Upload VM inventory, then follow the dialog prompts to add your dataset using your preferred data source: RVTools, Data Collector, or Data Infrastructure Insights. You assign the dataset a name of your choice, then upload it as a ZIP file containing the VMware inventory information extracted with your selected tool.
In the image below, you can see a collected dataset being imported into the Planning Center with the Data Collector option (note the Codebox on the right displays a PowerShell template that can be used to carry out this same process programmatically):
Select Done when you are finished, and the dataset will appear in your Planning Center dashboard. When its status changes to Available, it’s ready for analysis.
Step 2. Specify planning parameters
Next to your uploaded dataset, select Start planning, then choose AWS Elastic VMware Service from the drop-down menu as your target environment. This opens the Amazon EVS migration advisor wizard.
The migration advisor wizard starts by offering a summary view in the VM configuration upload section that shows VM count, provisioned capacity, and utilized capacity.
From here, you can define your planning parameters, which guide how Workload Factory models your environment:
1. Under VM Inventory Considerations, select your AWS Region.
2. Under Target capacity and protection considerations, specify:
- Datastore capacity: Define the total capacity for your deployment in TiB. (An automatically calculated, optimized capacity recommendation will be available in a future release.)
- Capacity source: Choose whether to base sizing on provisioned or utilized storage.
- Data reduction ratio: Adjust to reflect your environment’s data efficiency profile.
- Headroom percentage: Set between 5% and 25% to allow for growth and Snapshot copies.
- VM Snapshot protection: Enable to include default Snapshot policies in capacity estimates.
Note that this preparatory step mirrors manual mode, but is faster and data-driven.
Learn more about the Amazon EVS migration advisor manual mode in this post.
We recommend keeping the default values, which are pre-populated using NetApp best practices for your storage type.
If unsure about the data reduction ratio, you can also get contextual recommendations by selecting Help me decide. Below you can see the Help me decide analysis for the data reduction ratio qualifier:
Once parameters are set, select Next to proceed.
Step 3. Select storage workload placement
Workload Factory applies your planning inputs to the uploaded data and automatically performs optimization calculations. Specifically, the migration advisor evaluates performance and cost trade-offs between internal vSAN and external FSx for ONTAP datastores.
You can prioritize either cost optimization or recoverability: As you toggle between the two, the recommended deployment options will automatically update.
Here you can see the review screen for workload placement between vSAN and FSx for ONTAP external storage:
In the VMs inventory list, you can review each VM’s proposed target, allowing you to fine-tune workload placement between vSAN and FSx for ONTAP. You can also manually adjust selections in the VM list to refine which workloads move to FSx for ONTAP.
When your selection is finalized, select Next to proceed.
Step 4. Design the datastore layout
After storage placement, Workload Factory analyzes VM performance data to propose a datastore layout that optimizes for throughput and capacity utilization. The system balances workloads based on IOPS, latency, and other performance patterns, applying FSx for ONTAP best practices for volume sizing, Snapshot policy, and provisioning.
Here you can see the review screen for the automatically generated datastore layout:
This stage also includes recommendations for Snapshot buffers and ONTAP efficiency settings, which are necessary to maintain a well-architected configuration. Select Next to continue.
Step 5. Review your migration plan
On the Review plan page, Workload Factory provides a comprehensive summary of your proposed migration design before deployment.
Here you can review the generated migration plan:
This screen includes several sections designed to simplify validation:
- FSx for ONTAP storage capacity analysis displays logical and physical capacity, including VM data, Snapshot buffer, and growth headroom.
- The FSx for ONTAP configuration and cost breakdown summarizes the recommended configuration, including file system count, deployment details, capacity, and estimated monthly cost.
- Datastore layout and VM allocation show how VMs are distributed across datastores, along with projected IOPS, throughput, and capacity allocations.
- Solution design assumptions outline the optimization parameters, architectural assumptions, and sizing guidelines applied in the generated design.
You can export the plan as a PDF or CSV, and share it with relevant stakeholders to review before committing changes in AWS. The plan is also saved automatically for later review and provisioning.
Step 6. (Optional) Provision your migration plan
When you are ready to deploy, you will be redirected to the AWS console, where the template will be ready to use.
Choose your preferred creation mode:
- Quick create uses your selected Region, and applies NetApp and AWS best-practice defaults for Amazon VPC, security group, and Snapshot policy.
- Advanced create offers full customization, including network configuration, mount permissions, and security group rules.
Here you can see the provisioning workflow for the FSx for ONTAP configuration using Quick create mode.
In both cases, follow the on-screen prompts to complete the required deployment fields. The pre-populated fields follow the created migration plan, or NetApp and AWS best practices for VMware (for example, setting NFS.MaxQueueDepth=128 for ESXi host settings).
Your Amazon EVS cluster details are automatically populated from your environment, including vCenter address and administrator credentials for seamless integration.
During provisioning, you can optionally mount the newly created FSx for ONTAP datastores directly to your Amazon EVS cluster. When enabled, Workload Factory automatically configures ESXi settings, connects to your vSphere environment, and mounts the datastores.
Note: You need to reboot the ESXi host for the new NFS.MaxQueueDepth value to take effect.
Once your configuration is complete, you can download the auto-generated Infrastructure-as-Code templates for use in CloudFormation.
Ready to build your Amazon EVS migration plan?
With the inventory upload mode, Workload Factory simplifies VMware-to-Amazon EVS migration planning by creating a data-driven, optimized design based directly on your VMware inventory and performance data.
Whether you are planning a few workloads or migrating thousands of virtual machines, Workload Factory helps you build well-architected, cost-efficient, and performance-balanced plans with FSx for ONTAP as external storage.
To explore how Workload Factory streamlines VMware modernization on AWS, visit the NetApp Workload Factory website or sign in to start planning your VMware migration today.
