Move from classic to modernized VMware disaster recovery  

Article
03/31/2025

This article provides information about the architecture, necessary infrastructure, and FAQs about moving your VMware or Physical machine replications from classic to modernized protection architecture. With this capability to migrate, you can successfully transfer your replicated items from a configuration server to an Azure Site Recovery replication appliance. This migration is guided by a smart replication mechanism, which ensures that complete initial replication isn't performed again for noncritical replicated items, and only the differential data is transferred.

Note

Recovery plans won't be migrated and will need to be created again in the modernized Recovery Services vault.

Architecture 

The components involved in the migration of replicated items of a VMware or Physical machine are summarized in the following table: 

Component	Requirement
Replicated items in a classic Recovery Services vault	One or more replicated items that are protected using the classic architecture and a healthy configuration server. The replicated item should be in a noncritical state and must be replicated from on-premises to Azure with the mobility agent running on version 9.50 or later.
Configuration server used by the replicated items	The configuration server, used by the replicated items, should be in a noncritical state and its components should be upgraded to the latest version (9.50 or later).
A Recovery Services vault with modernized experience	A Recovery Services vault with modernized experience.
A healthy Azure Site Recovery replication appliance	A non-critical Azure Site Recovery replication appliance, which can discover on-premises machines, with all its components upgraded to the latest version (9.50 or later). The exact required versions are as follows: Process server: 9.50 Proxy server: 1.35.8419.34591 Recovery services agent: 2.0.9249.0 Replication service: 1.35.8433.24227

Required infrastructure 

Ensure the following for a successful movement of replicated item:

A Recovery Services vault using the modernized experience.  

Note

Any new Recovery Services vault created will have the modernized experience switched on by default. You can not switch to the classic experience, as its deprecation has already been announced.  
An Azure Site Recovery replication appliance, which has been successfully registered to the vault, and all its components are in a noncritical state.  
The version of the appliance must be 9.50 or later. For a detailed version description, check here.
The vCenter server or vSphere host’s details, where the existing replicated machines reside, are added to the appliance for the on-premises discovery to be successful.

Prerequisites 

Prepare the infrastructure 

Ensure the following before you move from classic architecture to modernized architecture:

Create a Recovery Services vault and ensure the experience hasn't been switched to classic
Deploy an Azure Site Recovery replication appliance.
Add the on-premises machine’s vCenter Server details to the appliance, so that it successfully performs discovery.

Prepare classic Recovery Services vault  

Ensure the following for the replicated items you're planning to move:

The replicated item is a VMware or Physical machine replicating via a configuration server.
Replication isn't happening to an un-managed storage account but rather to managed disk.
Replication is happening from on-premises to Azure and the replicated item isn't in a failed-over or in failed-back state.
The replicated item isn't replicating the data from Azure to on-premises. 
The initial replication isn't under progress and has already been completed.  
The replicated item isn't in the ‘resynchronization’ state. 
The configuration server’s version is 9.50 or later and its health is in a noncritical state. 
The configuration server has a healthy heartbeat. 
The mobility service agent’s version, installed on the source machine, is 9.50 or later. 
The Recovery Services vaults with MSI enabled are supported.
The Recovery Services vaults with Private Endpoints enabled are supported.  
The replicated item’s health is in a noncritical state, or its recovery points are being created successfully.

Prepare modernized Recovery Services vault  

For the modernized architecture setup, ensure that:  

The Recovery Services vault used for modernized architecture setup is in the same geographical location as the classic vault.  
An Azure Site Recovery replication appliance is deployed on your on-premises with version 9.50 or later. 
The appliance is successfully registered to the vault.  
The appliance and all its components are in a noncritical state and the appliance has a healthy heartbeat. 
The vCenter Server version is supported by the modernized architecture. 
The vCenter Server details of the source machine are added to the appliance. 
The Linux distro version is supported by the modernized architecture. Learn more.
The Windows Server version is supported by the modernized architecture. Learn more.

Calculate total time to move 

The total time required to move any replicated item from classic vault to modernized vault depends on the item’s replication status and the disk size.

State	Time to migrate to modernized vault
Replicated item’s protection status is healthy and the last recovery point was created less than 50 minutes ago	Migration is complete in 1-2 hours
Replicated item’s protection status is not healthy or the last recovery point was created more than 50 minutes ago	Migration time will vary, and it will depend on the disk size

If your machines protection status isn't healthy, then use the formula below to calculate the exact time for your machines:

Time to migrate = 1 hour + 45 second/GiB

Machine configuration	Time to migrate
One machine with two disks, both of size 256 GiB	~ 4 hours 15 mins [Both the disks are migrated in parallel]
10 machines with two disks each, both of size 256 GiB	~ 4 hours 15 mins [All the VMs and their disks are migrated in parallel]
One machine with four disks, all of size 512 GiB	~ 7 hours 30 mins [Both the disks are migrated in parallel]
10 machines with four disks each, all of size 512 GiB	~ 7 hours 30 mins [All the VMs and their disks are migrated in parallel]

The same formula is used to calculate time for migration and is shown on the portal.

How to define required infrastructure

When migrating machines from classic to modernized architecture, you'll need to make sure that the required infrastructure has already been registered in the modernized Recovery Services vault. Refer to the replication appliance’s sizing and capacity details to help define the required infrastructure.

As a rule, you should set up the same number of replication appliances, as the number of process servers in your classic Recovery Services vault. In the classic vault, if there was one configuration server and four process servers, then you should set up four replication appliances in the modernized Recovery Services vault.

Pricing

Site Recovery license fee will continue to be charged on the classic vault till retention period of all recovery points has expired. Once all recovery points have been cleaned up, the pricing will also stop on the classic vault. Once the retention period of all the recovery points has expired, the replicated item will be automatically removed via a system triggered purge replication operation.

Site Recovery will start charging license fee on replicated items in the modernized vault, only after the first recovery point has been generated and older vault has been cleaned up. If there are any free trial usage days pending on the classic vault, then the same information will be passed on to the modernized vault. Pricing will start on the modernized vault only after this trial period has passed.