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Metadata that an Azure Migrate appliance discovers

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The Azure Migrate Discovery and Assessment tool uses the lightweight Azure Migrate appliance to discover servers running in your environment and send server configuration and performance metadata to Azure.

This article provides details about the metadata that the Azure Migrate appliance discovers. This metadata helps you assess server readiness for migration to Azure, right-size servers, and plan costs. Microsoft doesn't use this data in any license compliance audit.

Collected metadata for VMware servers

The appliance collects data about configuration, performance, installed applications, roles, and features (software inventory) from servers running in your VMware environment. It also collects dependency data, if agentless dependency analysis is enabled.

Here's the full list of server metadata that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data Counter
Server details
Server ID vm.Config.InstanceUuid
Server name vm.Config.Name
vCenter Server ID VMwareClient.Instance.Uuid
Server description vm.Summary.Config.Annotation
License product name vm.Client.ServiceContent.About.LicenseProductName
Operating system type vm.SummaryConfig.GuestFullName
Boot type vm.Config.Firmware
Number of cores vm.Config.Hardware.NumCPU
Memory (MB) vm.Config.Hardware.MemoryMB
Number of disks vm.Config.Hardware.Device.ToList().FindAll(x => is VirtualDisk).count
Disk size list vm.Config.Hardware.Device.ToList().FindAll(x => is VirtualDisk)
Network adapters list vm.Config.Hardware.Device.ToList().FindAll(x => is VirtualEthernet).count
CPU utilization cpu.usage.average
Memory utilization mem.usage.average
Processor model/name vm.Config.Hardware.CpuModel
Number of sockets in a processor vm.Config.Hardware.NumCpuPkgs
Per-disk details
Disk key value disk.Key
Disk unit number disk.UnitNumber
Disk controller key value disk.ControllerKey.Value
Gigabytes provisioned virtualDisk.DeviceInfo.Summary
Disk name Value generated using disk.UnitNumber, disk.Key, disk.ControllerKey.VAlue
Read operations per second virtualDisk.numberReadAveraged.average
Write operations per second virtualDisk.numberWriteAveraged.average
Read throughput (MB per second) virtualDisk.read.average
Write throughput (MB per second) virtualDisk.write.average
Per-NIC details
Network adapter name nic.Key
MAC address ((VirtualEthernetCard)nic).MacAddress
IPv4 addresses vm.Guest.Net
IPv6 addresses vm.Guest.Net
Read throughput (MB per second) net.received.average
Write throughput (MB per second) net.transmitted.average
Inventory path details
Name container.GetType().Name
Type of child object container.ChildType
Reference details container.MoRef
Parent details Container.Parent
Folder details per server ((Folder)container).ChildEntity.Type
Datacenter details per server ((Datacenter)container).VmFolder
Datacenter details per host folder ((Datacenter)container).HostFolder
Cluster details per host ((ClusterComputeResource)container).Host
Host details per server ((HostSystem)container).VM

Performance metadata

Here's the performance data that an appliance collects for a server running on VMware and sends to Azure:

Data Counter Assessment impact
CPU utilization cpu.usage.average Recommended server size/cost
Memory utilization mem.usage.average Recommended server size/cost
Disk read throughput (MB per second) virtualDisk.read.average Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
Disk writes throughput (MB per second) virtualDisk.write.average Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
Disk read operations per second virtualDisk.numberReadAveraged.average Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
Disk writes operations per second virtualDisk.numberWriteAveraged.average Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
NIC read throughput (MB per second) net.received.average Calculation for server size
NIC writes throughput (MB per second) net.transmitted.average Calculation for server size

Collected metadata for Hyper-V servers

The appliance collects data about configuration, performance, installed applications, roles, and features (software inventory) from servers running in your Hyper-V environment. It also collects dependency data, if agentless dependency analysis is enabled.

Here's the full list of server metadata that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data WMI class WMI class property
Server details
Serial number of BIOS Msvm_BIOSElement BIOSSerialNumber
Server type (Generation 1 or 2) Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData VirtualSystemSubType
Server display name Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData ElementName
Server version Msvm_ProcessorSettingData VirtualQuantity
Memory (bytes) Msvm_MemorySettingData VirtualQuantity
Maximum memory that the server can consume Msvm_MemorySettingData Limit
Dynamic memory enabled Msvm_MemorySettingData DynamicMemoryEnabled
Operating system name/version/FQDN Msvm_KvpExchangeComponent GuestIntrinsicExchangeItems Name Data
Server power status Msvm_ComputerSystem EnabledState
Per-disk details
Disk identifier Msvm_VirtualHardDiskSettingData VirtualDiskId
Virtual hard disk type Msvm_VirtualHardDiskSettingData Type
Virtual hard disk size Msvm_VirtualHardDiskSettingData MaxInternalSize
Virtual hard disk parent Msvm_VirtualHardDiskSettingData ParentPath
Per-NIC details
IP addresses (synthetic NICs) Msvm_GuestNetworkAdapterConfiguration IPAddresses
DHCP enabled (synthetic NICs) Msvm_GuestNetworkAdapterConfiguration DHCPEnabled
NIC ID (synthetic NICs) Msvm_SyntheticEthernetPortSettingData InstanceID
NIC MAC address (synthetic NICs) Msvm_SyntheticEthernetPortSettingData Address
NIC ID (legacy NICs) MsvmEmulatedEthernetPortSetting Data InstanceID
NIC MAC ID (legacy NICs) MsvmEmulatedEthernetPortSetting Data Address

Performance data

Here's the server performance data that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Performance counter class Counter Assessment impact
Hyper-V hypervisor virtual processor % Guest Run Time Recommended server size/cost
Hyper-V dynamic memory server Current Pressure (%)
Guest Visible Physical Memory (MB)		 Recommended server size/cost
Hyper-V virtual storage device Read Bytes/Second Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
Hyper-V virtual storage device Write Bytes/Second Calculation for disk size, storage cost, server size
Hyper-V virtual network adapter Bytes Received/Second Calculation for server size
Hyper-V virtual network adapter Bytes Sent/Second Calculation for server size
  • CPU utilization is the sum of all usage for all virtual processors attached to a server.
  • Memory utilization is (Current Pressure * Guest Visible Physical Memory) / 100.
  • Disk and network utilization values are collected from the listed Hyper-V performance counters.

Collected data for physical servers

The appliance collects data about configuration, performance, installed applications, roles, and features (software inventory) from physical servers or from servers running on other clouds (like AWS or GCP). It also collects dependency data if agentless dependency analysis is enabled.

Windows server metadata

Here's the full list of Windows server metadata that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data WMI class WMI class property
FQDN Win32_ComputerSystem Domain, Name, PartOfDomain
Processor core count Win32_PRocessor NumberOfCores
Memory allocated Win32_ComputerSystem TotalPhysicalMemory
BIOS serial number Win32_ComputerSystemProduct IdentifyingNumber
BIOS GUID Win32_ComputerSystemProduct UUID
Boot type Win32_DiskPartition Check for partition with Type = GPT:System for EFI/BIOS
OS name Win32_OperatingSystem Caption
OS version Win32_OperatingSystem Version
OS architecture Win32_OperatingSystem OSArchitecture
Disk count Win32_DiskDrive Model, Size, DeviceID, MediaType, Name
Disk size Win32_DiskDrive Size
NIC list Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Description, Index
NIC IP address Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration IPAddress
NIC MAC address Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration MACAddress

Windows server performance data

Here's the Windows server performance data that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data WMI class WMI class property
CPU usage Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Processor PercentIdleTime
Memory usage Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfOS_Memory AvailableMBytes
NIC count Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_NetworkInterface Network device count
Data received per NIC Win32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_NetworkInterface BytesReceivedPerSec
Data transmitted per NIC BWin32_PerfFormattedData_Tcpip_NetworkInterface BytesSentPersec
Disk count BWin32_PerfFormattedData_PerfDisk_PhysicalDisk Count of disks
Disk details Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfDisk_PhysicalDisk DiskWritesPerSec, DiskWriteBytesPerSec, DiskReadsPerSec, DiskReadBytesPerSec

Linux server metadata

Here's the full list of Linux server metadata that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data Commands
FQDN cat /proc/sys/kernel/hostname, hostname -f
Processor core count cat /proc/cpuinfo \| awk '/^processor/{print $3}' \| wc -l
Memory allocated cat /proc/meminfo \| grep MemTotal \| awk '{printf "%.0f", $2/1024}'
BIOS serial number lshw \| grep "serial:" \| head -n1 \| awk '{print $2}'
/usr/sbin/dmidecode -t 1 \| grep 'Serial' \| awk '{ $1="" ; $2=""; print}'
BIOS GUID cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_uuid
Boot type [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo EFI \|\| echo BIOS
OS name/version We access these files for the OS version and name:

/etc/os-release
/usr/lib/os-release
/etc/enterprise-release
/etc/redhat-release
/etc/oracle-release
/etc/SuSE-release
/etc/lsb-release
/etc/debian_version
OS architecture uname -m
Disk count fdisk -l \| egrep 'Disk.*bytes' \| awk '{print $2}' \| cut -f1 -d ':'
Boot disk df /boot \| sed -n 2p \| awk '{print $1}'
Disk size fdisk -l \| egrep 'Disk.*bytes' \| egrep $disk: \| awk '{print $5}'
NIC list ip -o -4 addr show \| awk '{print $2}'
NIC IP address ip addr show $nic \| grep inet \| awk '{print $2} \| cut -f1 -d "/"
NIC MAC address ip addr show $nic \| grep ether \| awk '{print $2}'

Linux server performance data

Here's the Linux server performance data that the appliance collects and sends to Azure:

Data Commands
CPU usage cat /proc/stat/ \| grep 'cpu' /proc/stat
Memory usage free \| grep Mem \| awk '{print $3/$2 * 100.0}'
NIC count lshw -class network \| grep eth[0-60] \| wc -l
Data received per NIC cat /sys/class/net/eth$nic/statistics/rx_bytes
Data transmitted per NIC cat /sys/class/net/eth$nic/statistics/tx_bytes
Disk count fdisk -l \| egrep 'Disk.*bytes' \| awk '{print $2}' \| cut -f1 -d ':'
Disk details cat /proc/diskstats

Software inventory data

The appliance collects data about installed applications, roles, and features (software inventory) from servers running in a VMware environment or Hyper-V environment, from physical servers, or from servers running on other clouds (like AWS or GCP).

Windows server application data

Here's the software inventory data that the appliance collects from each discovered Windows server:

Data Registry ___location Key
Application name HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*
HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*		 DisplayName
Version HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*
HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*		 DisplayVersion
Provider HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*
HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*		 Publisher

Windows server feature data

Here's the feature data that the appliance collects from each discovered Windows server:

Data PowerShell cmdlet Property
Name Get-WindowsFeature Name
Feature type Get-WindowsFeature FeatureType
Parent Get-WindowsFeature Parent

Windows server operating system data

Here's the operating system data that the appliance collects from each discovered Windows server:

Data WMI class WMI class property
Name Win32_operatingsystem Caption
Version Win32_operatingsystem Version
Architecture Win32_operatingsystem OSArchitecture

SQL Server data

Here's the SQL Server data that the appliance collects from each discovered Windows server:

Data Registry ___location Key
Name HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Names\SQL installedInstance
Edition HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\<InstanceName>\Setup Edition
Service pack HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\<InstanceName>\Setup SP
Version HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\<InstanceName>\Setup Version

Linux server application data

Here's the software inventory data that the appliance collects from each discovered Linux server. Based on the operating system of the server, one or more of the commands are run.

Data Commands
Name rpm, dpkg-query, snap
Version rpm, dpkg-query, snap
Provider rpm, dpkg-query, snap

Linux server operating system data

Here's the operating system data that the appliance collects from each discovered Linux server:

Data Commands
Name/version Gathered from one or more of the following files:

/etc/os-release
/usr/lib/os-release
/etc/enterprise-release
/etc/redhat-release
/etc/oracle-release
/etc/SuSE-release
/etc/lsb-release
/etc/debian_version
Architecture uname

SQL Server instance and database data

The Azure Migrate appliance that's used for discovery of VMware VMs can also collect data on SQL Server instances and databases.

SQL database metadata

Database metadata Views/ SQL Server properties
Unique identifier of the database sys.databases
Server-defined database ID sys.databases
Name of the database sys.databases
Compatibility level of the database sys.databases
Collation name of the database sys.databases
State of the database sys.databases
Size of the database (in MB) sys.master_files
Drive letter of the ___location that contains data files SERVERPROPERTY, Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer
List of database files sys.databases, sys.master_files
Service broker is enabled or not sys.databases
Database is enabled for change data capture or not sys.databases
Always On availability group databases and states sys.dm_hadr_database_replica_states

SQL Server metadata

Server metadata Views/ SQL server properties
Server name SERVERPROPERTY
FQDN Connection string derived from discovery of installed applications
Installation ID sys.dm_server_registry
Server version SERVERPROPERTY
Server edition SERVERPROPERTY
Server host platform (Windows/Linux) SERVERPROPERTY
Product level of the server (RTM SP CTP) SERVERPROPERTY
Default backup path SERVERPROPERTY
Default path of the data files SERVERPROPERTY, Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer
Default path of the log files SERVERPROPERTY, Software\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer
No. of cores on the server sys.dm_os_schedulers, sys.dm_os_sys_info
Server collation name SERVERPROPERTY
No. of cores on the server with VISIBLE ONLINE status sys.dm_os_schedulers
Unique server ID sys.dm_server_registry
High availability enabled or not SERVERPROPERTY
Buffer pool extension enabled or not sys.dm_os_buffer_pool_extension_configuration
Failover cluster configured or not SERVERPROPERTY
Server using Windows Authentication mode only SERVERPROPERTY
Server installs PolyBase SERVERPROPERTY
No. of logical CPUs on the system sys.dm_server_registry, sys.dm_os_sys_info
Ratio of the no. of logical or physical cores that are exposed by one physical processor package sys.dm_os_schedulers, sys.dm_os_sys_info
No. of physical CPUs on the system sys.dm_os_schedulers, sys.dm_os_sys_info
Date and time server last started sys.dm_server_registry
Maximum server memory use (in MB) sys.dm_os_process_memory
Total no. of users across all databases sys.databases, sys.logins
Total size of all user databases sys.databases
Size of temporary database sys.master_files, sys.configurations, sys.dm_os_sys_info
No. of logins sys.logins
List of linked servers sys.servers
List of agent jobs [msdb].[dbo].[sysjobs], [sys].[syslogins], [msdb].[dbo].[syscategories]
Always On availability groups, replicas, and their states sys.availability_groups, sys.dm_hadr_availability_group_states, sys.availability_group_listeners, sys.availability_group_listener_ip_addresses, sys.availability_replicas, sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states
Always On failover clustered instance sys.dm_hadr_cluster, sys.dm_hadr_cluster_members, sys.dm_hadr_cluster_networks

Performance metadata

Performance Views/ SQL server properties Assessment impact
SQL Server CPU utilization sys.dm_os_ring_buffers Recommended SKU size (CPU dimension)
SQL logical CPU count sys.dm_os_sys_info Recommended SKU size (CPU dimension)
SQL physical memory in use sys.dm_os_process_memory Unused
SQL memory utilization percentage sys.dm_os_process_memory Unused
Database CPU utilization sys.dm_exec_query_stats, sys.dm_exec_plan_attributes Recommended SKU size (CPU dimension)
Database memory in use (buffer pool) sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors Recommended SKU size (Memory dimension)
File read/write I/O sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats, sys.master_files Recommended SKU size (I/O dimension)
File number of reads/writes sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats, sys.master_files Recommended SKU size (throughput dimension)
File I/O stall read/write (ms) sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats, sys.master_files Recommended SKU size (I/O latency dimension)
File size sys.master_files Recommended SKU size (storage dimension)

ASP.NET web app data

The Azure Migrate appliance that's used for discovery of VMs can also collect data on ASP.NET web applications.

Here's the ASP.NET web app configuration data that the appliance collects from each Windows server discovered in your environment:

Entity Data
Web app Application name
Configuration path
Front-end bindings
Enabled frameworks
Hosting web server
Sub-applications and virtual applications
Application pool name
Runtime version
Managed pipeline mode
Web server Server name
Server type (currently only IIS)
Configuration ___location
Version
FQDN
Credentials used for discovery
List of applications

Java web app data

The Azure Migrate appliance that's used for discovery of VMs can also collect data on Java web applications.

Here's the Java web app configuration data that the appliance collects from each Windows server discovered in your environment:

Entity Data
Web app Application name
Web server ID
Web server name
Display name
Directories
Configurations
Bindings
Discovered frameworks (might contain JVM version)
Requests (CPU requests)
Limits (CPU limits)
Workload type
Application scratch path
Static folders
Web server OS type
OS name
OS version
OS architecture
Host name
CATALINA_HOME
Tomcat version
JVM version
Username
User ID
Group name
Group ID

Spring Boot web app data

The Azure Migrate appliance that's used for discovery of VMs can also collect data on Spring Boot web applications.

Here's the Spring Boot web app configuration data that the appliance collects from each Windows server discovered in your environment:

Entity Data
Web app Application name
Maven artifact name
JAR file ___location
JAR file checksum
JAR file size
Spring Boot version
Maven build JDK version
Application property files
Certificate file names
Static content ___location
Application port
Binding ports (including app port)
Logging configuration
JAR file last modified time
OS runtime OS installed JDK version
JVM options
JVM heap memory
OS name
OS version
Environment variables

Application dependency data

The Azure Migrate appliance can collect data about inter-server dependencies for servers running in your VMware environment or Hyper-V environment, for physical servers, or for servers running on other clouds (like AWS or GCP).

Windows server dependency data

Here's the connection data that the appliance collects from each Windows server that's enabled for agentless dependency analysis from the portal:

Data Command
Local port netstat
Local IP address netstat
Remote port netstat
Remote IP address netstat
TCP connection state netstat
Process ID netstat
Number of active connections netstat
Data WMI class WMI class property
Process name Win32_Process ExecutablePath
Process arguments Win32_Process CommandLine
Application name Win32_Process VersionInfo.ProductName parameter of the ExecutablePath property

Linux server dependency data

Here's the connection data that the appliance collects from each Linux server that's enabled for agentless dependency analysis:

Data Command
Local port netstat
Local IP address netstat
Remote port netstat
Remote IP address netstat
TCP connection state netstat
Number of active connections netstat
Process ID netstat
Process name ps
Process arguments ps
Application name dpkg or rpm

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