On-premises servers moved to Azure, with a test run before the real cutover

21 servers to move, with nothing rebuilt

IQEQ ran 21 Windows Server machines on premises and wanted them in Azure as they were, without rebuilding them. Its domain roles sat in the same place as the servers, and there was no Azure foundation yet to receive them: no network, no naming rules and no backup setup.

Rehearse first, then cut over

1. 1

   Readiness check

   Confirmed admin access, domain controller health, the migration appliance, server versions and the firewall license.

2. 2

   Azure foundation

   Built resource groups, a virtual network, DNS, naming and tagging rules, the Azure side of the site-to-site VPN, and an Azure Migrate project.

3. 3

   Identity

   Added a domain controller in Azure and moved the FSMO roles to it.

4. 4

   Rehearsal and cutover

   Replicated all 21 servers, ran a full test failover, then the final failover, and fixed issues found along the way.

5. 5

   Day-to-day controls

   Switched on monitoring, network security groups, Defender for Cloud, backups and resource locks, cleaned up, and handed over step-by-step user guides.

Servers in Azure, with controls on from day one

IQEQ's servers now run in Azure with its domain services alongside them, and day-to-day controls were in place from the start. Because the test failover came first, the final cutover followed steps the team had already run once.

• All 21 servers running in Azure
• Domain services moved to Azure alongside them
• Monitoring, backups, Defender and locks switched on
• Step-by-step guides for the team's daily work

• Azure Migrate
• Azure landing zone
• Active Directory
• Azure Backup
• Defender for Cloud