VM Migration between Regions via ASR - Issues Faced and Fixed

There was this situation I faced while migrating Azure VM from EastUs to Eastus-2. As region was changing hence, we chose ASR for this task which required nothing to setup except, some basic things like Recovery Service Vault and rest ASR will create by itself or you can create it as well. 

But here we are not talking ASR but the Issues I encountered during Azure to Azure Migration of VM’s.

VM Greyed out and unable to select for the Replication:

There were few machines which I couldn’t even select for the replication as these were grayed out. Below snippet would show where exactly but now we can select them after couple of troubleshooting steps:-

• -        Check if there is any extension is pending or failed or in transitioning , Make sure there shouldn’t be any extension on the VM or if there is it should be succeeded.

• -        Make sure there shouldn’t be any DNS applied. In my scenario it was applicable as we removed the AD as well from Eastus infra and only VM were left which were in domain.

If you're using custom DNS then make sure that the DNS server is accessible from the Disaster Recovery region.Try accessing the DNS server from the virtual machine. If it is not accessible then make it accessible by either failing over the DNS server or creating the line of site between DR network and DNS.

After performing above mentioned steps I could select the VM’s for the replication however in few of the machines it got failed with error “Task execution has timed out” 

Below are steps performed to fix the execution timed out issue or protection failed:-

Azure Agent is the reason for the above mentioned error so very first thing I did – went on the Azure portal >> Azure VM >> properties >>  check Agent status in the below snippet it showing nothing but in my case it was Not Ready however it should be Ready.

• -        First thing check the “windows Azure Guest Agent Service” it should be running. In my case it was grayed out, could be because either agent was corrupted or old.

• -        If service is not running start the service or if it is case like mine then uninstall the agent and re-install latest one.

• -        Before you download and install the Agent make sure .Net 4.5 or above is there which is required for the agent to communicate with the service.

• -        latest version of the agent MSI download and install.

• -        Once agent is Ready , you will see the version and computer name as well in the properties tab and also VM Overview.

        In my case agent was the culprit and after following these steps I fixed it.

Before I wrap up this post, also like to mention how to figure out weather you have .Net 4.5 or above.

-       =>  Go to Start >> Run >> Regedit >> this would open the registry of the machine.

-        => Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full

-        If the Full subkey isn't present, then you don't have the .NET Framework 4.5 or later installed.

-        => Check for a DWORD entry named Release. If it exists, then you have .NET Framework 4.5 or later versions installed.

Reference links

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/azure-to-azure-troubleshoot-errors#unable-to-see-the-azure-vm-or-resource-group--for-selection-in-enable-replication

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/site-recovery/site-recovery-extension-troubleshoot#the-agent-installed-in-the-vm-but-unresponsive-for-windows-vms

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/migration-guide/how-to-determine-which-versions-are-installed