Help Center/ Cloud Adoption Framework / Cloud Adoption Framework and Practices/ Adoption Implementation/ Application Cloud Migration/ Migration Solution Design/ Application Layer Migration Solutions
Updated on 2025-05-07 GMT+08:00
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Application Layer Migration Solutions

The application layer is usually deployed on physical machines, VMs, or containers. Applications are classified into stateful and stateless applications. You need to consider the application deployment mode and application status when designing application-layer migration solutions. The migration solutions vary depending on the application deployment mode and application status.

  • Migrating applications deployed on servers

    Applications of traditional architectures are usually deployed on physical machines or VMs. You are advised to use the Huawei Cloud SMS to migrate the applications. If SMS cannot be used for migration, you can redeploy the applications on the cloud. For applications that can be migrated during service interruption, you can also migrate them by exporting and importing images. The detailed solution is as follows.

    Table 1 Migration solutions for applications deployed on servers

    Migration Solution

    Migration Method

    Description

    Scenario

    (Recommended) Using SMS

    Full and incremental migration

    1. The downtime is short, and incremental synchronization can be performed continuously.

    2. The solution depends on network transmission, and the source OS version must be supported by Huawei Cloud.

    Migration of all x86 physical machines or VMs with incremental data

    Redeploying an application on Huawei Cloud ECS

    N/A

    1. The solution does not depend on network transmission.

    2. The migration workload is heavier than that using a migration tool.

    All

    Exporting and importing images

    Full migration

    1. The solution does not depend on network transmission.

    2. The downtime is long, and complete images are created only after the source physical machine or VM is shut down.

    A long downtime window

    (at least four hours)
  • Migrating applications deployed in containers

    Containerized applications are usually cloud-native applications of microservice architecture, which may be migrated by re-release or image migration.

    Cloud-native application systems of enterprises are usually deployed in containers. Most enterprises have their own development pipeline CI/CD systems. Applications can be migrated to the cloud through container images or re-release of CI/CD pipelines.

    Table 2 Container migration solutions
    1. Migration Solution
    1. Description
    1. Scenario
    1. (Recommended) Re-release through the CI/CD system
    1. Simple operation and controllable configuration
    1. The source end has a CI/CD pipeline.
    1. Container image migration
    1. Manual operations and heavy workload
    1. All
    1. Container migration tool (Velero or e-backup)
    1. Simple operation and quick restoration of source configurations
    1. All
  • Containerizing applications on the servers and migrating them to the cloud

    To migrate the traditional applications deployed on servers to containers, you need to reconstruct the traditional applications into container images and deploy them on Kubernetes or Huawei Cloud CCE clusters. This process involves application modernization. For details, see Application Modernization.