I'm trying to get a definitive Yes or No, whether there's a way to directly migrate a VMWare Workstation Pro VM (e.g. as an OVF export), to Microsoft Azure.
I've checked the MS documentation:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-vmware/introduction
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/migrate-support-matrix-vmware-migration
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/migrate/how-to-set-up-appliance-vmware
and it all presumes you're using VMWare vCenter & vSphere, not Workstation Pro. This tells me the answer is probably a No, but I want to be sure before I give up on Azure being an option for re-hosting any of our Workstation Pro VMs.
Yes, you can migrate a VMWare Workstation Pro VM to Microsoft Azure, albeit not as directly as with vCenter & vSphere. The process generally involves converting your VM to a compatible VHD format and then uploading it to Azure. There are also third-party tools that may facilitate this process. Therefore, Azure remains a viable option for re-hosting your Workstation Pro VMs, although the process may not be as streamlined as you'd find in a vCenter & vSphere environment.
Prepare the VHD: Ensure that the VHD is generalized (sysprep for Windows, equivalent steps for Linux) so that it can be used as a template for creating new VM instances.
Create a Storage Account and Container in Azure: Use the Azure Portal or Azure CLI to establish a Blob Storage account and a container within it to host your VHD files.
Upload VHD to Blob Storage: Utilize Azure Storage Explorer or Azure CLI commands (az storage blob upload) to upload the prepared VHD file to the Blob Storage container.
Create a Managed Disk: Again using Azure Portal or Azure CLI, create an Azure Managed Disk and select the option to create it from the VHD in Blob Storage.
Instantiate Azure VM: Use the Azure Managed Disk to create a new Virtual Machine. This step involves specifying VM size, etc.
Verify and Test: Once the VM is up, you can connect to it to ensure all applications and services are running as expected.