Double Take is the product from Vision Solution Group which helps organizations in near Zero downtime cloud and data centre server migrations, High availability, Disaster Recovery (DR) for IBM i, AIX, Windows and Linux server operating systems.





As part of my recent work on data center migration for one of the major banks in Melbourne,

we have identified DoubleTake MOVE as a migration tool for Windows and Linux workloads. I would like to share some of the hidden issues (gotchas) we realized during the migrations. Hope it helps others to make an informed decision while picking up the data center/ cloud migration tool.





Gotcha 1: During the migration, we realized that Double-Take MOVE product doesn’t support Linux servers migration. MOVE is the product to migrate only windows server-based operating systems. We end up using the During the migration, we realized that Double-Take MOVE product doesn’t support Linux servers migration. MOVE is the product to migrate only windows server-based operating systems. We end up using the Double Take AVAILABILITY which is a Disaster Recovery solution for Linux servers migrations.





Gotcha 2: As I come from VMware background and used As I come from VMware background and used VMware converter before, I was in an assumption that Double Take will provision the VM in the target environment as part of the migration but that is not the case for Linux workloads and if the migration target is the cloud platform (AWS, Microsoft Azure etc.). We end up spinning hundreds of VMs with Double Take agent installed to create migration jobs. If the target platform is on-premise VMware or Hyper-V environment and can install DT agent on the hypervisor, Doubletake can auto-provision VM for windows workloads as part of the migration





Gotcha 3: To migrate the windows workloads, installation of .NET framework full setup and Visual C++ ATL is mandatory. I am not applications expert but I believe it’s a change for installed applications on servers and not sure how various applications behave by installing these components. This is something to consider prior to selecting the tool.





As you know, every product comes with pros and cons, suggest doing a comparison study among various migration tools/methods (Platespin Migrate, VMware Converter, Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC). SolarWind etc.)