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Before changing or moving a server, build an owner-validated record of what it supports, how it behaves, what it depends on, and how it can be recovered. A hostname-and-specification list is not enough: migration choices, target sizing, sequencing, and rollback all depend on business context, observed workload data, and verified relationships.
Use the checklist below for each server or workload. Label each entry as observed, owner-confirmed, estimated, or unresolved, and record its source and collection date. Resolve contradictions between discovery data and stakeholder knowledge before assigning migration waves.
1. Scope, ownership, and business context
Give each server or workload a stable record and identify both its technical footprint and the service it enables. Capture:
- Asset identifier, hostname, environment, location or hosting account, and lifecycle status.
- Business or application owner, technical contact, support team, and decision owner.
- Application and business capability served, user groups, service hours, peak periods, maintenance windows, and change restrictions.
- Business criticality and intended disposition: migrate, replace, or retire.
- Desired outcome and candidate treatment—rehost, replatform, refactor, replace, or retire—with the reason and approver.
AWS’s detailed application assessment and Google Cloud’s assessment guidance both emphasize workload context and ownership, not just machine records.
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2. Server, software, and capacity baseline
Record enough detail to assess compatibility and estimate a target based on actual behavior rather than allocated resources alone:
- Operating system and release, architecture, physical or virtual context, and hardware or hypervisor details.
- CPU and memory allocation; disks, volumes, NICs, IP addresses, and DNS identity.
- Installed applications, runtime and database versions, server roles and features, agents, services, scheduled tasks, and licensing constraints.
- Observed CPU and memory use, disk IOPS and throughput, storage growth, and peak patterns where available.
- For every measurement, the collection source and observation window.
Azure Migrate’s migration-planning guidance describes collecting server, disk, NIC, application, role and feature, and performance data for assessment and dependency planning. Those fields are useful for a vendor-neutral baseline too.
3. Data and storage characteristics
Inventory the data the workload reads, writes, or protects: application data, databases, file shares, VM disks, SAN/NAS data, archives, and backups. For each data set, record:
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- Approximate volume, file or object counts, directory structure, growth or change rate, retention, and access frequency.
- Access protocol, such as SMB/NFS, object APIs, or block storage; authentication method; and performance needs.
- Special file properties that may affect transfer, including long paths, reserved names, and alternate data streams where relevant.
- Applications that require the data before and after migration, plus any need for a final read-only or synchronization period.
Microsoft’s storage migration assessment calls out data size and hierarchy, access method, authentication, dependencies, protection, and performance requirements. Capture these attributes before choosing a transfer method or cutover sequence.
4. Dependencies and connectivity
Map both direct runtime dependencies and looser business or reporting relationships. Include workload-to-server and server-to-server links, shared databases, APIs, file paths, batch jobs, identity providers, DNS, load balancers, caches, network services, monitoring, backup systems, and external providers.
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For each relationship, document its direction, protocol and port if known, data exchanged, owner, criticality, latency sensitivity, location, and whether it can tolerate the source and target operating in separate environments. Mark systems that must move together and those that must remain in place, with the reason and a temporary connectivity or data-flow plan.
Microsoft’s migration planning guidance recommends discovering and grouping connected components, including supporting elements such as DNS and load balancers. Google Cloud advises continuously refining workload and infrastructure maps in its migration execution guidance.
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5. Availability, backup, and recovery
Record the service’s availability requirements or SLA, acceptable downtime, recovery point objective (RPO), and recovery time objective (RTO). For its current protection and recovery arrangements, capture:
- Backup product or method, schedule, retention, encryption, and offsite or immutable copies where applicable.
- Replication and snapshot policies, monitoring, and the person responsible for restoration.
- Date and outcome of the most recent restore or disaster-recovery exercise.
- Any gap between tested recovery capability and stated business requirements.
These facts affect migration waves, synchronization, cutover windows, and rollback choices. Microsoft’s storage assessment covers SLA, RPO/RTO, protection, recovery, monitoring, replication, and snapshots. AWS’s application assessment also asks about backup method and retention, recovery objectives, disaster recovery, and the last DR test.
6. Security, access, and compliance
Document the controls that must be preserved or deliberately changed:
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- Data classification and sensitivity; applicable regulatory or contractual obligations; and data-residency constraints or required target regions.
- Identity and authentication methods, service accounts, permissions and ACLs, and who can approve exceptions.
- Encryption in transit and at rest, certificates and renewal owners, and the location of secrets.
- Firewall ingress and egress rules, audit requirements, and chain-of-custody needs.
- How permissions will be preserved or reapplied, and how secure transfer and end-of-life handling will be managed.
Do not copy credentials or secret values into the audit. Reference the controlled secret-management system instead. Microsoft’s storage assessment addresses permissions, ACL preservation, secure transfer, residency, auditing, and end-of-life considerations; AWS’s application assessment covers classification, encryption, authentication, certificates, and compliance.
7. Migration plan, tests, and controls
Turn the inventory into an operational plan for the workload. Record the selected migration strategy, target assumptions, migration wave or group, prerequisites, transfer method, change window, DNS and network changes, accountable roles, other teams or vendors involved, risks, mitigations, and success criteria.
Define validation before cutover
Specify functional, integration, security, and performance tests; identify test data and approvers; and write the checks that must pass before and after cutover. Note how data will be reconciled if source and target are both active or if a rollback occurs.
Make rollback executable
Write explicit rollback triggers and step-by-step reversal or restoration actions. Include who can authorize rollback, how data consistency will be checked, and what post-rollback validation proves the service is usable. A rollback plan that merely says “restore the old server” is incomplete if writes, DNS, permissions, or dependent services have changed.
Google Cloud’s execution checklist includes inventory, a sprint runbook, migration plan, network and security rules, risks and mitigations, test and rollback plans, team roster, and governance. Microsoft recommends human-readable configuration and deployment records, stored centrally with validation and recovery procedures, in its workload preparation guidance.
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8. Validate evidence and maintain the record
Static documentation can miss undocumented integrations or reflect an old state. Compare it with programmatic discovery and interviews with workload owners; investigate conflicts before deciding the migration group. AWS specifically recommends validating institutional knowledge and static records with discovery data where possible.
Store the authoritative records in a controlled central location accessible to migration, operations, security, and support teams. Keep version history, an accountable owner, and an update date. Refresh the record as discovery and testing uncover dependencies or change assumptions.
How to use the audit to choose a migration path
There is no universally correct treatment or transfer approach. Use the documented facts to explain the choice for each workload, weighing:
- Compatibility and supported software versions.
- Downtime tolerance, dependency coupling, and whether systems can operate across split environments.
- Data volume and change rate, performance and latency needs.
- Security and residency constraints, recovery requirements, cost, and available operational skills.
- Rollback feasibility and the consequences of failure.
Microsoft’s migration planning guidance discusses rehost, replatform, and refactor choices and dependency-aware grouping; Google Cloud’s planning overview covers selecting paths and sequencing waves. Treat provider tools as examples, not prerequisites, and document the rationale and constraints behind each decision.
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