"With AutoMove I can complete a virtual server migration for my company – consolidating 50 physical servers onto four ESXi servers – all with automated policies and without maintenance windows. This saves my company from purchasing additional hardware, and it saves me countless hours migrating the data manually.

AutoMove is a must-try – there is no product out there that comes close."

AutoMove Solution

AutoVirt introduces a data migration software solution for Windows that preserves data integrity and minimizes business impact. Data migration projects are often time consuming, resource intensive, disruptive, and inconvenient. With AutoMove, data migration is fully automated and out-of-band, so you can dedicate your resources to other important initiatives. AutoMove software extends the native capabilities of your existing Windows environment without compromising data integrity, data security, client access, or network performance. 

AutoMove simplifies data migration with:

• Policy-based, fully automated operations
• Online and out-of-band runtime operations
• Transparent client redirects
• Automated preservation of security attributes

The goal of AutoVirt's software solution is simple: use software to automate manual tasks.  Data migration with AutoMove is as simple as selecting data sources, selecting data destinations, and scheduling the data migration. These tasks are easily accomplished using the AutoMove browser-based user interface. 

Migration Path Comparison

AutoVirt's data migration software eliminates the need for:

• Data migration maintenance windows
• Manual updates of client referrals
• Manual updates of ACL assignments

AutoMove Components

AutoMove installation is non-intrusive to your existing Windows environment. No appliances or software agents need to be installed. There are three major components to install in your Windows environment:

• Data Storage Controller (DSC) – AutoVirt’s policy engine and central control component
  
• Global Namespace Server (GNS) – AutoVirt’s virtual namespace
  
• Data Engine (DE) – data movement software
  

These components may be installed on dedicated physical and/or virtual servers in your environment.

Virtualization

Virtualization is the key enabler of AutoMove's transparent migration of online data. AutoMove's file virtualization transforms the physical client-server connection to a virtual client-server connection. This change allows you to move data between servers without limitation or client disruptions. All client network mappings remain intact and AutoVirt's global namespace resolves all client redirects to the new storage device.

Installing AutoMove is an automated process that includes:

1. Inventory of your Windows file server environment
   
2. Creation of a global namespace
   

The AutoMove global namespace provides the necessary level of control for client redirects and enables data migration tasks to run without disrupting client access.

Note that you control which file servers get managed by AutoMove. Only file servers managed by AutoMove are virtualized.

Filer Management
AutoMove is designed to extend your Windows environment with minimal impact on your file server environment, network environment, and clients. AutoMove renames filers that you assign for management. AutoMove automatically updates your Active Directory to reflect the new server name.

Client-Server Referrals
AutoMove inserts itself in the client-server referral stream. AutoMove intercepts client requests, refers the client to the new location, and sends the referral to the DNS. This referral process maintains the integrity of your DNS service without impacting network performance.

Policy-Based Automation

AutoMove was designed to move unstructured content. This content typically consists of MS Office productivity files. Transactional data and live databases are not considered good candidates for data migration by AutoMove.

AutoMove’s browser-based GUI allows you to effectively manage your Windows filer environment. You can create policies to migrate data between filers, volumes, or shares. AutoMove enables you to migrate data between multiple sources with a single policy or create multiple policies to more closely manage data migration tasks.

Creating a policy is a wizard-based process that includes:

1. Selecting file server sources
   
2. Select file server destinations
   
3. Scheduling data migration tasks
   

AutoMove User Interface

All data migration operations are completely transparent to your clients. The client network mappings remain static while AutoMove resolves any client requests that target new storage locations.

Performance
The DSC routinely performs health checks on all AutoMove components and triggers alerts if any issues are present. The DSC also validates attributes of each policy before executing runtime operations. AutoMove's built-in monitoring function helps you identify and resolve issues quickly.