A financial services organization is preparing to migrate its core transactional platform … — AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

A financial services organization is preparing to migrate its core transactional platform from an on-premises datacenter to AWS. The environment consists of 120 VMware vSphere VMs hosting the web and application tiers, 15 bare-metal servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 hosting Oracle databases, and 5 legacy bare-metal servers running IBM AIX hosting transactional processing workloads. The organization's security policy defines strict network isolation: the web and application tiers are allowed outbound web access via an HTTP proxy, but the database and legacy tiers are completely isolated with no outbound internet or proxy access allowed. The organization requires detailed network dependency mapping to group servers into applications before planning migration waves. The migration must be tracked centrally in AWS Migration Hub, utilizing AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) for the virtualized tiers and AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for the databases. Which discovery and tracking strategy should a Solutions Architect recommend?

Deploy the AWS Application Discovery Agent on the VMware vSphere VMs, configured to communicate through the outbound HTTP proxy to perform network dependency mapping. Manually collect configuration and dependency data for the RHEL database servers and IBM AIX legacy servers, format it using the Application Discovery Service import templates, and upload the CSV files. Group the discovered servers into applications in AWS Migration Hub, and associate the AWS MGN replication jobs and AWS DMS replication tasks with these applications to track progress.Answer
B
Deploy the AWS Application Discovery Agentless Collector on VMware vCenter to gather metadata for the vSphere VMs. For the RHEL database servers and IBM AIX legacy servers, install the Application Discovery Agent and configure them to route traffic through the VMware Agentless Collector acting as an outbound proxy to send data to the AWS Application Discovery Service. Group the discovered servers into applications in AWS Migration Hub, and monitor their status.
C
Deploy the AWS Application Discovery Agentless Collector on VMware vCenter to discover the vSphere VMs and capture network dependency mapping. For the RHEL database servers and IBM AIX legacy servers, configure the local routers to temporarily allow direct HTTPS outbound access to the Application Discovery Service endpoints, install the Application Discovery Agent on them, and group the servers into applications in AWS Migration Hub to track the migration.
D
Install the AWS Application Discovery Agent on all VMware vSphere VMs, RHEL database servers, and IBM AIX legacy servers. Configure the agents on the database and legacy tiers to run in offline collection mode, manually export the gathered dependency logs to a local administrative workstation, and upload them to AWS Migration Hub. Group all discovered resources into applications and track the migration progress.

Answer

Deploy the AWS Application Discovery Agent on the VMware vSphere VMs configured to use the outbound HTTP proxy, manually collect and import the configuration and dependency data for the RHEL database and IBM AIX servers using CSV templates, group the servers into applications in AWS Migration Hub, and associate the AWS MGN replication jobs and AWS DMS replication tasks with these applications.

The correct strategy uses the Application Discovery Agent on the vSphere VMs since they have outbound proxy access and require deep network dependency mapping (which the Agentless Collector does not provide). For the bare-metal RHEL 8 database servers and IBM AIX legacy servers, the Agent cannot be used because RHEL is in a completely isolated network segment, and AIX is an unsupported operating system. Therefore, manual discovery data collection and import using the CSV templates is required. All discovered and imported resources can then be grouped into applications in Migration Hub and linked to MGN and DMS replication components for unified status tracking.

Step-by-Step Solution

Analyze OS compatibility for discovery.

The vSphere VMs run standard OSs (Windows/Linux) and can support the Application Discovery Agent. RHEL 8 supports the Agent. IBM AIX is a Unix operating system that is NOT supported by the AWS Application Discovery Agent. Therefore, AIX servers must use manual data collection and the import template.

This determines which servers can run the agent and which require manual discovery data collection.

Evaluate network isolation and agent connectivity requirements.

The vSphere VMs have outbound access via an HTTP proxy, so the Discovery Agent can be installed and configured to communicate through this proxy. The database tier (RHEL 8) has no outbound internet or proxy access. Since the Discovery Agent requires direct or proxy outbound connectivity (port 443) to AWS, the agent cannot be used on these database servers. Consequently, the RHEL 8 database servers must also use manual collection and the CSV import template.

This maps out-of-band and in-band discovery boundaries based on the security compliance architecture.

Choose the correct discovery mechanism based on data requirements.

The organization requires detailed network dependency mapping. The Application Discovery Agentless Collector does not capture active network dependencies or process-level data. Thus, the Agentless Collector is insufficient for the vSphere VMs where dependency mapping is required. The Discovery Agent must be used on the vSphere VMs.

Ensures that dependency discovery requirements are satisfied, which is only supported by the Agent-based approach.

Design the tracking and grouping strategy in AWS Migration Hub.

After importing the RHEL/AIX servers via CSV and discovering the vSphere VMs via the Agent, group them into logical applications. Configure AWS MGN and AWS DMS. Ensure their replication tasks are associated with these application groups in AWS Migration Hub so that migration progress can be tracked in a single pane of glass.

Fulfills the centralized tracking requirement across multiple migration tools in AWS Migration Hub.

Key Concept

Selecting and configuring the correct discovery mechanism (Agent-based vs. Agentless vs. CSV Import) based on operating system support, network isolation constraints, and dependency data needs, then linking these discovered assets in AWS Migration Hub for unified tracking.

Estimated Time:3m 0s

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