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Migrate from one region to another with Azure Resource Mover

  • March 30, 2021
  • 5 min read
Cloud and Virtualization Architect. Florent is specializing in public, hybrid, and private cloud technologies. He is a Microsoft MVP in Cloud and Datacenter Management and an MCSE in Private Cloud.
Cloud and Virtualization Architect. Florent is specializing in public, hybrid, and private cloud technologies. He is a Microsoft MVP in Cloud and Datacenter Management and an MCSE in Private Cloud.


Microsoft introduced some month ago a new feature to move resources from a region A, to a region B. The full documentation is available here: What is Azure Resource Mover? | Microsoft Docs

As you can see, at this time, we have some resources limitations. We can’t move exactly what we want.

In this example, I’ll move a virtual machine, with his network, NIC, disks and NSG, from West Europe, to France Central:

RecourceMover - overview

Start by searching Azure Resource Mover and click on Across regions:

Azure Resource Mover / Across regions

Add a new resource and select where are resources that you want to move et to which region you would like to move:

Add a new resource

At the next page, you will have all resources that are eligible to the resource move:

Resources that are eligible to the resource move

I will choose only resources that I want to move here:

Choose the resources that you want to move

You can now start the move:

Start the move

As you can see I have some issues here. I need to validate dependencies. Click on the button and wait:

Validate dependencies

I have an error to fix:

Error to fix

It is not an error, but a message to inform me that I need to commit dependent resources, before starting this step:

Error details

The first thing to do is to prepare the resource group, to have it on the destination region:

Prepare the resource group

Click now on Initiate move button after selecting the resource group:

Initiate move

A new resource group has been created:

A new resource group has been created

We can now commit the move of the RG:

Commit the move of the RG

Now we will prepare all resources to move:

Prepare all resources to move

Prepare resources

Prepare resources

After few minutes, all components changed to Initiate move. Let’s start it:

All components changed to Initiate move

When doing this, the VM will be recreated in the destination region. You will have a small downtime for the last replication because the source VM will be stopped.

I have now all my resource, in France Central:

Resource - in France Central

And I can connect to the VM:

Connect to the VM

Now that everything is working, we will commit the move. If you have problem, you can Discard the move. Select resources:

Commit the move

And when it’s done, we can clean the move, by selecting resources and selecting Delete source:

Delete source

As you can see, you can’t delete RG currently through this feature:

You can’t delete RG currently through this feature

After few minutes, the move is done and you just need to delete the source resource group manually:

Delete the source resource group manually

Recource Mover

As you can see this service works very well, is easy to use, with all steps indicated. Let’s wait to have more services available to move 😊

Hey! Found Florent’s article helpful? Looking to deploy a new, easy-to-manage, and cost-effective hyperconverged infrastructure?
Alex Bykovskyi
Alex Bykovskyi StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance Product Manager
Well, we can help you with this one! Building a new hyperconverged environment is a breeze with StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance (VHCA). It’s a complete hyperconverged infrastructure solution that combines hypervisor (vSphere, Hyper-V, Proxmox, or our custom version of KVM), software-defined storage (StarWind VSAN), and streamlined management tools. Interested in diving deeper into VHCA’s capabilities and features? Book your StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance demo today!