HYCU Migration Path

Migrate Nutanix AHV or ESXi VMs to Azure Local using HYCU Backup & Recovery and Azure Migrate.

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Overview

The HYCU migration path uses a two-hop architecture:

1. Hop 1 — HYCU: Backs up VMs from Nutanix AHV or ESXi, then restores them to a Hyper-V staging host with automatic VHDX conversion.
2. Hop 2 — Azure Migrate: Discovers the staged Hyper-V VMs and migrates them to Azure Local as Azure Local VMs.

Nutanix AHV  ──[HYCU backup]──►  HYCU Backup Target  ──[HYCU restore]──►  Hyper-V Staging  ──[Azure Migrate]──►  Azure Local

Why HYCU?

Advantage	Details
Simplest deployment	Single Linux VM on the Nutanix cluster — no Windows server, no SQL database
No proxy VM on AHV	Uses native AHV snapshot API directly — zero additional footprint on Nutanix
Web UI management	Browser-based console on port 8443 — no desktop application required
Agentless	No agents on source VMs
Purpose-built for Nutanix	Native AHV and Nutanix Files integration

Scenario Pages

• Prerequisites — Licensing, hardware, network, and account requirements
• Architecture — Detailed component diagram and data flow
• Runbook — Step-by-step migration runbook with batch pipeline
• Validation & Checklist — Validation steps and pre-migration checklist

Source Platform Support

=== "Nutanix AHV"

HYCU is purpose-built for **Nutanix AHV**. It connects directly to the Prism Element API using native AHV snapshot APIs. No proxy VM is deployed — HYCU's controller VM communicates directly with the Nutanix cluster.

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is handled natively by Nutanix AHV, giving HYCU efficient incremental backups.

=== "Nutanix ESXi"

HYCU also supports **VMware vSphere** sources (including ESXi-on-Nutanix). HYCU connects to vCenter or ESXi via the vSphere API, similar to how Veeam operates on ESXi. Backups use VMware snapshot mechanisms.

HYCU vs. Veeam Summary

Aspect	HYCU	Veeam
Migration workflow	Backup → Restore (two-step)	Direct live replication
RPO at cutover	Last incremental interval	Live replica (lower RPO)
Re-IP capability	Not built-in; script post-restore	Built-in re-IP rules
Staging storage	Backup target + Hyper-V staging	Hyper-V staging only
Deployment footprint	Single VM on Nutanix	Windows Server + components

TIP

Start with the PoC Before migrating production VMs, validate the HYCU path in the Proof of Concept plan using 5–10 representative VMs.

Alternative approaches

• Compare all four paths in the Tool Comparison
• If you want live replication and built-in re-IP, see Veeam
• If you already standardize on Commvault, see Commvault
• If you prefer clean-build target VMs and data/application migration, see Deploy-First