HYCU Migration Path — Prerequisites
All requirements that must be met before starting the HYCU migration.
Licensing
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| HYCU License | Per-VM subscription license required. HYCU licenses each protected VM. Contact your HYCU account representative or visit hycu.com for pricing. A trial license is available for PoC use. Licenses are applied in the HYCU web console (port 8443) after deployment. |
| HYCU version | The current product is HYCU Protege (also marketed as R-Cloud for on-premises deployments). Verify compatibility between your HYCU version and Nutanix AOS version before deployment. |
| Azure Local | Valid Azure Local subscription with Azure integration enabled |
| Azure Migrate (for Azure Local) | No additional license — included with Azure subscription. The Hyper-V → Azure Local migration feature is currently in Preview (requires Azure Local 2503+). |
WARNING
Confirm licensing before starting HYCU backup jobs will fail without a valid license applied. Obtain a trial license or production license from hycu.com before deploying the controller VM.
Estimated Downtime Per VM
| Hop | Scenario | Typical VM Downtime |
|---|---|---|
| Hop 1 | HYCU backup + restore to Hyper-V | 30 minutes to 4+ hours per VM (restore time dominates; depends on VM disk size and storage throughput at ~500 MB/s typical) |
| Hop 2 | Azure Migrate cutover to Azure Local | 30–60 minutes per batch of 10 VMs (final delta + Azure Local VM creation + first boot) |
NOTE
Estimating Hop 1 restore time Plan approximately 1 hour per 200 GB of used VM disk at typical 10 GbE network speeds. Test with representative VMs in the PoC to establish your baseline. HYCU does not offer Instant Recovery equivalent for Hyper-V targets, so restore time is not avoidable.
HYCU Controller VM Requirements
Deploy a single HYCU controller VM on the Nutanix AHV cluster:
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 4 vCPU | 4 vCPU |
| RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Disk | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| OS | Linux (HYCU appliance image) | — |
| Network | Static IP on management VLAN | Static IP, DNS resolving both directions |
| Port | 8443 (HTTPS web console) | Open from admin workstations |
HYCU Backup Target Requirements
HYCU requires a dedicated backup target to store VM backups before restoring to Hyper-V:
| Target Type | Protocol | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SMB File Share | SMB 445 | Simplest; works with any Windows file server or NAS |
| NFS Export | NFS 2049 | Linux-based storage; works with Nutanix Files |
| S3-Compatible | HTTPS 443 | Nutanix Objects, MinIO, AWS S3 |
| iSCSI | iSCSI | Block-level; fast but requires iSCSI infrastructure |
Storage sizing: Plan for 1× used disk space for the full backup + 10–20% for incrementals, per concurrent batch. For 10 VMs averaging 100 GB used each, plan for ~1.2 TB on the backup target.
Hyper-V Staging Host Requirements
=== "Standalone Hyper-V (Option A)"
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| CPU | 8 cores | 16+ cores |
| RAM | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| Storage | 2 TB local SSD | 4 TB NVMe or thin-provisioned SAN LUN |
| Network | 1 GbE | 10 GbE |
| OS | Windows Server 2022 | Windows Server 2025 |
| Roles | Hyper-V | Hyper-V, domain-joined |
!!! note "Two storage locations needed"
HYCU requires **both** a backup target (holds the backup data) and the Hyper-V staging storage (holds restored VMs). Total storage = backup target + Hyper-V staging, both sized for one batch at a time.
=== "Azure Local as Hyper-V (Option B)"
Add Azure Local cluster nodes as HYCU Hyper-V restore targets. HYCU discovers available CSV volumes and virtual switches on the cluster nodes.
- Verify sufficient free CSV capacity for one batch (used disk × 1.1)
- Ensure no production VMs will be impacted by migration I/O
- Azure Migrate appliance can be deployed directly on the Azure Local cluster
Network Requirements
| Connection | Protocol | Port | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HYCU Controller → Prism Element | HTTPS | 9440 | AHV source management |
| HYCU Controller → vCenter/ESXi | HTTPS | 443 | ESXi source |
| HYCU Controller → Backup Target (SMB) | SMB | 445 | Backup data writes |
| HYCU Controller → Backup Target (NFS) | NFS | 2049 | Backup data writes |
| HYCU Controller → Hyper-V Host (WinRM) | WinRM | 5985/5986 | Restore operations |
| Admin → HYCU Web Console | HTTPS | 8443 | Management access |
| Hyper-V Host → Azure | HTTPS | 443 | Azure Migrate appliance |
| Azure Migrate Appliance → Azure Local | SMB/HTTPS | 445, 443 | Replication |
Nutanix Source Requirements
=== "Nutanix AHV"
- Prism Element accessible over **HTTPS (TCP 9440)** from the HYCU controller VM
- A Nutanix account with **Cluster Admin** privileges on Prism
- HYCU controller VM must have IP connectivity to the Nutanix cluster management network
- No additional proxy VM is deployed — HYCU communicates directly with AHV cluster APIs
=== "Nutanix ESXi"
- vCenter or ESXi accessible over HTTPS (TCP 443) from HYCU
- vCenter/ESXi service account with vSphere API access for VM discovery and snapshot operations
- VMware Tools installed on source VMs (recommended for application-consistent backups)
Pre-Start Checklist
| Item | Owner |
|---|---|
| HYCU controller VM deployed on AHV cluster (4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM / static IP) | Infrastructure |
| HYCU licensed and activated (license key applied in web console port 8443) | Infrastructure |
| Nutanix AHV/ESXi cluster added as HYCU source; all VMs discovered | Infrastructure |
| HYCU backup target configured and tested (SMB/NFS/S3 with sufficient capacity) | Infrastructure |
| Hyper-V staging host registered as HYCU restore target | Infrastructure |
| Re-IP script prepared and tested (only if staging subnet differs from source) | Infrastructure |
| Azure Migrate project created | Cloud |
| Azure Migrate source appliance deployed on Hyper-V host and registered (Preview) | Cloud |
| Azure Migrate target appliance deployed on Azure Local and registered (Preview) | Cloud |
| Azure Local custom storage path and logical network created for Arc resource bridge | Infrastructure |
| Azure Local cluster healthy, Arc-registered, capacity verified | Infrastructure |
| BitLocker disabled on all source Windows VMs | Infrastructure |
| All network ports open between components | Networking |
| VM inventory sorted into batches of ≤10 | Migration Lead |
| IP/VLAN mapping spreadsheet complete | Networking |