Migrating Azure Resources from One Subscription to Another

Why does it need to be accomplished?

Migrating Azure Resources Successfully

Before jumping into the procedure, itself, I'd like to add some critical information here that if the count of resources of a resource group is more than 100+, for now, it'd not be possible to perform the migration using the GUI and PowerShell must be used for this purpose. The reason for that is, only one hundred resources get listed on one single page as per the design of Azure and to select the objects from multiple pages in one go isn't something supported by Azure for the time being. Hope you'll learn more about Migrating Azure Resources here.

As a way around for the 100+ objects issue, you may try to delete the useless objects placed in a resource group to trickle down its count to 100 at max.

Alright, how about we begin? In this article, I'll be Migrating Azure Resources Group with various contents over to another Azure Subscription. After the checklist has been seen and accompanied, it's time to move the stuff.

Steps for Migrating Azure Resources between Azure Subscriptions

Following are the steps one would need to follow when Migrating Azure Resources:

• Navigate to the concerning Resource Group.
• Select objects enabling the Move button.
• Click Move to another subscription.
• Finalize the object selection.
• Validate the Move.
• Verify the Move has been done.
• Clean up the source environment.

1. Navigate to the concerning Resource Group

Navigate to the group you want to move to. Go to the Resource Groups blade in the Azure portal and then navigate to the group.

2. Select Resources enabling the Move button

Here select all the dependent objects on other/independent individual objects. The circled area for the check box is using which you may select all the content of one single page listing max one hundred resources.

3. Click Move to another subscription

Click on the Move button and then select Move to another subscription option.

4. Finalize the Resource selection

Next in the resources to move screen, review the content that are to be moved over which are all automatically selected. Then select the subscription and resource group you want to move to target. If the group is not already created, you can create it now in the target subscription

5. Validate the Move

Now click on the OK button to start the process. The job will then be validated and then you will see a notification of the movement in progress, followed by a success or failure notification. In the event of a failure, details will be provided on why the resources could not be moved. Usually after working through these issues, you can try again.

6. Verify the Move has been Done

 After the move is complete, you should now go to the new resource group you created and verify all the resources are accounted for and that the resources still function as intended.

7. Clean up the source environment

Finally, you want to tidy up and delete the original resource group on the source subscription as it's now empty and should not be used again. To do this go to the original group and click on the Delete group button. You will be prompted to type in the name of the resource group to confirm you want to continue.

Known Issues with Migrating Azure Resources

1. How to deal with this error popping during the validation of Move “Automation account is linked to a workspace so it cannot be moved”?

You may take this error in the perspective of “MS does not support move of this type” as unlinking the workspace would cause loss of all solutions created for the concerning automation account. In some cases, if it’s necessary, please make it an independent resource by unlinking its Workspace.

2. What does this error mean “The move resources request does not contain all the dependent resources”?

As the statement says, your move consists of some of the resources which are dependent on others missing in this move i.e. VM has its disk in the move but missing the Storage Account or its Virtual Network or NSG etc. Please make sure to move all the dependent resources in one go before Migrating Azure Resources. 

 

3. How to cope with the error stating “being backed up as part of Azure Backup job”?

Please note that the error code clearly states "code":"DiskHasRestorePoints". You’d need to find those restore points for the concerning resource, delete them, as they again get created by themselves as per the Backup Policy Schedule and after deleting them, you’ll be good to go to migrate these.

Please make sure to check the “Show hidden types” checkbox to find these.

4. It’s saying, “Resource move is not supported for resources that have plan with different subscriptions.”?

You need to let go of these resources as MS doesn’t allow some of the resources to move by default. i.e. Network Watchers, Bing Keys, Workspaces etc.

Another critical thing to note is, for migrating the Virtual Networks, if there is some peering done for them, please remove it and try to move the resource afterwards.

 You may follow the same move procedure to migrate Resources to another Resource Group! Hope this guide will help you through the process and if you still have questions, you can book a cloud strategy call with us - we'd love to help you out!