Hands-on Lab · Plan a migration with the Copilot migration agent

⚠️ Preview feature notice (verified on 2026-06-12): The Azure Copilot Migration Agent is in public preview (announced in March 2026). Preview UI, behavior, and availability may change without notice. This guide is based on the official documentation; if the screens differ, follow the official documentation first. For environments where the agent cannot be enabled, Module 6 provides an alternative portal path.

Lab information

Learning objective: By the end of this lab, participants will be able to ① create an Azure Migrate project and import inventory (CSV) without an appliance, ② open the Azure Copilot Migration Agent and use natural language to analyze inventory, identify end-of-support servers, tag applications, assess readiness, build a business case (ROI), and plan a landing zone, and ③ export an executive reporting artifact (PPT).
Target level: Beginner to intermediate (experience using the Azure portal)
Estimated time: About 60 minutes
Required Azure services: Azure Migrate, Azure Copilot (agent preview)
Cost: Almost free. Discovery, assessment, business cases, and agent conversations are not billed (only actual migration execution is billed). Deleting the project after the lab is recommended.

🧭 Big picture of this lab [샘플 인벤토리 CSV] → (가져오기) → [Azure Migrate 프로젝트] │ [Azure Copilot 마이그레이션 에이전트] ↳ 자연어로: 인벤토리 요약 · EOS 서버 찾기 · 앱 태깅 · 준비도 평가 · 비즈니스 케이스/ROI · 랜딩 존 계획 The agent helps with planning, analysis, and decision-making. Actual migration execution (replication, testing, and cutover) is performed in the Azure Migrate portal.

Module 0: Prerequisites — Prepare to use the agent (10 minutes, tenant admin required)

Goal: Enable the tenant/subscription settings required to use the Copilot agent.

💡 Why is this a separate step? The Copilot agent is not just a simple resource; it is a preview feature that must be enabled at the tenant level. Enabling it requires Global Administrator permissions. (This lab environment is already Global Admin; you only need to confirm ① and ② below.)

Confirm resource provider registration — For Azure Migrate to work, the Microsoft.Migrate and Microsoft.OffAzure providers must be registered. - In the portal, go to Subscription > Resource providers and confirm both are Registered (if not, select them and click Register). - (CLI: az provider register -n Microsoft.Migrate / Microsoft.OffAzure)
① Enable Azure Copilot in the tenant (Global Admin) - Portal search > Azure Copilot admin center > Settings > Access management. - Turn on the Available for all users toggle, or assign the Copilot for Azure User role to specific users/groups. - Source: Manage access to Azure Copilot
② Enable Agents (preview) (Global Admin) - Follow Manage access to Agents (preview) to request/enable agent preview access at the tenant level.
Network — The organization firewall must allow WebSocket connections to https://directline.botframework.com for Copilot to work.

✅ Check: When you click the Copilot button in the upper-right corner of the portal, if the Copilot pane opens instead of a "no permission" message, ① is working. You will verify the agent (preview) in Module 3.

🔎 What if you cannot enable it or your company tenant policy blocks it? Complete Modules 1 and 2 (project + import), then use the alternative portal path in Module 6 (Reports/business case) to obtain the same outcomes.

Module 1: Create an Azure Migrate project (8 minutes)

Goal: Create an Azure Migrate project to hold discovery and assessment data.

Portal search > Azure Migrate > open Migrate on the left (or the migration dashboard).
Under Get started / Create project: - Subscription: (your subscription) - Resource group: Create new rg-lab-migrate - Project name: lab-migrate-prj - Geography: Select a nearby geography such as Asia Pacific. (This is where project metadata is stored and is separate from the target Azure region for assessments.)
Click Create.

💡 What is a project? It is a workspace for one migration effort (for example, one data center). Discovered server inventory, assessment results, and business cases are all collected inside this project.

✅ Check: If the lab-migrate-prj dashboard opens and you see the "Discovery and assessment" tile, you are successful.

Module 2: Import inventory — CSV import without an appliance (10 minutes)

Goal: Load a sample server inventory with CSV, without using real on-premises hardware.

💡 Why CSV import? Azure Migrate normally performs automated discovery by installing an appliance (discovery virtual appliance) on-premises. However, with CSV import (or an RVTools file), you can load inventory without equipment and still experience assessment and planning. The assessment criteria are slightly relaxed (for example, "conditionally ready" if boot type is missing), but it is sufficient for learning migration planning.

Prepare the sample file assets/sample-inventory.csv for this lab (a virtual data center of 14 servers: web/app/DB 3-tier + ERP, file, AD, analytics, monitoring, and development servers, including some end-of-support OS entries).
In the project, select Discovery and assessment > Discover > Import using CSV.
(Optional) Download the CSV template provided by the portal and compare the format. The required columns are Server name, Cores, Memory (In MB), OS name.
Upload sample-inventory.csv → Import. If validation passes, 14 servers are registered in the inventory.

📌 (Alternative) Import RVTools: If you have a VMware environment, you can import the .xlsx exported from RVTools directly. The Copilot agent's "discovery and inventory analysis" supports reasoning over appliance/Collector/RVTools import data.

✅ Check: In the project > Inventory (Discovered servers), if you see 14 servers and the OS names include end-of-support (EOS) entries such as Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2, and CentOS Linux 7, you are successful.

Module 3: Open the Copilot Migration Agent (5 minutes)

Goal: Open the migration agent that supports natural-language conversations.

Go to the Azure Migrate Migrate dashboard.
Under Get started, select Accelerate migration.
In the Azure Migrate Project step, choose Existing project → select lab-migrate-prj (subscription/resource group/geography) → Continue.
The Migration Agent conversation screen opens.

💡 What can the agent do? It can read the project's discovered inventory, assessments, and business case data, then answer natural-language questions with summaries, comparisons, and explanations. It helps with migration strategy analysis, inventory analysis, business case and ROI, readiness interpretation, and landing zone configuration. However, it does not execute actual replication or cutover (those are performed in the portal).

✅ Check: If selecting "Accelerate migration" opens the Migration Agent screen with a chat input box, you are successful. (If the menu is missing or you see a permission error, recheck activation steps ① and ② in Module 0, or proceed with the Module 6 alternative path.)

Module 4: Talk to the agent — from inventory analysis to ROI (15 minutes)

Goal: Ask the kinds of questions an SE would ask in a customer meeting and obtain analysis results.

Enter the prompts below in order (based on sample prompts from the official documentation). You may ask in Korean as well.

A. Start planning and summarize inventory - How should I plan to move VMware workloads to Azure? - Summarize the imported inventory. - Show me the servers that are out of support. → Confirm that Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012/2012 R2, CentOS 7, and similar entries are identified.

B. Application grouping (tagging) - Assign the application:ECommerce tag to the ecom-web-01, ecom-app-01, and ecom-sql-01 servers. → When asked to confirm, enter Yes, proceed. - Show me all workloads tagged with application:ECommerce.

💡 Why tag and group applications? Migration should be performed safely at the application level, not one server at a time. Grouping web + app + DB together lets you assess and plan migration as a unit. (New feature: reserved tags Environment, Migration Intent)

C. Readiness assessment - What is the Azure VM readiness of the application:ECommerce workload? Create an assessment if needed. - Show me the readiness summary for the assessment. → Review the ready/conditionally ready/not ready classifications, recommended sizes, and estimated costs.

D. Business case & ROI (key executive reporting content) - Give me an ROI summary for lift-and-shift. - Compare the ROI of lift-and-shift and modernization. - Explain how the savings are calculated in this business case. (Azure Hybrid Benefit, reserved instances, and so on)

E. Landing zone planning - What is an Azure landing zone? - Create a platform landing zone that matches my region and compliance requirements. → Review the guidance for downloadable configuration templates.

✅ Check: If the agent provides summaries, tables, and recommendations based on your project data for each question, you are successful. (The agent answers by citing your inventory, not just general guidance.)

Module 5: Export an executive reporting artifact (5 minutes)

Goal: Convert the analysis results into leadership-ready reporting material.

Ask the agent: Help me download the business case results as a PowerPoint. → The agent guides you to download the business case artifact as a PPT (for executive discussion).
(Parallel new feature) In the portal, go to Project > Reports and generate Executive summary / Security insights / Business case reports for comparison. - Reports include strategy-level (PaaS modernization / Azure VM / AVS) reporting, TCO and ROI comparison, Azure Hybrid Benefit and reserved instance savings, and Backup/ASR/Defender recommendations.

💡 Why are PPT and Reports important? Customer decision makers (CIO and finance) look for cost, ROI, and risk on one page, not technical tables. Turning the agent's evidence directly into executive material increases the speed of decision-making.

✅ Check: If the business case can be downloaded as a PPT, or if an executive summary report is generated in Reports, you are successful.

Module 6: (Alternative path) Obtain the same results in the portal without the agent

Use this when you cannot enable the Copilot/Agents preview from Module 0. Modules 1 and 2 (project + CSV import) are still required.

Application grouping (new feature): Project > Inventory > multi-select servers > assign tags/application groups. (Also review automatically discovered applications.)
Reserved tags (new feature): In inventory, set Environment (Prod/Dev/Test/UAT) and Migration Intent (Migrate/Retain/Retire) → reflected in assessments, SKUs, and costs.
Create assessment: Discovery and assessment > Assess > Azure VM to evaluate readiness, sizing, and cost.
Business case: Use Build business case to review TCO/ROI, sustainability (carbon) insights, and Azure Hybrid Benefit savings.
Security insights (new feature): Use Security insights to identify EOS OS, CVEs, and unpatched servers, plus Defender for Cloud/Update Manager recommendations.
Reports (new feature): Generate an executive summary report.

✅ Check: Confirm that the new features above work against the same inventory even without the agent.

Cleanup

Assessment and planning themselves are not billed, but keep the environment clean.

Portal: Delete the rg-lab-migrate resource group (including the project). CLI:

az group delete -n rg-lab-migrate --yes --no-wait

ℹ️ The tenant Copilot/Agents settings enabled in Module 0 can be used by other users, so revert them only if your organization policy requires it.

✅ Deletion status: [ ] Complete

Instructor notes

Common issues:
The "Accelerate migration" menu does not appear → ① Azure Copilot and ② Agents (preview) in Module 0 must be enabled in the tenant (Global Admin). It may take some time for the change to take effect after activation.
CSV import validation fails → Check for missing or misspelled required columns: Server name/Cores/Memory(MB)/OS name. Use official OS names where possible.
The agent only gives generic answers → The project may be empty. Confirm that the inventory import in Module 2 has completed.
Copilot does not work on the company network → Check whether WebSocket access to directline.botframework.com is blocked.
Expected questions and answers:
"Can we really assess without an appliance?" → Yes (CSV/RVTools import). However, performance-based sizing depends on the utilization values you provide, and readiness criteria are somewhat relaxed.
"Does the agent perform the migration directly?" → No. It supports planning, analysis, and decision-making. Execution (replication/cutover) is done in the portal.
"What does it cost?" → Discovery, assessment, business cases, and agent conversations are free. Only actual migration execution is billed.
"Can we recommend this to customers while it is in preview?" → It is highly valuable for planning and review. However, clearly state that it is not GA, and have a human validate the outputs.
Cost management: Delete rg-lab-migrate after the lab. Tenant Copilot settings are shared and can be left enabled if appropriate.

References

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