Recently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched an innovative IaC-driven migration framework aimed at assisting enterprises in automating the migration of AWS Storage Gateway instances from Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) to Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023) before the deadline of June 30, 2026 when support for AL2 will officially cease. The innovative framework combines Terraform modules along with Ansible automation in order to facilitate an easy-to-use method for what has traditionally been a rather challenging and time-consuming procedure that includes halting the applications, transferring cache disks, creating new gateway instances, and running migration APIs. As AWS explained, the innovative solution will be especially useful for companies having a considerable number of hybrid cloud storage deployments within several AWS accounts and regions, as the process may prove to be quite difficult and error-prone without any kind of automation. The migration framework will enable preserving identities and cached content of the gateways, as well as file shares while avoiding any interruptions in the work process.
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In terms of how the process will be executed, it will comprise two stages: Terraform deployment of a new AL2023-based gateway while automatically detecting its settings, and Ansible orchestrations of the process. According to AWS, the framework greatly decreases migration complexity and enables the creation of auditable workflows applicable to enterprise-level workloads. Furthermore, it was stated by AWS that maintaining data caches allows avoiding costly downloads from Amazon S3, which saves time for migration and minimizes network strain for business organizations. It is worth mentioning that such an initiative from AWS demonstrates the current tendency to increase automation in IT infrastructure, which can be attributed to the fact that enterprises tend to utilize DevOps-based approaches to running workloads in multi-cloud environments. As far as organizations with the use of AWS Storage Gateway for hybrid cloud storage, backup, and disaster recovery purposes are concerned, automation features introduced by the new framework can help streamline their migration process considerably. According to AWS, migration of one gateway takes from 15 to 30 minutes depending on the speed of the network and instance start-up time.
