aws-migration-discovery-checklist

aws-migration-discovery-checklist.md

AWS Migration — Discovery Week 1 Checklist

Produced by FactualMinds, AWS Select Tier Consulting Partner. Fork, adapt, share. Attribution appreciated.

Server & Workload Inventory

• Every host catalogued: hostname, OS, role, business owner, technical owner
• CPU p50 and p95 over the last 30 days (use CloudWatch Agent or Migration Evaluator)
• Memory p95 — requires an agent on most on-prem environments
• Disk I/O at peak (read/write IOPS, throughput)
• Network throughput at peak

Dependency Mapping

• Application-to-application traffic map (AWS Application Discovery Service or equivalent)
• Undocumented integrations identified (the calls nobody wrote down)
• Tightly coupled systems grouped into prospective migration waves

Database Inventory

• Engine, version, edition, license terms for every database
• Size on disk, transaction volume, replication topology
• RPO and RTO targets per database
• Schema-conversion candidates flagged (Oracle → Aurora, SQL Server → PostgreSQL)

Zombie Resource Sweep

• VMs with zero traffic over the last 30 days
• Orphaned EBS volumes / SAN LUNs
• Snapshots and backups older than 90 days nobody owns
• Retire candidates (no answer to "who uses this and why")

License & Contract Capture

• Oracle, SQL Server, RHEL — terms that change on AWS deployment
• VMware — Broadcom renewal date and price
• Microsoft Software Assurance status (BYOL eligibility)
• Audit clauses that affect AWS vCPU counting

Compliance Scope

• HIPAA / PCI DSS / SOC 2 / GDPR / NIS2 — which workloads carry regulated data
• BAAs and DPAs in place (or required) for AWS services
• Data residency constraints by jurisdiction

Operational Constraints

• Change-window inventory (when can each workload actually cut over?)
• Approval owners per workload
• Maintenance-window calendar (existing freeze periods)

Cost Inputs

• Current run-rate of the on-prem environment, fully loaded (hardware, licensing, facilities, staff)
• Colocation egress fees and bandwidth commits
• Datacenter lease end date / renewal cost
• Hardware refresh schedule and cost

Identity & Access

• Every IdP and directory the workloads authenticate against
• Service accounts and machine-to-machine auth flows
• Privileged access paths (vendor remote access, jump boxes)

Renewal Triggers

• VMware / hypervisor renewal date
• Hardware EOSL dates
• Datacenter contract end date
• Software-license renewal calendar