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Run a Workload Modernization Scan

Optimization reduces the cost of what you run. Modernization asks whether you should run it that way at all. KOSTRA’s modernization engine discovers what actually runs inside your virtual machines — without SSH or an agent installed by KOSTRA — fingerprints each workload, and maps it to the 6 R’s (rehost, replatform, refactor, repurchase, retire, retain). This guide walks through a scan end to end.

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Prerequisites

Discovery relies on the cloud provider’s own run-command capability to read what is inside each machine. Before you can get findings, the target instances need that capability enabled:
  • Huawei Cloud — the Cloud Operations Center (COC) UniAgent online on the instances.
  • AWS — Systems Manager (SSM) available on the instances.
  • Google Cloud — the OS Config agent, with permission to read OS inventory.
KOSTRA surfaces the exact prerequisite per provider when an account is not yet ready, so you know precisely what to enable. Until an agent is available, an account can be scanned but will report why it found nothing rather than inventing results.

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Start a scan

  1. In the left navigation, open Modernization.
  2. Use the data-source switcher to select the account you want to assess. The switcher lists the providers modernization supports.
  3. Trigger a scan for the selected account.
A scan moves through discovery, analysis, and — if enabled — AI narration. When it completes, the results populate the modernization views.

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Read the results

KOSTRA presents modernization as a hierarchy you can drill into:
  • Server — each scanned machine, with a rollup of its readiness and potential saving.
  • Workload — the deduplicated units running on that server, classified by archetype (web application, database, cache, message broker, and so on).
  • Evidence — the exact processes, ports, and probes that justified each classification, so every finding is traceable.
At the top, KPI cards summarize the assessment, and a prioritization quadrant plots findings by effort against impact, with bubble size showing potential saving — a fast way to spot the high-impact, low-effort moves.

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Choose a strategy

Each finding carries options across the 6 R’s rather than a single verdict. KOSTRA recommends a strategy for the priority you care about and explains why, but you decide:
  1. Open a finding’s card with View card.
  2. Switch the priority — cost, performance, security, or resilience — to see how the recommended strategy changes.
  3. Compare the strategy options, each with its own effort, risk, and estimated saving.
  4. Select the strategy you intend to pursue. Your selection drives the savings rollups, so the dashboards reflect your actual plan.
All the numbers are engine-owned and deterministic; the strategy tabs let you pick and commit, not recalculate by hand.

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Generate starter Terraform

For a chosen strategy, KOSTRA can generate starter Terraform for the target architecture, per provider. Use Generate Terraform from the finding’s card. The output is a scaffold with clearly marked TODOs — a head start for your platform team, not a turnkey apply. Review and complete it within your own IaC process.

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Plan with migration waves

Modernization is a program, not a single change. KOSTRA lets you group servers into migration waves so you can sequence the work. Assign a server to a wave from its row, and the wave view rolls up the workloads and expected saving for that phase — turning a list of findings into an executable plan.

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Export a report

To share the assessment outside KOSTRA, use Export report to produce a summary of the findings and recommended strategies for stakeholders.