Can Import/Export Be Used to See ASR Targets in Azure?

Q. Can I use the Azure Import/Export service to seed my Azure storage account for ASR replication?

A. When ASR first replicates to Azure, the current storage of the VMs must be replicated to the target Azure storage account. This may be a large amount of data. Azure also has an import/export capability that allows hard disks protected with BitLocker to be filled with data and sent to an Azure data center, where it is imported into the Azure storage account. Currently this capability cannot be used to pre-seed the storage used by ASR. Instead, customers should use ExpressRoute where possible to seed large amounts of data into Azure storage accounts for use with ASR.