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This page describes the offline assessment that you can generate with the
discovery client and the mcdc CLI.
Overview
The discovery client and the mcdc CLI
let you run an offline assessment with the information that you collect
in the discovery phase. The offline assessment creates reports that provide
you with a high-level fit assessment result for migration and potential
blockers for different migration journeys. The offline assessment also
describes any issues that must be resolved before the migration.
It provides an overall fit assessment using one of the following scores:
Excellent fit
Good fit, with some findings that might require attention
Needs minimal work before migrating
Needs moderate work before migrating
Needs major work before migrating
No fit
Insufficient data
You can generate reports in HTML, Microsoft Excel, CSV, and JSON format.
Before you begin
To generate an offline assessment report, discover and collect data from your
assets with the
discovery client
or the
mcdc CLI.
Generate a report with the discovery client
To generate and download an offline report with the discovery client,
follow these steps:
In the discovery client application, go to the Reports tab.
Click New report.
Enter a name for your report, then select the format that you want to
export.
To confirm, click Create.
When your report is ready, click Download.
Generate a report with the mcdc CLI
The mcdc CLI lets you output the offline assessment report
as HTML, JSON, CSV, or XLSX file format. HTML and CSV reports are available
as summary and detailed versions.
HTML
Summary
In the directory where you downloaded mcdc CLI,
run the following command:
The tool outputs to the current directory an HTML file named
REPORT_NAME.html.
To view the report, open
REPORT_NAME.html in a
browser.
This report includes a cost analysis section.
Use this report to estimate the cost of running modernized workloads in
Google Cloud. The report groups VMs by modernization strategy, and
sums the cost by modernization strategy, and by overall cost. The cost
analysis helps you decide what modernization strategy to purse,
depending on how much you want to modernize your workloads, and
how much effort you plan to invest.
The calculation is based on the VMs configuration details, such as
number of CPUs, memory, and storage, and excludes VMs that don't fit
modernization targets.
Detailed
In the directory where you downloaded mcdc CLI,
run the following command:
The tool outputs to the current directory an HTML file named
REPORT_NAME.html.
To view the report, open
REPORT_NAME.html in a
browser.
The report contains a table listing all of the discovered VMs.
It is possible to add further columns to the table.
You can also apply a text filter to the table.
You can open any VM in the table to see its attributes, target
journeys, and app components. You can then open any of the app
components from the VM to see their attributes and target journeys.
The detailed HTML report can fail to open when reporting on a very
large number of VMs–typically more than 10,000 VMs, but the exact
number depends on your machine, on your browser, and on the content
of the report. The XLSX report is a good alternative in such cases.
JSON
In the directory where you downloaded mcdc CLI,
run the following command:
The tool outputs a spreadsheet named
REPORT_NAME.xlsx to the
current directory.
Open the spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet contains a number of worksheets displaying the following:
Information about all discovered VMs
Information about all discovered application components
Fit score for all journeys for each VM and app component
A worksheet per journey containing the results for all rules for that
journey
The mcdc CLI stores assessment data and log information
in the ~/.mcdc directory on the host machine.
For information on how to remove this data, see
Delete collected data from host machine.
Specify the target platform
When generating a report, use the --target-platform flag to indicate the
specific platform to which you want to migrate your VMs.
The available options are: gcp, gdc, containers, and all.
Each option lets you specify a different set of journeys to evaluate:
gcp assesses lift and shift journeys to Compute Engine,
Google Cloud VMware Engine, and containerization journeys to Google Kubernetes Engine,
GKE Autopilot, and Cloud Run.
gdc assesses lift and shift journeys to Google Distributed Cloud
and containerization journeys to GKE and
Cloud Run.
containers assesses modernization to Google Distributed Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine,
GKE Autopilot, and Cloud Run.
all assesses all possible journeys.
For example, to limit the report to the gcp migration journey, run
the following command:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Run an offline assessment\n\nThis page describes the offline assessment that you can generate with the\ndiscovery client and the `mcdc` CLI.\n\nOverview\n--------\n\nThe discovery client and the `mcdc` CLI\nlet you run an offline assessment with the information that you collect\nin the discovery phase. The offline assessment creates reports that provide\nyou with a high-level fit assessment result for migration and potential\nblockers for different migration journeys. The offline assessment also\ndescribes any issues that must be resolved before the migration.\n\nIt provides an overall fit assessment using one of the following scores:\n\n- Excellent fit\n- Good fit, with some findings that might require attention\n- Needs minimal work before migrating\n- Needs moderate work before migrating\n- Needs major work before migrating\n- No fit\n- Insufficient data\n\nYou can generate reports in HTML, Microsoft Excel, CSV, and JSON format.\n\nBefore you begin\n----------------\n\n- To generate an offline assessment report, discover and collect data from your assets with the [discovery client](/migration-center/docs/add-servers) or the [`mcdc` CLI](/migration-center/docs/run-inventory-discovery).\n\nGenerate a report with the discovery client\n-------------------------------------------\n\nTo generate and download an offline report with the discovery client,\nfollow these steps:\n\n1. In the discovery client application, go to the **Reports** tab.\n2. Click **New report**.\n3. Enter a name for your report, then select the format that you want to export.\n4. To confirm, click **Create**.\n\nWhen your report is ready, click **Download**.\n\nGenerate a report with the `mcdc` CLI\n-------------------------------------\n\nThe `mcdc` CLI lets you output the offline assessment report\nas HTML, JSON, CSV, or XLSX file format. HTML and CSV reports are available\nas summary and detailed versions. \n\n### HTML\n\n### Summary\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format html --file REPORT_NAME.html\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format html --file REPORT_NAME.html\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs to the current directory an HTML file named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.html.\n2. To view the report, open\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.html in a\n browser.\n\n This report includes a cost analysis section.\n\n Use this report to estimate the cost of running modernized workloads in\n Google Cloud. The report groups VMs by modernization strategy, and\n sums the cost by modernization strategy, and by overall cost. The cost\n analysis helps you decide what modernization strategy to purse,\n depending on how much you want to modernize your workloads, and\n how much effort you plan to invest.\n\n The calculation is based on the VMs configuration details, such as\n number of CPUs, memory, and storage, and excludes VMs that don't fit\n modernization targets.\n\n### Detailed\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format html --full --file REPORT_NAME.html\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format html --full --file REPORT_NAME.html\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs to the current directory an HTML file named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003e REPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.html.\n2. To view the report, open\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.html in a\n browser.\n\n The report contains a table listing all of the discovered VMs.\n It is possible to add further columns to the table.\n You can also apply a text filter to the table.\n\n You can open any VM in the table to see its attributes, target\n journeys, and app components. You can then open any of the app\n components from the VM to see their attributes and target journeys.\n\n The detailed HTML report can fail to open when reporting on a very\n large number of VMs--typically more than 10,000 VMs, but the exact\n number depends on your machine, on your browser, and on the content\n of the report. The XLSX report is a good alternative in such cases.\n\n### JSON\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format json --file REPORT_NAME.json\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format json --file REPORT_NAME.json\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs a JSON file named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.json to\n the current directory.\n2. Open the file with a text editor.\n\n### CSV\n\n### Summary\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format csv --file REPORT_NAME.csv\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format csv --file REPORT_NAME.csv\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs a CSV file named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.csv to the\n current directory.\n2. Import the CSV report into your data visualization utility.\n\n The report contains the fit score for each journey for each VM, but\n doesn't include results for individual rules.\n\n### Detailed\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format csv --full --file REPORT_NAME.csv\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format csv --full --file REPORT_NAME.csv\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs a CSV file named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.csv to the\n current directory.\n2. Import the CSV report into your data visualization utility.\n\n The report contains the results for all rules for each VM and\n application component.\n\n### XLSX\n\n1. In the directory where you downloaded `mcdc` CLI,\n run the following command:\n\n\n ### Linux\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n ./mcdc report --format xlsx --file REPORT_NAME.xlsx\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ### Windows\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n ```\n mcdc.exe report --format xlsx --file REPORT_NAME.xlsx\n ```\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n The tool outputs a spreadsheet named\n \u003cvar scope=\"REPORT_NAME\" translate=\"no\"\u003eREPORT_NAME\u003c/var\u003e.xlsx to the\n current directory.\n2. Open the spreadsheet.\n\n The spreadsheet contains a number of worksheets displaying the following:\n - Information about all discovered VMs\n - Information about all discovered application components\n - Fit score for all journeys for each VM and app component\n - A worksheet per journey containing the results for all rules for that journey\n\nThe `mcdc` CLI stores assessment data and log information\nin the `~/.mcdc` directory on the host machine.\nFor information on how to remove this data, see\n[Delete collected data from host machine](/migration-center/docs/manage-collector-cli#delete_collected_data_from_host_machine).\n\n### Specify the target platform\n\nWhen generating a report, use the `--target-platform` flag to indicate the\nspecific platform to which you want to migrate your VMs.\nThe available options are: `gcp`, `gdc`, `containers`, and `all`.\nEach option lets you specify a different set of journeys to evaluate:\n\n- `gcp` assesses lift and shift journeys to Compute Engine, Google Cloud VMware Engine, and containerization journeys to Google Kubernetes Engine, GKE Autopilot, and Cloud Run.\n- `gdc` assesses lift and shift journeys to Google Distributed Cloud and containerization journeys to GKE and Cloud Run.\n- `containers` assesses modernization to Google Distributed Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine, GKE Autopilot, and Cloud Run.\n- `all` assesses all possible journeys.\n\nFor example, to limit the report to the `gcp` migration journey, run\nthe following command: \n\n### Linux\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n```\n./mcdc report --format FORMAT --target-platform gcp --file REPORT_NAME\n```\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n### Windows\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n```\nmcdc.exe report --format FORMAT --target-platform gcp --file REPORT_NAME\n```\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nIf you use the `mcdc` CLI in a\n[Google Distributed Cloud environment](/distributed-cloud/hosted/docs/latest/gdch/overview),\nthen specify the `gdc` value for the target platform: \n\n### Linux\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n```\n./mcdc report --format FORMAT --target-platform gdc --file REPORT_NAME\n```\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n### Windows\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n```\nmcdc.exe report --format FORMAT --target-platform gdc --file REPORT_NAME\n```\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- Learn how to generate a [total cost of ownership (TCO) report](/migration-center/docs/generate-tco-report)."]]
