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1Z0-1123-25 Syllabus — Learning Objectives by Topic

Learning objectives for OCI 2025 Migration Architect Professional (1Z0-1123-25), organized by topic with quick links to targeted practice.

Use this syllabus as your source of truth for 1Z0‑1123‑25.

What’s covered

Topic 1: Migration Strategy and Discovery

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1.1 Migration approaches and business constraints

  • Explain common migration strategies (rehost, replatform, refactor, retire, retain) and when each fits.
  • Given a scenario, choose a migration approach based on downtime tolerance, complexity, and risk.
  • Identify how business constraints (compliance, latency, cost) shape the target architecture and sequencing.
  • Recognize the need for a landing zone baseline (compartments, IAM, network) before migrating workloads.
  • Given a scenario, define success criteria and acceptance tests for a migration wave.
  • Explain why stakeholder communication and change management are critical during cutovers (concept-level).

1.2 Discovery, dependency mapping, and sizing

  • Given a scenario, inventory applications, data stores, and dependencies to create a prioritized migration backlog.
  • Explain how to identify hidden dependencies (DNS, shared auth, batch jobs) conceptually.
  • Choose sizing inputs (CPU/memory/storage IOPS, network bandwidth) and account for peak load and headroom.
  • Given a scenario, map current-state components to OCI target services (compute, storage, databases) at a practical level.
  • Recognize patterns for grouping migrations into waves with shared dependencies and validation checkpoints.
  • Identify risks in under-sizing connectivity and data transfer windows for large migrations.

1.3 Program governance and risk management

  • Describe how to create a migration runbook with phases, owners, checkpoints, and rollback steps.
  • Given a scenario, build a risk register and mitigation plan (security, data loss, downtime, performance).
  • Explain how to enforce environment separation (dev/test/prod) and controlled change during migration.
  • Recognize how tagging and naming standards help track migrated resources, ownership, and costs.
  • Given a scenario, design approval gates for cutovers and high-risk configuration changes.
  • Identify documentation required for post-migration operations (diagrams, configs, SLAs, runbooks).

Topic 2: Connectivity and Network Foundations for Migration

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2.1 Network design for migrated workloads

  • Design VCNs, subnets, and routing for migrated applications with secure segmentation (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, choose public vs private subnet patterns and controlled egress designs.
  • Explain how DNS planning affects migrations (split-horizon, TTL reduction) conceptually.
  • Identify how to plan IP addressing to avoid overlaps with on-prem networks and peer networks.
  • Given a scenario, choose load balancing patterns to expose services safely during and after migration.
  • Recognize network security controls (security lists vs NSGs, firewall concepts) and when to apply them.

2.2 Hybrid connectivity: VPN and FastConnect

  • Differentiate IPSec VPN and FastConnect and choose based on bandwidth, latency, and reliability requirements.
  • Given a scenario, design redundant hybrid connectivity for production migrations (multiple tunnels/links).
  • Explain how DRG attachments and route propagation affect reachability (concept-level).
  • Identify troubleshooting steps for hybrid connectivity failures (tunnel state, routes, security rules) conceptually.
  • Given a scenario, plan connectivity cutover steps to minimize downtime and reduce risk.
  • Recognize the need to monitor connectivity health and alert during migration windows (concept-level).

2.3 DRG hub-and-spoke and multi-region considerations

  • Explain DRG hub-and-spoke architecture and when it simplifies multi-VCN and hybrid connectivity (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, design cross-VCN routing for shared services (identity, logging, bastion) conceptually.
  • Identify multi-region migration considerations: latency, data residency, and failover objectives.
  • Given a scenario, choose replication strategies and traffic steering approaches for cross-region cutovers (concept-level).
  • Recognize pitfalls: route conflicts, asymmetric routing, and overlapping CIDRs during connectivity changes.
  • Explain how to document and validate network paths before cutover using pre-flight checks (concept-level).

Topic 3: Data Movement and Storage Migration

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3.1 Object and file data migration

  • Choose appropriate methods to migrate object/file data: online transfer, bulk upload, or offline device (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, plan Object Storage bucket structure for migrated datasets, archives, and backups.
  • Explain how to validate data integrity after transfer (checksums, counts) conceptually.
  • Recognize performance factors: parallelism, multipart uploads, and network throughput for large transfers (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, design lifecycle policies and retention for migrated data to control cost and risk.
  • Identify access control requirements for migrated data (IAM policies, encryption) conceptually.

3.2 Block storage and VM migration concepts

  • Explain VM migration concepts: images, boot volume migration, and rehosting patterns (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, choose lift-and-shift vs modernization based on constraints and long-term objectives.
  • Identify block volume performance considerations (IOPS/throughput) and sizing implications.
  • Given a scenario, plan migration of attached storage and ensure consistent snapshots for recovery.
  • Recognize approaches to minimize downtime: incremental sync, freeze windows, and application quiescence (concept-level).
  • Explain how to test migrated instances for networking, security, and performance before cutover.

3.3 Backup, archiving, and disaster recovery during migration

  • Describe how backups provide a safety net during migration phases and enable rollback (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, choose backup destinations and retention aligned to RPO/RTO requirements (concept-level).
  • Explain how to plan DR for critical systems during migration (parallel run, warm standby) conceptually.
  • Identify how to restore and validate backups in OCI to prove recoverability before cutover (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, design an archival strategy for legacy data kept for compliance but rarely accessed.
  • Recognize compliance needs for backups: encryption, access logging, and immutability (concept-level).

Topic 4: Database and Application Migration on OCI

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4.1 Database migration workflows and tooling

  • Explain database migration phases: assessment, schema conversion, data load, validation, and cutover (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, choose OCI Database Migration service for offline vs online migrations (concept-level).
  • Recognize when to use replication/CDC tools (e.g., GoldenGate) to reduce downtime (concept-level).
  • Identify how to handle users/roles/permissions and connectivity securely during database migration.
  • Given a scenario, plan performance testing and index tuning after migration to address regressions.
  • Explain how to validate data correctness (row counts, checksums, application queries) conceptually.

4.2 Application migration patterns (compute, containers, serverless)

  • Given a scenario, choose application compute patterns: VMs, containers, or serverless functions (concept-level).
  • Explain how to migrate application configuration and secrets securely (Vault, environment variables) conceptually.
  • Recognize integration dependencies: message queues, APIs, identity providers, and batch schedules.
  • Given a scenario, design blue/green or canary releases for application cutover to reduce risk.
  • Identify approaches to migrate batch jobs and scheduling to OCI services (concept-level).
  • Explain how to modernize incrementally using strangler patterns rather than big-bang rewrites (concept-level).

4.3 Identity, access, and security during migrations

  • Design least-privilege IAM policies for migration teams, including temporary elevated access with auditability (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, use workload identity (dynamic groups/resource principals) for migration automation tasks (concept-level).
  • Identify how to secure network paths during migration (private access, encryption in transit) conceptually.
  • Explain how to manage keys and certificates during cutover, including rotation and trust chains (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, monitor and audit privileged actions and critical changes during migration windows.
  • Recognize common security pitfalls: copying secrets, leaving public endpoints, and over-broad permissions.

Topic 5: Cutover, Testing, and Stabilization

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5.1 Cutover planning and execution

  • Differentiate offline vs online cutovers and choose based on downtime, complexity, and validation needs.
  • Given a scenario, create a cutover runbook with checkpoints, freeze windows, and communications.
  • Explain why DNS TTL reduction and staged traffic shifts help smooth cutovers (concept-level).
  • Identify ways to prevent split-brain when running systems in parallel (single writer, locks) conceptually.
  • Given a scenario, design rollback criteria and procedures that can be executed quickly under pressure.
  • Recognize the importance of final validation: user journeys, data checks, and monitoring readiness.

5.2 Testing, validation, and performance verification

  • Plan migration testing: functional, integration, performance, security, and DR tests (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, use test environments and realistic data to validate before production cutover.
  • Explain how to compare performance between source and OCI and address regressions systematically.
  • Identify observability setup needed before go-live: dashboards, alerts, and log routing (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, validate connectivity and security rules with automated tests and checklists.
  • Recognize common post-migration issues: IAM access failures, route misconfiguration, and missing dependencies.

5.3 Stabilization and operational handoff

  • Define stabilization goals: error reduction, performance tuning, documentation, and governance completion (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, set up on-call and escalation procedures for migrated systems and ensure ownership.
  • Explain how to decommission legacy resources safely after successful migration and verification.
  • Identify cost and governance tasks: tag cleanup, budgets, and rightsizing after migration.
  • Given a scenario, create post-migration runbooks and knowledge transfer materials for operations teams.
  • Recognize how lessons learned feed into subsequent migration waves to improve speed and safety.

Topic 6: Operations, Governance, and Optimization

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6.1 Observability and operations for migrated workloads

  • Implement monitoring and logging baselines for migrated workloads to detect issues early (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, choose alerts that detect user-impacting failures and reduce operational noise.
  • Explain how to monitor connectivity and data replication during and after migrations (concept-level).
  • Identify how audit logs support tracking of configuration changes and access during cutovers (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, execute incident response for migration-related issues (rollback, isolate, communicate).
  • Recognize continuous improvement practices: postmortems, runbook updates, and alert reviews.

6.2 Cost management and performance optimization

  • Identify major cost drivers during migration (double-running environments, data transfer, idle compute) and mitigations.
  • Given a scenario, choose strategies to minimize cost while reducing risk (phased cutovers, scheduling, rightsizing).
  • Explain how rightsizing and autoscaling after migration reduce ongoing costs (concept-level).
  • Recognize trade-offs between performance headroom and cost controls for production services (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, plan storage tiering and lifecycle policies to optimize cost without losing required data.
  • Explain how to measure and report migration ROI and ongoing savings (concept-level).

6.3 Governance, compliance, and security posture

  • Design compartment and tagging standards that support compliance reporting for migrated resources.
  • Given a scenario, implement least-privilege IAM and periodic access reviews post-migration.
  • Explain how data residency and compliance requirements influence region choice and architecture (concept-level).
  • Identify how to implement security controls: encryption, network security, and posture monitoring (concept-level).
  • Given a scenario, plan backup and DR policies that meet RPO/RTO requirements after migration.
  • Recognize governance pitfalls: untracked exceptions, manual configuration drift, and missing audits.
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