HOW TO: Convert and Migrate virtual machines and disks to Hyper-V and Windows Azure

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

VMware and Virtualization Consultant

CERTIFIED EXPERT

EE Fellow, MVE, Expert of the Year 2021,2017-11, Scribe 2016-2012, Author of the Year 2018-6,2013-2012 VMware vExpert Pro, vExpert 2022-2011

Published: 2014-04-16

If you need to complete a Virtual to Virtual (V2V) conversion, or migrate a VMware virtual machine and disk to a Microsoft product (e.g. Hyper-V or Windows Azure) for FREE, then there is some good news...

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Migrate to Hyper-V

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 (MVMC 2.0) was released on 8 April October 2014, and this latest version has new support for the following:-

Converts VMware virtual disks (VMDKs) that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to a Microsoft virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Windows Azure.

Provides Windows PowerShell capability.

Supports V2V conversions and of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.

Supports conversion of cold and powered off VMware virtual machines.

Supports for the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting VMware virtual machines to Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.

Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 (MVMC 2.0) also fixes numerous issues with crashing and conversion issues, when converting virtual to virtual computers to Microsoft Hyper-V.

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Admin Guide 2.0

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 Powershell commandlets

I would highly recommend the use of Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 (MVMC 2.0) to migrate and convert VMware virtual machines to Hyper-V or Windows Azure, rather than the following older legacy conversion tools, which have been used previously.

Disk2vhd v2.01

StarWind V2V Converter

5nine V2V Easy Converter 3.0

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Comments (4)

PIMSupport

Commented: 2014-08-13

Andrew, from what I am reading here and other places it makes it seem like the conversion has to be done from VM host to Hyper-V host only. Is it possible to have the conversion happen and the resulting VHDs be stored on media like an external HDD that can be attached to the Hyper-V host? My concern is bandwidth usage and the amount of downtime if this is all done over the wire. Please advise, thanks.

Fellow

Expert of the Year 2021

Author

@PIMSupport, please post a question, and we can discuss your issues in a question for the benefit of other EE members.

Philip Elder

Senior Technical Architect - HA/Compute/Storage

Most Valuable Expert 2021

Distinguished Expert 2023

Commented: 2014-09-15

Andrew, please correct the release date indicating "April October 2014."

@Philip

Thanks, not sure where October came from!