I have a customer with an old Windows Server 2012 with hyper v cluster configured for 2 nodes. One node died completely. I have 2 new HP proliant 360 Gen10 running Server 2022 DC and a big SAN, and I am trying to figure out the best way to move over the 6 VMs on the existing host. I’m new to this process but it seems like the host OSes must match for me to move the old VMs over. Is the best way to just export a Datto backup of the VMs to the new cluster? Any way to do this live? Any advice I’d appreciate and apologies if I wasn’t clear at all.
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You can use the ‘move’ function in Hyper-V to perform a live migration which incurs no downtime. Select the VM, click Move, select ‘Move the virtual machine’ (not ‘Move the virtual machine’s storage’, that only moves the storage, not the whole VM), and then finish out the wizard. IIRC that is sensitive to host architecture being sufficiently similar (changing processor generations can make it sufficiently different), so it may not work for you.
If you can’t do that and since it is a single-digit number of VMs, you could turn them off, copy the .vhd files to the new location, set the VMs up on the new server, and turn them on. That is, of course, going to incur some downtime, so it isn’t optimal.
Yep, if move function works than go with that. Otherwise, get the VMs ready on the new cluster, copy over the VHDs, attach and run.
I’ve done both methods multiple times and never had any issues.
Thank you! I am hoping this works but it is a 10 year gap between the 2 hosts so I was not sure, but I can at least give it a try.
Did that before. First, ensure you aren’t running on any snapshots. If your VMs have any snapshots, delete them.
If the move function works then use that but I suspect it won’t. You can simply use the “move the vm’s storage” option to ensure the VHD is properly consolidated, then you can put it on the new host and start the VM there (shut it off before moving of course). If your host is running a newer hyper v version you might need to bump the hypervisor version for each VHD in PowerShell, that might take a while but it’s usually fast.
Thanks for the advice! I am pretty sure the move function won’t work since the OS and hardware are 10 years apart but I will try it anyway. If not I will try the storage move.
