Breakout Session DCIM-B412: Effortless Migration from VMware to Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V
If there was any session at TechEd that could initiate the self-destruction sequence for my VCDX certification, I think this session would be at the top of the list. That being said, it was a good session for folks looking to move VMs from VMware to Hyper-V. The session covered six tools, some free, some paid, that can make the conversion process fairly painless. Some require more downtime than others, or require scripting for mass migrations.
Quick look at Hyper-V 2012 R2
- Consistent platform between Windows Azure, customer, and service providers
Microsoft Assessment and Planning toolkit (MAP)
- Agentless inventory and assessment tool
- Reporting, free, and now at version 9.0
- Securely assesses IT environments on various platforms including physical and VMware
- You can specify an inventory scenario, and it will directly connect to the VMware SDK (ESXi or vCenter) to do the inventory
- Server consolidation report, VMware discovery report, Microsoft workload discovery (SQL, Exchange, etc.)
Six Migration Approaches
- Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter, VMM, NetApp SHIFT, NetIQ platspin, Vision Solutions Double take Move, Migration automation toolkit
Microsoft VMM 2012 R2
- Supports vCenter 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, ESXi 4.1, 5.0, 5.1
- VMM can connect directly to vCenter or ESXi hosts via a simple wizard
- VMM enables the direct migration from VMware to Hyper-V via a migration wizard
- VM must be turned off during the migration (cold migration)
- The wizard migrates the disk controller, allows you to select the SMB share to store the VM on, VLAN/port assignment, availability settings, and can start VM after the migration is complete.
- 50GB VM takes about 15 minutes to migrate
- VMM is not the best tool for mass migrations, but there are other tools for that
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 (MVMC)
- Fully supported by Microsoft support
- Free download from Microsoft.com
- Enables VMware to Hyper-V or Azure migrations
- Fully scriptable via PowerShell
- Supports a wide ranges of OSes
- Inventories VMware and enables
- Windows Server 2003 through 2012 R2, and vSphere 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5 support
- Does not depend on VMM (fully standalone tool)
- Runs on a management computer
- Requires a cold migration
- Simple GUI migration wizard
- Automatically de-installs VMware Tools, and installs Hyper-V integration pack
- For Azure migrations it will just upload the VHDX to a storage container but will not create the VM (need extra steps for that)
- Tool uses certificate authentication with Azure
Migration Automation Toolkit (MAT)
- Allows to script and scale MVMC conversions
- Free download from TechNet Gallery
- Still uses MVMC under the covers
- Limited to three concurrent migrations per management computer (can use multiple computers)
- Driven by PowerShell, uses SQL Express, extensible and customizable
- Provides simple reporting and management in the solution
- Fully supported by Microsoft
NetApp SHIFT
- Based on Microsoft MAT, but uses Data OnTap 8.2 to convert the VMDK at VHDX at lightening speed
- Migrations take seconds per VM
Vision Solutions – Doubletake MOVE
- Migrate physical to virtual, virtual to virtual
- Not a free tool
- Uses agent in the source VM and agents on the target
- Performs a full copy while the VM is running
- Block level changes are replicated during the migration process
- Preserves write-order consistency
- Performs a live failover of the VM
- Performs a test failover (minus the network adapter)
- Supports migrating to Azure as well
- Can enable compression or bandwidth limits if replicating over the WAN
NetIQ Platespin Migrate
- Supports Windows and Linux workloads
- Multi-OS support
- Supports hardware migration (Vendor A to Vendor B)
- Virtual capacity planning and analysis tools
- Updates hypervisor tools and drivers automatically
- Minimal downtime
Summary
There are a variety of free and paid tools to enable your migration from VMware to Hyper-V. Some are more automated than others, and required downtime also varies. The bottom line is that migrations can be fairly easy, and you can even migrate VMs to Azure if you wish.
