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Barden
Asked: 2009-07-14 10:25:55 +0800 CST

Convert a (big) vm from ESXi 3.5 to Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

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Ok Here is my problem I have 1 ESXi 3.5 server that has 3 vm's on it. I have decided to move over to Hyper-V Server R2 since I like what they are doing on the free side of things. (Free Clustering and Live Migration seal the deal for me) we are a small shop and don't have a real iscsi setup yet (but it's coming, soon I hope) so I'm just running my storage locally (tho I do have a starwind/ms server iscsi box if I need it for the conversion) And I need to get my vm's off the exsi box on to my hyper-v r2 box. I have SCVMM but it appears that it won't connect to my esxi box to move them. And I'm not sure how to do it.

I've read a lot about manual conversions (the vmdk to vhd tool) but I'd like to do something more automated if I can. Space is a concern as one vm is our storage drive and it's close to 1TB.

So I guess my actual question is what's the best way to get my stuff from vmware to hyper-v?

Thanks everyone.

hyper-v vmware-esxi

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Copy the .vmx and any VMDK files from the ESX console to a Windows folder. Then you should be able to point SCVMM at the .vmx and it should work. If it fails at that point you can edit the .vmx to make sure the vmdk paths in it are OK (ie just remove any paths from them if they are there). Veeam FastSCP will do the trick if you need something to handle the copy. It would be a good idea to remove any snapshots first if you have any before you start.

    The files will most likely all be under /vmfs/datastore/virtualmachine-name but some of them may be elsewhere if you've chosen to put the VMDK's in other locations. If they are spread around you will have to edit the .vmx

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  2. I've used SCVMM to import VMs from VMWare Server (v1). As far as SCVMM is concerned the VM is just a physical server and it imports with no problems. Uninstall the VMWare Tools first or you'll get harmless but annoying warnings when you start the VM in Hyper-V.

    JR

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  3. http://www.adopenstatic.com/cs/blogs/ken/archive/2008/03/23/16710.aspx

    The difference is that he was migrating from VMware Server. but the article can guide you an help you.

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  4. Remove VMware tools on the server you want to migrate to HyperV Install disk2vhd en start it up. This copys your entire disks/partitions to a VHD file. Create a new virtual server on HyperV, using the VHD files you created before. 'Insert' integrations services disk and install integration services. Boot your virtual machine on HyperV (make sure VMware virtual server is off to avoid conflicts.

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