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Shaamaan
Asked: 2013-07-26 02:30:57 +0800 CST

Automate Hyper-V post-snapshot merge and machine start

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Here's a scenario that occurs quite frequently.

Before installing system updates I create a snapshot of a virtual machine in case something goes wrong. After the update is done and there are no problems, I want to remove the snapshot, as it would just be taking up space otherwise.

This means I need to turn the machine off (either completely, or save it). No issues there.

My gripe is that after saving the machine, I need to wait for the merge to complete (and depending on how many updates there were, this can take some time) and then manually bring the machine back up. I know Windows Server 2012 can perform merges when a machine is running, but we're using Windows Server 2008 R2.

Is there any way to have Hyper-V automate this process? I mean - bring the virtual machine up after merging, so I don't need to sit and wait around?

windows-server-2008-r2

1 Answers

  1. Of course there is. Using PowerShell you can stop the vm, start the merge, wait for it to compete, then start the vm.

    Update: I thought that running a merge was asynchronous when run from PowerShell, but it appears to be synchronous. So a script would look like this:

    $vm = Get-VM theNameOfYourVm
$vm | Shutdown-VM
$vm | Get-VMCheckpoint | Merge-VMCheckpoint
$vm | Start-VM
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