Hello World,

I’ve been asked some time ago if it was possible to migrate from “VMWARE” infrastructure to the new Hyper-v 3.0 infrastructure.  Microsoft has put a lot of effort to have this migration happening in the most painless way.  So, yes, it’s possible to migrate from a Vmware infrastructure. In fact, there multiple ways that can be used.

In this series of posts, we will try to describe the possible options available to you.  In this post, we will focus on the free solution offered by Microsoft called Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Tool.

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Tool

Overview

Microsoft offers a free,standalone software solution that can be used to perform migration from Vmware infrastructure into Hyper-v based solution.  The tool is called Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC). As long as your Vmware infrastructure is based on VCenter 4.1 or later and on ESX/ESXi 4.1, you will be able to migrate these virtual machines to hyper-v platform.  Note also that if you have ESX/ESXi 4.0 host managed by VCenter 4.1, you will also be able to perform the migration.

The target infrastructure will need to run hyper-v solution. The supported hyper-v software is found on Windows 2008 R2 sp1 or later operating system.

Finally, you will be able to migrate any guests virtual machines as long as the operating system is one of the following :

• Windows Vista or later (x86 or x64)
• Windows 2003 SP2 or later  (x68 or x64)

Prepare your machine

You can download the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter tool from the Microsoft Web site (here).  Based on your requirements, you will be able to migrate your virtual machine using a nice GUI interface or if you need automation and flexibility, the tool offers command line interface or Powershell capabilities.  In this post, we will focus on the GUI interface.

This tool can be installed on computer running Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2012 software.

Moreover, you will need to install

• .Net Framework 3.5 and 4 if the tool is to be installed on Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2
• .Net Framework 4.5 if the tool is to be installed on Windows 7

When you have done this, you are ready to proceed with the installation of the software.

Installation the Solution Accelerator package

In this section, we will explain how to install the MVMC tool on your computer.  Perform the following actions :

Step 1 – Download the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Solution Accelerator  msi package (not the plugin – see later for that)

Step 2 – Double-click on the msi package and the setup wizard will start. In the Welcome page, Press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 3 – In the License Agreement Page, accept the licensing and press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 4 – In the Destination folder page, accept default or provide another location. When Ready, press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 5 – In the ready to install page, click on the install button

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 6 – In the progress status page, you will see the progress of the installation

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 7 – If everything went fine, you should see the last page of the wizard informing you that installation has been completed.

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

If you look on your start menu, you should have a nice icon representing the MVMC tool. By clicking on it, you will start the migration Wizard

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Using this package, you will be able to perform the migration from your windows machine.   Microsoft goes a step further in supporting and integrating with Vmware product by offering a plugin for VSphere client.  Some people might want to perform the migration operation from the VSphere Console.  The plugin offer this capability

Installing the VSphere Client plugin

For people wanting to centralize their migration tools, Microsoft offer the Vsphere Plugin for MVMC Tool. By installing this plugin, you will have the ability to start the migration wizard within your VCenter console.  The installation process is quite straight forward and similar to the one described above.  You will need to

Step 1 – Download the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plugin  msi package on a computer where the VSphere console is installed

Step 2 – Double-click on the msi package and the setup wizard will start. In the Welcome page, Press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 3 – In the License Agreement Page, accept the licensing and press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 4 – In the Destination folder page, accept default or provide another location. When Ready, press Next

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 5 – In the ready to install page, click on the install button

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 6 – In the progress status page, you will see the progress of the installation

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Step 7 – If everything went fine, you should see the last page of the wizard informing you that installation has been completed.

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

At the end of the process, if the user open the VSphere client, by right-clicking a virtual machine, they should see a nice option  “Convert to Hyper-V Virtual Machine”.

Click on Picture for Better Resolution

Final Notes

This conclude the first part of this series.  In this post, we have seen that Microsoft is offering a nice little tool (which is free) that can be used to perform migration from Vmware infrastructure to Hyper-V.  You have 2 flavors of the tools.  You can install it on a windows machine and start the wizard from  there or you can install the plugin and integrate the plugins within the VSphere Client.  Whatever flavor of the tool you choose the end user experience will be similar.

Here, we have seen how to install the tool.  In the next part, we will see how to use the tool.

Till next time

See ya