Can I just use vhdx files from a virtual machine, and put them in a new image?

[localzuk]

So, I'm doing some major restructure work with our Hyper-V cluster, to introduce storage redundancy, and as part of that I am needing to basically disassemble it all, and rebuild from scratch.

 

The question I have is, I'm thinking, a very simple one but also a very key one. Can I go and grab the VHDX files from all my VMs, and create new guests on my new cluster with the old VHDX as the hard disk?

 

I believe the answer is yes, but after having run into issues doing something similar with VirtualBox in the past, I want to check and confirm.

[Marshall_IT]

I don't think so.

 

They is not a definitive answer, I believe you need to export and then import. This will basically allow you to do the same thing.

 

I had a crash of my hyper-v server one and had to do a LOT of work to get the vhds on my new server. These came from 2008 hyper-v. 2012 might be different.

[SYNACK]

As long as you copy the settings xmls and copy paste in the nessisaries like mac addresses and such you should be alright.

[Arthur]

2012 might be different.

It is slightly different.

 

VM's that are exported from Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 utilized the version 1 WMI namespace which resulted in an .exp file to represent the exported virtual machine. In Windows Server 2012 we introduced a new WMI namespace (version 2 or root\virtualization\v2) which implemented a much better import/export model – allowing you to effectively just copy the virtual machine folder (with the VM’s XML configuration file inside it) as well as the VM’s VHDs and then import that directly. For Windows Server 2012 we maintained the version 1 WMI namespace which allowed for importing of Windows Server 2008/R2 VM’s on 2012.

 

In Windows Server 2012 R2 we have removed the old version 1 namespace which means we can’t import virtual machines that were exported from Windows Server 2008/R2. (Source)

[Marshall_IT]

@Arthur thanks, that's actual really useful for me right now. I have 2 2008 hosts and a 2012 host. Knowing this I'll need to migrate to 2012 before I can upgrade to R2.

[ChrisH]

If you only have the VHD(X) file you can just add it to a new VM but you will need to set the IP address again. I have had to do that a few times. Other ways as described above are more desirable, but it's not the end of the world if have to do it the way you described.

[localzuk]

OK, cool. I'll work around exporting the VMs then, to keep things simple. Thanks all.

[localzuk]

Well, I've made a start today. I tried out live storage migration first, but it took about 20 minutes to move a 45GB VM. So, I've switched to offline export/import. 45GB now takes about 7 minutes.

 

8 servers and 309GB down, 15 servers and 800GB to go.