VMware migration to Hyper-V

[mhigg]

Good Morning Geeks!

 

I am looking for some real world experience to pull from.

 

We are currently a VMWare estate, we run two ESXi servers, around 30 VMs, mostly Windows with a handful of Linux thrown in.

The state of play is that our two servers are due to be replaced this year and I am considering moving to Hyper-V to save on the VMWare licencing that we pay each year,

 

I have done a lot of reading about the pros and cons of each platform and the migration path but I was hoping to find someone who may have already done this in the real world and their experience.

 

Thanks in advance you legends!

[3s-gtech]

It did it a few years back. Two ESXi hosts, slowly migrated to Hyper-V. I converted some of the VMs with disk2vhd, then converted them to Gen 2. No issues.

 

i don’t miss ESXi, mainly because if there was a power blip and the UPS played up it would kill the hypervisor install and I’d have to quickly reinstall it. That wasn’t really a fault of the OS.

[mhigg]

2 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

It did it a few years back. Two ESXi hosts, slowly migrated to Hyper-V. I converted some of the VMs with disk2vhd, then converted them to Gen 2. No issues.

 

i don’t miss ESXi, mainly because if there was a power blip and the UPS played up it would kill the hypervisor install and I’d have to quickly reinstall it. That wasn’t really a fault of the OS.

 

So all in all it wasn't too painful?

We have a number of servers to decomission too and I figured now would be as good a time as any to get it all done in one summer. 

[3s-gtech]

It wasn’t painful at all. I’m a big fan of Hyper-V for its simplicity, resilience and functionality so it never bit me back making the change.

[Aprice]

Just done another using Veeam.

You can do an instant restore to Hyper-V and then commit the storage back once the VMs running.

[Sylv3r]

We migrated easily via Veeam - worked really well and fairly painless.

[mrbios]

Did mine last year, similar size and scale. Tried StarWind V2V converter but Veeam seemed to be the easier and better method.

 

Once the server(s) are setup and happy, process was as simple as:

Shutdown, backup, restore one by one. Uninstall VMware tools (There's a handy removal script here: Force removal of VMware Tools, Program Files, and Windows Services · GitHub ), cleanup any old devices from device manager (show hidden devices), reboot, job done. 

 

[Alex0x7F]

I can recommend using Veeam’s restore to Hyper-V. I’ve used it a many times and it’s been the most painless way of moving hosts especially when swapping out the physical tin.

[Davit2005]

If you have DCs defo rebuld them on Hyper-V. Build 2 new ones and transfer roles.

 

[mhigg]

Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

 

You are legends

[chazzy2501]

yes, I paid a company to migrate when I bought new servers, they purchased veeam for me as the new backup solution but this was also the migration path.