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Posts tagged #hyperv
MVMC Automation Toolkit (MAT)
Apr 17th
In one of the break-out session at the Microsoft Management Summit 2013, which was held last week, an automation toolkit was shown to migrate virtual machines from “the other guys” to Hyper-V. The toolkit makes use of Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter and is part of the Solution Accelerator tools.
The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter provides a Microsoft-supported, freely available, stand-alone solution for converting “the other guys”-based virtual machines and virtual disks to Hyper-V-based virtual machines and virtual hard disks (VHDs)—including conversion from “the other guys” to Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012. Because MVMC has a fully scriptable command-line interface (CLI), it integrates especially well with data center automation workflows such as those authored and run within Microsoft System Center 2012 – Orchestrator. It can also be invoked through Windows PowerShell.
MVMC provides you with:
- A quick, low-risk option for “the other guys” to evaluate Hyper-V.
- Converts “the other guys” virtual machines to Hyper-V virtual machines: The VM Conversion will convert “the other guys”-hosted virtual machines and ensure that the entire configuration, such as memory, virtual processor, and other machine configurations, is also migrated from the initial source. The tool also adds virtual NICs to the deployed virtual machine on Hyper-V.
- Supports a clean migration to Hyper-V with uninstallation of VMware tools on the source virtual machine.
- Provides a wizard-driven GUI, making it simple to perform virtual machine conversion.
- Installs integration services for Windows 2003 guests that are converted to Hyper-V virtual machines.
- Supports conversion of virtual machines from “the other guys” vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 hosts, including those hosted on a vSphere cluster, to Hyper-V. The tool also supports migration of virtual machines to a Hyper-V host that is part of a failover cluster.Note MVMC also supports conversion of virtual machines from “the other guys” vSphere 4.0 if the host is managed by vCenter 4.1 or vCenter 5.0. You have to connect to vCenter 4.1 or 5.0 through MVMC to convert virtual machines on vSphere 4.0.
- Supports offline conversions of “the other guys”-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V-based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
- Includes a fully scriptable command-line interface (CLI) for performing machine conversion and offline disk conversion, integrating with data center automation workflows such as those authored and executed within System Center 2012 – Orchestrator. The command line can also be invoked through Windows PowerShell.
MVMC simplifies low-cost, point-and-click migration of Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2, and Windows Server 2003 with SP2 guest operating systems from VMware to Hyper-V.
The MVMC Automation Toolkit is a collection of PowerShell scripts that will automate conversions using the MVMC.exe. It is back-ended by a SQL instance (SQL Express will work). You can use it to convert several machines at once, on a single server or across many servers at once.
MVMC Automation Toolkit can be considered as a low budget very easy to use toolkit to automate migrates from “the other guys” to Hyper-V. If you want to know more about this tool you have to watch this session!
Early test version available for System Center 2012 SP1 and Windows Server ‘8’ Beta
Mar 10th
I expect many of you have tried out the new version of VMM 2012 that will be generally available before long. It is an incredible piece of software that I have blogged about several times just after the first general beta since it arrived about one year ago. But there is one thing it cannot do: manage Windows Server ‘8’.
Now that the bits of Windows Server 8 are available to everyone, it is very good news that Microsoft has released the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of System Center 2012 for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta support. The focus of this CTP is on VMM and DPM in combination with Hyper-V and is therefore not aimed to work with all the other System Center 2012 modules. It essentially focuses on managing the fabric of your private cloud including Windows Server ‘8’.
These are the capabilities you can try out:
- Hyper-V Network virtualization
- Hyper-V VM’s on an SMB2.2 file share (on a Windows 8 file server or scale out file cluster)
- VHDX format
- Live Storage Migration
- Live Migration without shared storage
- VM protection on CSV 2.0 volumes
- VM protection on remote SMB2.2 file shares
- Protection of de-dup enabled file share volumes
System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta Support can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=29099
Remember that this CTP is not even beta so only run this in a test environment!
The Great Big Hyper-V Survey of 2011 is now closed
Sep 6th
The Hyper-V Survey held by Aidan Finn, Damian Flynn and Hans Vredevoort has now run for almost three weeks and was closed yesterday. Today we received the results and I can say they are very interesting for a number of reasons. If you have not implemented Hyper-V yet, the results of this survey may help you make a more informed decision. If you have already started implementing Hyper-V the results may feel you less lonely. They may reinforce your choices or even change your opinions. Others who may benefit could be the other hypervisor vendors, the server, storage and network OEMs, the software vendors who are (thinking of) offering Hyper-V oriented solutions.
Whatever your interest may be, we welcome you to not only read our analysis but also ask you to respond, make your contributions via replies to our blogs or in the social media.
The survey has had plenty of interest so far and I thank everyone who has paid attention or helped us promote this survey. A big thank you for you:
Here are some of your contributions
Please use hashtags #hyperv #survey if you do.
Expect my analysis in two separate blogs. The 80 questions and answers are far too interesting to quickly talk about. The first part will be published on www.hyper-v.nu on Wednesday, September 7th at 11:00AM CET.
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