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dahaun
Contributor
Contributor

Upgrade from Hyper-V to VMWare

Good Day:
I am planning an in-place (Same server hardware) upgrade from Windows 2008R2 Hyper-V machines to a VMVsphere server ESXi 5.0.

I have a plan to move the VHD from the server to a NAS device, then push them up to the new vSphere server, OR I do have a server, not as powerful, that I could export the VHD as live images to, then back to the production server.

This server has 2 main Virtual PC that I am worried about:

SQL2008 R2 Server

Exchange2010

I tried this as a lab test earlier today, using an internet tool from like WinImage, that converted from .vhd to .vmhd, and it worked - this was before I found VmWare vCenter Converter...

When I imported the machine and started it up on a sandbox server, it started fine, installed drivers and such, BUT it broke the "Security Relationship" on Active Directory.  Not a big deal for some machines, but if that is broken on an EXCHANGE 2010 machine, results could be devastating.

Bottom Line, I have 2 main questions:

1. Migration?

     - Live Server using Vconvert from Hyper-V to the Sandbox Machine (Running vSphere) then migrate machines back to the Production Server?

     - Migrate via Flat Files, Taking each server down individually, converting hard drive, to a NAS and then uploading to the Production Server?

2. Migrate without breaking the Active Directory / Windows Security Relationship?

Thanks,
Darren

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saurabhbhattach
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

I remember once while I was evaluating the Vcenter Convertor tool tried to convert one Hypfer-V VM to Esxi format and it worked just fine but I did it for testing purposes and there was no real danger. However, in your scenario like in Exchange as you mentioned, it could really be devasting situation. If I were you, I would have created a test VM and I would have installed exchange and would have ditone the similar kind of setings as it is present in this environment like adding to AD and all and would have tried the test machine first.

If you have time, I would suggest you to do so. This will enable you to take a proactive decision rather than a reactive one. I know this probably might not the answer you might be seeking, however, if you don't get your situation validated by a few experts, I won't see any other way out.