Introduction
Welcome to the fourth part of our 5-part series on VM conversions using StarWind V2V Converter. In the previous articles, we discussed converting VMs to and from Oracle VirtualBox , oVirt , and Proxmox. Now, let’s focus on something that’s a bit more exciting: Hot VM migration from Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware ESXi.
With this feature of StarWind V2V Converter, you can convert Hyper-V VMs to VMware almost on the fly. What does ‘almost’ mean? It means you can convert the running VM without needing to turn it off on the source hypervisor until the process is finished.
At the beginning of the conversion process, before moving any data, StarWind V2V Converter will take a snapshot of the live VM state on the source host. When the conversion is completed, the converter will turn off the VM on the source host and transfer all the changes made after the snapshot was taken to the newly converted VM on the destination hypervisor.
Hot migration allows you to minimize VM downtime, which is especially important when converting business-critical VMs with lots of data.
Why no live migration? Because it requires shared storage and a cluster of similar hypervisor hosts.
To try this feature out for yourself, you can download StarWind V2V Converter here and follow along.
That’s enough theory — let’s get to the practical part!
Hot migration from Hyper-V to VMware
If you’re looking for a detailed guide on hot migration from Hyper-V to VMware, you can check out the full process in this video:
Open StarWind V2V Converter and choose the “Microsoft Hyper-V Server” option:
Enter the IP address and credentials of your Hyper-V server:
Select the VM to convert:
Select the drives that need to be converted and tick the “Synchronization” checkbox, which is necessary to enable hot migration:
Our next step is to select the destination platform – the ESXi server:
Next, specify the ESXi or vCenter server IP address and credentials:
The following step is to specify the target ESXi host and settings of the new VM:
Now, let’s wait until the conversion is completed:
After the conversion is complete, verify the new VM settings and test it in an isolated environment outside of the production network to avoid overlapping with the original VM that is still running on your source hypervisor. When ready, shut down your source VM and start up the new one. That’s it!
Conclusion
And that wraps up hot VM migration from Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware ESXi, all made possible with just a few clicks using StarWind V2V Converter. This tool delivers a seamless and low-downtime migration experience, perfect for any IT environment.
I hope this 4th part of our 5-part series has given you valuable insights into how versatile and user-friendly StarWind V2V Converter truly is. Stay tuned for the final part of the series, where we’ll explore another exciting VM conversion topic.
Happy converting!
