Best way to export VMs from VMware

[thomasso]

Hi folks.

I'm on a task where it's required, that I migrate some virtual machines from an ESXi environment over to a Hyper-V cluster.

I have been searching for options to migrate servers from within the vSphere web client, but the only options I can find, is the options to either move the virtual machines to other hardware or hosts within the vSphere setup/ domain.

Is there a way to simply export a virtual machine/ VHDX directly, so that it can be attached on a Hyper-V server?

Best regards

[Gidrakos]

Don't forget, Virtual Machines are just files and nothing more - Microsoft has developed a tool to do exactly what you need :smileyhappy:

Download Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 from Official Microsoft Download Center

[thomasso]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm aware of the MVMC and have actually installed it on one of our servers. But was of that impression (told by an employee who has been here longer than me, I just started), that they have tried this many times, and that seems outdated.

But I have now tested with this tool, but get an authentication error when I try to connect to the ESXi host/cluster (I did try both).

I'm not sure why, because I use the exact same credentials to access the vCenter server from a browser, and seems to have full administrative rights with this account.

So I'm a little stuck with this tool so far.

On the other hand, is it not possible to export VMs directly from ESXi?

[deltagranit]

link expired

[tayfundeger]

You want to switch a virtual machine from ESXi to Hyper-V. I usually use the following product in this kind of process. It's pretty simple.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/v2v-help/VMfromVMwareESXiServertoHyperVServer.html

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter

[thomasso]

Thanks! That tool was on my to-try list.

I have now installed the tool, but have trouble accessing the ESXi server.

I try on both the individual host IPs and the IP for the cluster. Yet I get a "Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password", using same user I'm accessing the vSphere client (browser) with.

Are there any requirements for performing such a task?

I have also tried my AD credentials because I can see that OurDomain\administrators are in the admin group on the vSphere server.

But again, I'm new and have been throwed into a kind of mess here, no documentation and the former employees out the door.

[thomasso]

I have just talked to one of my colleagues who have been working with migration.

He told me that they previously did use the tools you mentioned, and that they experienced a lot of errors when trying to boot up the machines in our Hyper-V environment.

They ended up using our backup solution to export VMs and attach them on the Hyper-V server. Some machines come up with errors where they up till now donøt have been able to solve the problems, some are less problematic and have been running with some small adjustments.

I should mention, that many of our servers are running different Linux distros, I'm not sure whether the converter tools can handle them at all.

Best regards