Altaro Backup...

I didn't realise there were that many good choices.  What kind of cost are they?  I only need to convert every so often, usually prebuild images from VMWare or Virtual Box.

(trying to keep this within the realms of the thread topic)

timbosan:

 

I didn't realise there were that many good choices.  What kind of cost are they?  I only need to convert every so often, usually prebuild images from VMWare or Virtual Box.

(trying to keep this within the realms of the thread topic)

 

ive managed to convert my ubuntu 14.04 lts machine and it starts.  Not overly happy though.

Altaro and Veeam are both good free backup solutions for Hyper-V if you are looking at doing basic backup's.

https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html

Could look at Hyper-V in Server 2016 (technical preview free to download). Has some really good new features like nested virtualization, shielded VM, shared VHDX etc.

I've use both in production circumstances and started with VMWare and then dabbled with Hyper-V. They have their pluses and minuses but when I got my team to start looking at DR into Azure, Hyper-V was so much easier in terms of configuration of the mirroring servers in Azure, failing over and failing back.

On a less grandiose note I provide (free) tech support to a friend who runs a law practice. He has to run XP(!) to support his practice software as he is reluctant to spent $20K or more for the upgrade when the current software works. I am not looking at moving his office to Windows 10 and for the machine(s) that still need this software run it in a Hyper-V instance running XP. That might get over all the problems of having to keep his main desktops n XP.

sbiddle:

 

I used 5nine v2v

 

 

 

We usually use Starwind, but I am going to take a look at this, it looks like it might be a bit more seamless.

I'm not a fan of HyperV.  I'm considering a re-platform of my infrastructure at work to VMware.  Lots of good looking features in the latest from VMware, compared to a few years ago when I last looked and was certified.  I find HyperV needs a bunch of stuff around it to extend its functionality (System Centre Virtual Machine Manager, Orchestrator, Operations Manager, etc, etc) whereas VMware comes with a lot of that stuff built in.  

I use Hyper-V all the time, especially for development where multiple sets of VMs are used for complex systems. Things are a bit easier now that it is built into Windows 10 as well.

davidcole:

 

timbosan:

 

I didn't realise there were that many good choices.  What kind of cost are they?  I only need to convert every so often, usually prebuild images from VMWare or Virtual Box.

(trying to keep this within the realms of the thread topic)

 

 

 

 

ive managed to convert my ubuntu 14.04 lts machine and it starts.  Not overly happy though.

 

What things are you not happy with?

In the early days Hyper-V was not a good option for running linux VMs, but since then they did some work contributing source code to the linux kernel, so linux would run o.k. as a Hyper-V guest.

You might have seen these recommendations from TechNet:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn531029%28WS.12%29.aspx

Can't speak from experience as we are mostly using VMware and some KVM / Openstack based solutions.

alexx:

davidcole:

timbosan:

I didn't realise there were that many good choices.  What kind of cost are they?  I only need to convert every so often, usually prebuild images from VMWare or Virtual Box.

(trying to keep this within the realms of the thread topic)

 

ive managed to convert my ubuntu 14.04 lts machine and it starts.  Not overly happy though.

What things are you not happy with?

In the early days Hyper-V was not a good option for running linux VMs, but since then they did some work contributing source code to the linux kernel, so linux would run o.k. as a Hyper-V guest.

You might have seen these recommendations from TechNet:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn531029%28WS.12%29.aspx

Can't speak from experience as we are mostly using VMware and some KVM / Openstack based solutions.

 

 

If it's backup software you want, it's hard to go past veeam (for either MS hyper-v or VMWare vSphere - although let's face it, the only people who prefer hyper-v are people who haven't really used vSphere).

If you have any of the following certs you can get an NFR license for free to use the full version (not just the limited free version) of it at home for a year (and lets face it, then you just get another one and carry on):

• VMware vExperts
• VMware Certified Professionals (VCPs)
• VMware Certified Advanced Professionals (VCAPs)
• VMware Certified Instructors (VCIs)
• VMware Certified Design Experts (VCDXs)
• Local VMware User Group (VMUG) Leaders
• Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Experts (MCSEs)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associates (MCSAs)
• Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs)
• Cisco Champions
• PernixPro Members
• And more!

detail here:

https://www.veeam.com/blog/how-to-get-free-veeam-nfr-key.html

So an update, I made the move back to hyper-v after changing my hosts os from windows 7 to 2012.

I find the machine runs a lot leaner, and doesn't spike in cpu usage as much as vmware used to.  Memory usage is also reduced the VMs seem to generally be running better.

Am quite pleased.  

I've not needed to pass through a USB device yet - which was one feature I had used in vmware...but I have also managed to restructure how my VMs are housed, and implement a scheduled export - which suffices my needs for backups.

All in all it was a pretty easy migration - including the 2 Debian based machines.

I think the answer is both can be toe solution depending on what you are trying to do. I currently use both VMWare and Hyper-V, at home and work.

My personal preference is still for VMWare in the data center, but it seems fairly stagnant and Hyper-V keeps getting better and better so I'm not convinced that will always be the case. We make use of Hyper-V + SCVMM/SCORCH/SCCM/SCOM heavily for our _many_ branch sites away from the DC, and it works really well for what we want for them and is substantially cheaper than VMWare in that environment. 

Oh the other advantage I found was I could team my NICs together.  Something Vmware (admittedly workstation) wouldn't support.