Hyper-V - easier to use now?

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davidcole

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#195155 8-Apr-2016 10:47

A number of years ago I looked at hyper v for virtualising at home.

I found it a pain in the butt compared with how I ran vmware server.

One of the main aspects was the file security and the need to export VHD and config files relating to a virtual machines.

Under VMware I know I can shutdown a machine (via script) and copy the single directory for a VM and it's all self contained. Starting up the copied VM - apart from a quick question if you move or copied it (which changes the mac address) it's pretty painless - and a pretty good backup solution.

Can this be done with hyper-v, or to you have to perform an export (scriptable?) I'm looking at rebuilding my "host" - and I was going to potentially look at hyper-v as a host rather than just windows + vmware workstation.

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#1528270 8-Apr-2016 11:21

I've never been a big fan of Hyper-V. I haven't used it recently but thought you might be interested in Proxmox.

If you're looking at virtualization at home id highly recommend it (its free without support) - https://www.proxmox.com/en/

The directories for files and configuration are very logical, it shouldn't be a problem scripting what you are after, though you can do a lot through the web GUI.

sbiddle

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#1528275 8-Apr-2016 11:26

You can just use Windows backup to backup Hyper-V machines which is a very simple solution.

davidcole

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#1528282 8-Apr-2016 11:31

sbiddle:

You can just use Windows backup to backup Hyper-V machines which is a very simple solution.

Ew really? Unless it's changed lately...windows backup didn't include file aging

sbiddle

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#1528287 8-Apr-2016 11:35

You simply configure Windows backup and select the Hyper V machines you want. It's the world's simplest backup solution and works really well assuming disaster recovery is the prime reason for the backups.

clinty

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#1528298 8-Apr-2016 11:40

davidcole:

Under VMware I know I can shutdown a machine (via script) and copy the single directory for a VM and it's all self contained. Starting up the copied VM - apart from a quick question if you move or copied it (which changes the mac address) it's pretty painless - and a pretty good backup solution.

Can this be done with hyper-v, or to you have to perform an export (scriptable?) I'm looking at rebuilding my "host" - and I was going to potentially look at hyper-v as a host rather than just windows + vmware workstation.

From Server 2012 on you don't need to export in order to import

Overview of exporting and importing a virtual machine

Clint

davidcole

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#1528319 8-Apr-2016 11:59

clinty:

davidcole:

Under VMware I know I can shutdown a machine (via script) and copy the single directory for a VM and it's all self contained. Starting up the copied VM - apart from a quick question if you move or copied it (which changes the mac address) it's pretty painless - and a pretty good backup solution.

Can this be done with hyper-v, or to you have to perform an export (scriptable?) I'm looking at rebuilding my "host" - and I was going to potentially look at hyper-v as a host rather than just windows + vmware workstation.

From Server 2012 on you don't need to export in order to import

Overview of exporting and importing a virtual machine

Clint

And you can restrict a VM to a single sub directory per machine? That was one other difference I remember, the config and vhds were split over a couple of subdirectories making the imports/exports/copies difficult to perform and move around.

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freitasm

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#1528377 8-Apr-2016 12:36

Just configure your Hyper-V server directories the way you want. Was always like this...

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timbosan

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#1528396 8-Apr-2016 12:56

sbiddle:

You simply configure Windows backup and select the Hyper V machines you want. It's the world's simplest backup solution and works really well assuming disaster recovery is the prime reason for the backups.

I can offer proof of this - I have SBS2011 running on Hyper-V, and it recently had a few issues. All my VM's are backed up to an external HDD on the Hyper-V host. I simply picked the one I wanted from the past x number of backups, restored it, and started it up. It ran like nothing had changed.

I have used Hyper-V at home for over 2 years and never had problems importing machines (except for some non- Hyper-v formats). I even run a Linux based VM that is a backup target for Mac's and moved that between my laptop (Windows 10, where I created that VM) and Server 2012R2 (where it runs now).

davidcole

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#1528397 8-Apr-2016 12:58

Oh, you can run linux under hyper v now right? Would be pointless if I can as I run a couple

timbosan

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#1528399 8-Apr-2016 13:00

davidcole:

Oh, you can run linux under hyper v now right? Would be pointless if I can as I run a couple

Yup - in fact I am about to try running a musicbrainz VM I downloaded. http://blog.musicbrainz.org/category/data/virtual-machine/

davidcole

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#1528404 8-Apr-2016 13:03

freitasm: Just configure your Hyper-V server directories the way you want. Was always like this...

So if I have a default hyper v location for the virtual disks and a default location for config files...how do I get them to be the same subdirectory for each VM...or do you have to configure that manually?

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sbiddle

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#1528414 8-Apr-2016 13:12

I've moved quite a few things from VMware to Hyper-V because it's so much easier to use and manage backups on without paying big $$$ for backup software.

timbosan

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#1528422 8-Apr-2016 13:24

sbiddle:

I've moved quite a few things from VMware to Hyper-V because it's so much easier to use and manage backups on without paying big $$$ for backup software.

OT - what do you use to convert the VM's?

davidcole

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#1528424 8-Apr-2016 13:26

timbosan:

sbiddle:

I've moved quite a few things from VMware to Hyper-V because it's so much easier to use and manage backups on without paying big $$$ for backup software.

OT - what do you use to convert the VM's?

I'm trying Starwind V2v. The microsoft tool wont pull from vmware workstation only esx

sbiddle

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#1528469 8-Apr-2016 14:14

I used 5nine v2v

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