On this guide, we will be testing the Storage Migration feature of the new Windows Server 2012 – Hyper-V
There are a lot of new features and improvements for the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2012.
Full features can be found on this link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831410.aspx
Source: Microsoft Technet
This features move the Virtual disks to a different physical storage while the Virtual Machine remains running.
Lets Start.
On this guide, I have created a Windows 8 Virtual Machine. To test if there will be a downtime on the VM, I will be running a video and continuous ping to the internet.
The Windows 8 Virtual Machine is located on Drive C:\
An iSCSI drive is attached to on Drive E:\
Our goal is to move the entire Windows 8 VM to E:\
Here is the screenshot of the Windows 8 while running a movie.
1. Go back to the HyperV Manager, Right Click on the Windows 8 Machine then Click Move.
2. The Move Wizard will launch. Click Next
3. We will now choose the option, Move the virtual Machine’s Storage since our objective is to move it to the shared storage (drive e). Click Next
4. We will choose the “Move all of the virtual Machine’s data to a single location. Click Next. This option will move the Configuration and Virtual Harddisk.
5. Specify the new location of the Virtual Machine.
E:\Client2\
Click Next
6. Now we are ready for the move. Finalize if all are correct the hit Finish
As you can see on both screenshots, the VM is being transferred even if it is still up and running.
After moving, we will confirm by checking the Snapshot File Location, Virtual Disk location and checking Drive E:\
Also checked E:\
And we are done. We have confirmed that the Windows 8 VM was transferred to the iSCSI drive without turning it off.
Cheers!
One Tech Day 