How to Convert VMWare 5.5 to Windows 2012 HyperV

Part 1 – Prep the VMware VM

Uninstall VM Tools and VMware Converter Agent from within the OS

VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 12-11-32 PMTurn off the VM

Make sure it’s checked as Independent in VMware by right clicking the machine name, then choose “Edit Settings”.

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Part 2 – Copy the full VM to where you want the conversion to happen

Use Veeam Backup and FastSCP to copy the whole VM folder to somewhere on a HyperV machine to do the conversion
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Part 3 – Convert to HyperV

Now use the StarWind V2V converter to convert the machine to HyperV

Choose the Microsoft VHDX image option

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Hit next then Make a new folder to place the vhdx file in. In this example, it’s going in E:\VMs\servername\

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Part 4 – Setup HyperV

From HyperV Manager, choose New / Virtual Machine

VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-42-36 PMName it and say where you want to store the files
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-44-10 PMChoose Generation 1 Since this is a Windows 2003 Machine
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2048 for Startup memory and check the box for Use Dynamic Memory for this virtual machine.
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-47-23 PMVSwitch 1
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-48-00 PMSince we converted our machine with the Starwind converter, we choose the vhdx file that was created earlier.
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-50-02 PMIt should now be showing up correctly in HyperV

Part 5 – Verify settings and start it up

From HyperV hit “Settings”
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-52-12 PMSet the number of processors, I’ll leave this to 1 for now
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-53-41 PMCheck over the other settings such as the Memory.

From HyperV hit “Connect…”
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 1-54-12 PMStart the machine and see if it works
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 2-04-40 PMIt will have a lot of drivers to update and install, it might even ask you to call into Microsoft to activate it because of all the hardware changes. At this point, the mouse doesn’t work so well so you might just try inserting the Integration Services Setup disk and hoping for the best. That went pretty well and now the mouse actually works allowing us to reboot.
VMWare to HyperV Conversion 12-24-2014 2-02-05 PMWe still don’t have Internet so that’s next

Setup the correct IP address and associated settings

Now that you have internet, try connecting directly to the server with UVNC to clean it up.

Part 5 – Cleanup

When everything is done, delete the orignal VM folder that was copied over for the conversion.