V2V Migration - Going from Hyper-V to ESXi

CCWTech

We have a physical box running Hyper-V and need to go to ESXi
I know VMware has a converter and Starwind has one.

Anyone use either of these tools and can give some feedback?

The starwind one looks pretty simple but it scars me how easy it makes it look. Is this a live migration or does it shut the VM off? (Or do I need to shut it down first)

Any help is appreciated. I know @Oksana is here, maybe she can give some input.

scottalanmiller

@CCWTech Even if you can do a live migration, you would rarely want to. That means that any change to one system has to be synced to the other and there is no way to replicate the RAM between the systems. They can't both be running at the same time. So the old one has to run until everything is done, then you have downtime as you cut over. You can't do anything seamless between disparate platforms.

The problem with having systems running is that you need storage monitoring that hooks into the storage subsystem and intercepts all storage calls including cache and replicates those changes as it happens. Rarely something you'd want during a migration. It CAN add many, many hours to the process.

Of course, if going to ESXi, one assumes uptime or reliability aren't priorities. So maybe a long, slow process is okay.

Obsolesce

@CCWTech said in V2V Migration - Going from Hyper-V to ESXi:

I know @Oksana is here, maybe she can give some input.

That's just a marketing account most people block.

Obsolesce

@CCWTech I've used live migration of VMs successfully in the past, but not with Starwind. If Starwind offers a live V2V solution, I'd put my money on that more VS what I used successfully in the past.

If unsure, create a test VM to try.

scottalanmiller

@Obsolesce said in V2V Migration - Going from Hyper-V to ESXi:

@CCWTech said in V2V Migration - Going from Hyper-V to ESXi:

I know @Oksana is here, maybe she can give some input.

That's just a marketing account most people block.

I've been out drinking with Oksana.

Obsolesce

@scottalanmiller oh I don't doubt there's a real person behind the account, but I don't think it has a single time engaged with the community other than to throw around marketing posts. Super duper spammy. I can't stand visiting the site without being logged in, having to navigate around all the spam from that account. If I want to browse StarWind Blog posts, I'll just visit their site.