Convert Hyper V images to Virtual box

converthyper-vvirtualboxwindows 7windows-server-2008

I need to change my client OS from Windows 2008 to Windows 7. I therefore need to convert all of my HyperV images to Virtual Box.

What is the best way to do this? Or is there a way to run HyperV on Windows 7?

Best Answer

Virtualbox does actually support importing VHD file, unfortunately this is only for VHD's created with Virtual PC, not Hyper-V, which adds some additional information to the VHD. Some people have successfully got VHD Vm's to boot by ensuring the VM in Virtualbox uses an IDE rather than SATA controller.

I'm not aware of anyway to convert VHD's straight into virtual box, however you can convert VHD files into VMWare VMDK files (using tools like Starwind V2V) which Virtualbox is then able to use.

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Does running one Virtual Machine on a HYPER-V box make sense

We do this with one of our demo environments for the sole reason that it can easily be backed up, blown away or moved to a developer's machine for tweaking.

The reason why we only run one is due to the high system requirements of the demo (CPU usage and memory usage). Having multiple running at the same time is not feasible.

A good backup plan for Hyper-V Virtual Images

One thing you can do if you want to use robocopy with volume shadow copies is use the VShadow tool from MS (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530725.aspx)

I've outlined a brief approach below, you'd want to create a batch script to automate this process but it isn't too difficult.

You can create a shadow copy using the vshadow tool. Following this, using the -el flag (with vshadow again) you can expose the shadow copy under a drive letter (like x:). Following this you can use robocopy to create backups from the mounted shadow copy drive.

I've outlined a rough script below, note this hasn't been tested. It takes a shadow copy of C: and mounts it as X:

setlocal
IF NOT "%CALLBACK%" == "" GOTO :VS_CALLBACK 

set CALLBACK=%~dpnx0
vshadow.exe -p -script=TempScript.cmd -exec=%CALLBACK% C: 

:VS_CALLBACK  
setlocal
call TempScript.cmd
vshadow.exe -el=%SHADOW_ID_1%,X:

del /f TempScript.cmd

robocopy X:\ \\backup\server

Obviously the robocopy command needs to be customised to suit whatever you're doing (copy VHD's from some location etc). Hopefully this is helpful!

Best Answer

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Does running one Virtual Machine on a HYPER-V box make sense

A good backup plan for Hyper-V Virtual Images

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