Windows Server 2012 & Hyper-V 3.0 Live Migration

Live Migration having arrived in Windows Server 2008 R2 provided the ability to move virtual machines around between Hyper-V hosts in a planned fashion (just like vMotion from VMware). With Hyper-V 3.0 Microsoft have completely reviewed this feature and broke all restrictive rules. Previously features of this type had a number of restrictions for example share storage or clustering was required. With Hyper-V 3.0 none of this is true. Virtual machines can be moved from any source to destination. The source and destination computers do not have to share anything except access to the same IP subnet so the moved virtual machine can maintain network connectivity. So yes you are correct Live Migration in Hyper-V 3.0 does allow a virtual machine running on a host with only directly Attached Storage (DAS) to be migrated to another host with only DAS without any perceived downtime for the users that are using the virtual machine. I am sure we will see others adding this feature soon!!

[mnkutube]

Thanks... It helped me for the idea of live VM migration of VMs residing on provisioned 3rd party storage to Hyper-V.

[DanieleLaGiorgia]

Very helpful. Thank you for your time ;-)

[tonicarrera]

Thanks Paul, useful videos for a 1st timer Hyper-V admin like me. Off to find some of your others now. Trying to find a reverse replication one

[LarsSchlageter]

Thank you, this was very helpful for me.

[thebigchainsaw]

Great video. When you contrast this to ESXi 5 - where shared storage is required for a migration (if you don't have a SAN, you can use the Vmware Storage Appliance, which turns local storage into shared storage) how does Hyper-V compare? Much easier to get set up?

[dprzybycien]

This is great Paul -- Any chance you may show how this works with Shared Storage? Can two servers share a single SAN Volume now?

[sagaboi]

When we're selecting destination, is it better to create a sub-folder using hostname of VM? Or just pick default Hyper-V destination folder? I'd prefer Hyper-V to create a sub-folder on my behalf and drop all VM files within. Not have VM files all mixed with other VMs.

[lukedukey]

They way it was in 2008 R2 was you could have 1 migration occurring per host. You could have multiple hosts live migrating simultaneously, but it didn't help when you wanted to evacuate a host via maintenance mode thought (waiting for all to evacuate 1 at a time).
I'm curious to see how 2012 improves this it with the option to bump up # of concurrent migrations....It looks like it still has bugs based on what you said

[enrikevs]

how do i know which version of hyper v i have?, i need to get this version, but cant find it anywhere Supported Hyper-V version: Hyper-V 2, Hyper-V 3

[lukedukey]

ESXi 5.1 has the ability to sVmotion from non-shared storage. It works wonderfully too.
I wouldn't say Hyper-V is easier to setup. There are typically a lot more tasks to perform to get an environment up properly

[PaulGregory]

To work out what version you have can be done a few ways. If the GUI is installed look at the version of the file C:\Windows\System32\VMMS.exe. If the GUI is not installed run the following command : 'wmic datafile where get version'
Then compare to this table
Version of file Version of Hypr-V
Hyper-V 2008 RTM
Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1
Hyper-V 2008 R2 SP1
Hyper-V 2012

[arieflim]

You said that hyper-v support unlimited concurrent live migration, but how to live migrate another guest while there is a live migration is in progress? when the live migration process begin, it looks like it took up the whole hyper-v manager process, does it run in the background?

[PaulGregory]

I will product a video showing this working with a share volume. Shared volume support was introduce in Windows Server 2008R2 with a feature called Clustered Shared Volumes. Hopefully I will get the video up in the next week. Paul

[bratecyo]

for vmotion you need to purchase additional license. With Hyper-V it's free.

[best-hosting]

This isnt Live migration, this is a Live Migration Nigtmare :-)

[imiii]

Dear paul, i am getting this error while doing live migration in win server 2012 r2 virtual machine migration operation failed at migration source. Please tell how will rectify this issue

[jtvmmiw]

Until Windows Update wrecks everything