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How to make an existing Hyper-V Virtual Machine Highly Available

Thomas Maurer
Updated
1–2 minutes
4 comments on How to make an existing Hyper-V Virtual Machine Highly Available

Windows Server 2012 Logo

If you have a running Hyper-V Virtual Machine with is not part of a cluster you can make this virtual machine highly available via the Failover Cluster Manager. First of all the Virtual Machine has to be stored on a shared storage. In Windows Server 2008 R2 this means the Virtual Machine and the attached Virtual Disks had to be stored on a Cluster Shared Volume (C:\ClusterStorage\…), with Windows Server 2012 the VM could also be stored on a SMB 3.0 file share.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Make Virtual Machine Highly Available

And there is also a big difference in Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. In Windows Server 2008 R2 the Virtual Machine had to be offline during you add the VM to the Cluster, and in Windows Server 2012 you can do this online.

First open the Failover Cluster Manager and right click on your Cluster Name in the menu select “Configure Role”

Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster Manager Configure Role

This started the High Availability Wizard. First select the role you want to make high available, in the Hyper-V case this is “Virtual Machine”.

Windows Server 2012 Failover Cluster Manager High Availability Wizard

Now select the Virtual Machine you want to add to the cluster. Note: In Windows Server 2012 the Virtual Machine can be online, in Windows Server 2008 R2 the Virtual Machine had to be offline.

Select Virtual MachineAfter clicking next on the wizard, you the VMs will be added to the Failover Cluster.

Btw. thanks to Philipp Witschi (itnetx), who I now owe a dinner.

 

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Thomas Maurer
Thomas is the EMEA Global Black Belt (GBB) for Sovereign Cloud at Microsoft, helping organizations across the region harness Microsoft’s sovereign, hybrid, multicloud, and edge solutions. He works directly with C-level leaders and technical teams to remove roadblocks, accelerate digital transformation, and shape long-term cloud strategies that meet business and regulatory needs. With over 15 years of experience in cloud and datacenter, including his previous role as Principal Program Manager and Chief Evangelist for Azure Hybrid, he combines deep technical expertise with a passion for customer success. He specializes in creating scalable architectures, solution accelerators, and thought leadership that drive adoption and innovation on Azure. Thomas is a passionate community advocate and frequently speaks at industry events such as Microsoft Ignite and Microsoft TechDays. He shares his expertise through his Cloud and Datacenter Blog at www.thomasmaurer.ch and on LinkedIn and X.com www.twitter.com/thomasmaurer.

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4 responses

  1. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Hi,

    Maybe there isn’t good place, but I’ve a question. I’m beginner user of Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012. I’ve 2 servers. Each have: 10 Gbe ethernet card and 5 1Gbit cards in LACP Aggreagation. On this server I’ve installed Hyper-V and file server roles. That is better using 10 Gbe or LACP aggregation connection to Hyper-V switch. I’m planning deploy Hyper-V replication. Thank you for answer.

    Regards,
    Pawel

    Reply
  2. James Avatar
    James

    Okay, I have a server running windows 2012 with Hyper V running 4 vm’s. This is the primary but if it fails I want a secondary server running windows 2012 R2 to take over. This take over can be made manually because I read somewhere that the hard drives would have to be redone to setup the automated function.
    How can I set this up with the existing Hyper V info and not have to start over.?
    Is clustering an option??
    How can I do this with the least amount of hassle??
    Thank you in advance!!!!!

    Reply
  3. PEDRO MONTALVO Avatar
    PEDRO MONTALVO

    Thank you very much, you got me out of a big bind.
    I needed to migrate some old servers to virtual ones and I couldn’t do it via P2V, so I did it the old way and used DISK2VHD, but when I raised the virtual machines the cluster didn’t recognize them even though they were in the cluster volume and In the cluster server, in short, for a moment I felt that my life was getting complicated, but thanks to Saint Google and your valuable post they saved me.

    Reply
    1. Thomas Maurer Avatar
      Thomas Maurer

      This is great! Happy my post helped. Thank you for the kind feedback!

      Reply

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