Migration Archives - Thomas Maurer

Jan032019January 3, 2019January 15, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Extended Security Updates for SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on Azure Stack

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, SQL Server, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2019, Work

SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will both be out of extended support within the next 12 months (detailed dates below). This means if you have these versions, you’ll need to migrate to newer versions of SQL Server or Windows Server or buy Extended Support soon to maintain support and receive security updates and fixes. Buying Extended Support is not cheap. Customers with active Software Assurance or subscription licenses can purchase Extended Security Updates annually for 75 percent of the full license cost of the latest version of SQL Server or Windows Server. A lot of customer should start migrating to newer versions of these products to avoid these extra costs.

Extended Support dates

Extended Support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end on July 9, 2019.
Extended Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end on January 14, 2020.

However, in mid-2018 Microsoft announced a new option for SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 End of Support. Customers running 2008 or 2008 R2 versions of SQL Server and Windows Server in Azure virtual machines will get Extended Security Updates for free. This will give customers some extra time to migrate to newer versions of SQL Server and Windows Server. Or even better, to Azure PaaS and serverless computing like Azure Functions.

The great thing about this, is that you can also combine this with your Azure Hybrid benefits, to use your SQL Server and Windows Server on Azure with your on-premise licenses.

Extended Security Updates on Azure Stack

If you are thinking to migrate to the cloud, this new option will bring down costs for you. However, not everyone is fully ready to move all their servers to the public cloud. You might still need or want to run some servers on-premise in your datacenter. This will leave you with buying Extended Support or what a lot of people don’t know, you can also run your SQL Server and Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 on Azure Stack and get Extended Security Updates for free, since it is basically Azure!

This is great, especially since Azure Stack also comes with great IaaS capabilities. And if you are thinking about using Azure in the mid-term, Azure Stack provides you with Azure capabilities, but still allows you to stay in your own datacenter.

Oct132014October 13, 2014October 13, 20142 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft releases Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Software, System Center, Virtual Machine Manager, Virtualization, VMware, Web, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Work

Microsoft today released the next version of the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC). (MVMC) is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the IT pros or solution provider who wants to convert virtual machines and disks from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts and Microsoft Azure.

In MVMC 3.0 Microsoft adds the ability to convert a physical computer running Windows Server 2008 or above server operating systems or Windows Vista or above client operating systems to a Virtual Machine. This feature was highly claimed by the community, since the P2V (Physical to Virtual) Migration feature was removed in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2.

MVMC can be deployed with minimal dependencies. Because MVMC provides native support for Windows PowerShell, it enables scripting and integration with data center automation workflows such as those authored and run within Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 or Service Management Automation. It can also be invoked through the Windows PowerShell command-line interface. The solution is simple to download, install, and use. In addition to the Windows PowerShell capability, MVMC provides a wizard-driven GUI to facilitate virtual machine conversion.

This tool can not only help you to migrate from VMware or physical computers to Hyper-V, it also allows you to directly upload the Virtual Machine to Microsoft Azure.

You can get the new version of the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 in the Microsoft Download Center.

Nov142013November 14, 2013November 14, 20130 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Fast and Easy VMware to Hyper-V Migration

Posted in Cloud, Fun, Hardware, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Private Cloud, Server Core, System Center, Virtualization, VMware, Web, Windows Server, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Work

Until now, planning a migration from VMware to Hyper-V meant that even though you’d save money, you’d spend days migrating the VMs in your datacenter.

Now you can do it in about 5 minutes.

In this video, Migration Mark discusses the remarkable tool that he built with his friends from NetApp:
The Migration Automation Toolkit (MAT)- Powered by Project Shift

Get more information on the migrate.azurewebsites.net/

Apr172013April 17, 2013April 17, 201319 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Migrate Hyper-V Cluster to Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V via Cluster Migration Wizard

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Private Cloud, System Center, Virtual Machine Manager, Virtualization, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Work

If you have already an existing Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster and you want to upgrade to Windows Server 2012 you have two options. The first one is by moving all virtual machines via System Center Virtual Machine Manager from the old Cluster into a new cluster. The second way to do it, is to use the Cluster Migration Wizard which is part of Windows Server 2012.

In my case I have two clusters one “old” Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V cluster and my new Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V cluster. Both Clusters are fully configured and both have access to the same disks/LUNs. The disk and all the VMs are running on the old cluster.

On the new cluster you can start the Cluster Migration Wizard.

This will bring up the Cluster Migration Wizard. The wizard will ask you about the old cluster.

The Cluster Migration Wizard will scan the old cluster for CSVs and Cluster roles. You have to select the Cluster Shared Volume you want to migrate to the new cluster. Note: you can only migrate CSVs including all virtual machines running on this CSV and not just single virtual machines. If you want to migrate single virtual machines you could do a Hyper-V Export/Import or using System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Since the Cluster Migration Wizard detects the roles as Hyper-V virtual machines he also asks for the new Hyper-V Virtual Switch.

You get a quick summary with all the information what the Migration Wizard will do, and you can migrate all roles. This means the Migration Wizard will create all cluster roles on the new cluster but will not take the existing VMs offline the VMs at this point are still running on the old cluster. You also get a Failover Cluster Migration Report at the end.

This report also shows you what’s next:

All the clustered services and applications selected for migration were migrated successfully. You may now take the clustered services and applications offline in your old cluster. Also take offline Cluster Shared Volumes used by any migrated roles, as well as storage pools for virtual disks used by any migrated roles. Then these disks, Cluster Shared Volumes, and clustered services and applications can be brought online in your new cluster.

In the new cluster you can now see the roles which are all turned of because there are still running on the old cluster. And you can also see the CSV which is offline on the new cluster and online on the old cluster.

As already mentioned we had no downtime until now. Now you can go and shutdown all the virtual machines running on your old cluster and take the migrated CSV offline.

Take the CSV offline

On the new cluster bring the CSV online

Bring the virtual machines on the new cluster back online.

And this is more how you can migrate a cluster. Remember there are still some tasks left.

Upgrade the Integration Components of all the virtual machines to the newest version.
Convert all VHDs to the new VHDX format to dynamic disks.
I also recommend that you use CSV Block Cache

There is also a great video from Symon Perriman and Rob Hindman, a Program Manager on the Windows Server Clustering & High-Availability team, in which they explain how you can upgrade to Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V.

Aug172012August 17, 2012August 17, 20120 Commentby Thomas Maurer

Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Private Cloud, Virtualization, VMware, Web, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Work

Microsoft justed released the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta on Microsoft Connect.

The beta of the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client v1.0 is now available for download.

The MVMC Plug-in for VMware vSphere Client Beta:

Extends the vSphere Client context menu to make it easier to convert the VMware-based virtual machine to a Hyper-V-based virtual machine.
Is built upon the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter release candidate.

This plug-in extends vSphere Client to facilitate conversions from a virtual machine context menu and without changing configurations on the source VMware host. For more details about which guest operating systems are supported, see the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter documentation.