In current version (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1), we can move the stand alone VM into Cluster Shared Volume by using Export/Import feature. However Export/Import always maintain the original VM and you need to manually delete the VM before import the VM into Cluster Shared Volume.
I just setup a new cluster in my test environment and have few stand alone VM running in existing host and would like to move them to Cluster Shared Volume. Let look into how we can achieve this in Windows 2012.
In Windows 2012, you can use a new feature called Storage Migration. Recently Ben (Virtual PC Guy) talk about Storage Migration and highlighted that the concept of Storage Migration is “copy and delete, not move” .
With Storage Migration, you can now have an alternative to move an existing stand-alone VM from current host to Cluster Shared Volume.
Just right click the VM | select Move | select Move the virtual machine storage. This option allow Hyper-V to
- create a copy,
- move to new location
- delete the original VM.
Select “Move all of the VM data to single location”. Make sure you put into C:\Cluster Storage\ Volume X (Cluster Shared Volume location)
Note:- Make sure VM is offline before select High Available Virtual Machine (HAVM)
Once complete, open Failover Cluster Manager snap-in. Right click the cluster, click Configure Role and select Virtual Machine
Tick the VM and complete the High Availability Wizard.
This feature allow me to easily move a stand alone VM into Cluster Shared Volume. Not that complicate tool to use in order to get the job done.
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