Importing a Virtual Machine in Windows 8 Hyper-V

 Do you want to import a virtual machine to a Hyper-V host in Windows 8?  You’re in luck!  You can import virtual machines in an exported, or non-exported state.  This means that whether you had the chance to export the VM or not, you can still import, as long as you have the configuration file and the virtual hard disks.  This was not the case in previous editions, where you could only import a virtual machine if it had first been exported.  This post will demonstrate how to take a virtual machine that you’ve exported (or not exported) and import it into Windows 8.

First, you could have either exported the VM from Windows Server 2008 R2, or simply shut it down and copied its contents to the other server.  In this case we copied all files to D:Hyper-VCNCYSCOM.    I would suggest either leaving the old VM configuration present for reference, documenting the configuration, or making a copy of the configuration ahead of the migration.

Open the Hyper-V console and select “Import Virtual Machine”.  You’ll get an entry prompt like this.

Then, select the folder in which the virtual machine to be imported exists.

Select the virtual machine for import.  This is super useful, since it lets you select one of many virtual machines from a folder, in the case that they have been grouped.

Select an import type.  In this case you can choose to restore over an existing VM, or create a new one.

Choose the virtual machine locations for the “external store”, “snapshot store”, and “swap file”.

Find the virtual hard disks for the virtual machine.

Configure the storage location of the virtual hard disks after import.

In the case that the networks don’t match the original host, no big deal!  Just select the appropriate network.

After the upgrade has completed, remember to upgrade the integration components to Windows 8 if it came from a previous edition, as well as validate the system doesn’t need to be rebooted.  The import and integration component upgrade usually requires a reboot.  I’d also check things like IP address, network connectivity, hard disks, and any other VM specific configuration items. 

This change to the import process represents a significant change in the technology of Windows 8.  I’m very pumped up about how much easier this will make migrating from current servers to new servers. 

Happy virtualizing!

Nathan Lasnoski