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Migration Automation Toolkit for MVMC 2.0

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Migrators, assemble!  The MVMC team has published version 2.0, packed with new features, and in tandem the BCB team is releasing a new version of MAT!

MVMC 2.0DownloadButton

MAT for MVMC 2.0DownloadButton

MVMC is a tool for converting VMware virtual machines to Hyper-V virtual machines.  Version 2.0 offers many new features that helped make this version of MAT a lean, mean, migrating machine.

  • PowerCLI is no longer a requirement
  • MVMC removes VMware tools
  • MVMC handles disk assignments
  • MVMC is able to convert both Windows and Linux

The scope for MAT4MVMC2 is on premise migrations.  MVMC 2.0 does include the ability to migrate directly to Azure but this has not yet been implemented for MAT.

As a result of MVMC offering these new features, MAT is now 100% aligned with MVMC on-premise capabilities.  This was a minor regression from the MAT 1.5.2007 “network map” solution.

The remainder of changes are script maintenance:

The build is based on the latest MAT update which includes all known bug fixes.

This release also includes another round of script refactoring, so the functions are now part of a PowerShell Module and they each have a “MAT” prefix.  The purpose of this work is to take MAT in the direction of being a common set of cmdlets where anyone could build a custom “front end” experience.

The Variable.XML file has a minor change so that each top level child node is now “varType” with the title set as an “Id” attribute.  This makes enumerating the file a more simple operation so it is easier to add and remove sections as needed.

Finally, even the local machine is treated as a “Conversion Server” and managed using Task Scheduler just like remote nodes, completely managed by the Variable.XML file.  This makes it easy to run MAT from a “command and control” position and onlyperform actual conversions on remote nodes, if desired.

The release includes an example script to demonstrate how the entire migration can be moved to a governing PowerShell script.  This can be extended for any number of scenarios but the example given is a “no questions asked” approach to moving all running VM’s from a VMware host to a Hyper-V host.  This is ideal for test automation and for planned migrations during change windows when maximum efficiency is a must.

Your feedback is welcome as always.  For more information on MAT, follow the Migration Track on the Building Clouds Blog.  Thanks, and stay tuned to Building Clouds!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I uploaded .0002 with the ONLY change being the switch to varChar for that column. Should resolve the issue. Just let me know (via comments) if it doesn't or if you run in to other issues. Thanks for the heads up.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi,

    When trying to convert Debian 7 VM to hyper-v using MVMC 2.1, on Virtual Machine section in wizard's GUI under Operating System there is shown Other Linux (x64) instead of Debian 7. Debian version 5 is show correct for ver5 VM, as Debian GNU/Linux 5 (x64). I suppose that is reason for Warning on Summary screen in Wizard :

    Warning (s):

    1. The operating system of the VMWare VM is NOT SUPPORTED. This does not prevent conversion, but no support is provided for this conversion.

    The tool is running on target Hyper-V 2012R2 host with .NET 4,5 installed along with Visual C++ Redist 2012 update.

    After continuing conversion (ignorring the warning above), conversion stops after sucessfuly snapshot creation on ESXi host with following error :

    "One or more errors occurred. ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Accelerators.Mvmc.ScxSshWrapper_x86.dll' or one of its dependencies. The specified module could not be found."

    After that Debian snapshot is reverted, and VM is put in shutdown state. Can anyone explain what am I missing ??

    I also reboot Hyper-V host but same error appears every time .

    Thnx.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Michael - thanks, fixed.
    Tim - ah that is a good catch. I will update the .sql file later today and make it .002. Thanks!
  • Anonymous
    April 08, 2014
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 09, 2014
    Correct link for MVMC 2.0: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497
  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2014
    about to take the stage at World Hosting Days. this is the first keynote i've even done at an amusement park! #WHD
  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2014
    about to take the stage at World Hosting Days. this is the first keynote i've even done at an amusement park! [tag:WHD]
  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2014
    does the tools support migrate vm to manage.windowsazure.cn?
  • Anonymous
    April 14, 2014
    Hi There. Receiving this error in PowerShell when trying running the .ConvertVM.ps1 - Collect command:

    Database Error: Exception calling "Fill" with "1" argument(s): "Conversion failed when converting the varchar value 'vm7117' to data type int.".exception.message - Is this related to Tim's post by any chance?
  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2014
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 30, 2014
    Getting an error during disk conversion process.

    'A task may only be disposed if it is in a completion state (RanToCompletion, Faulted or Canceled).'

    The same thing shows up in the logs. Any guidance would be helpful.
  • Anonymous
    May 09, 2014
    No generation 2 VM support in MVMC 2.0 correct? In the works?
  • Anonymous
    May 27, 2014
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2014
    A follow up to the above...

    Having fought with MVMC I got to the point of uploading my virtual machine. It appears that it doesn't do any form of compression - so a 20GB disk image, with only 1GB of that used will take forever to upload. In the end I used the following process (and saved a lot of time).

    1) Fire up MVMC. Point it to the ESX server and to Azure.
    2) Let MVMC convert the VM from ESX into the VHD format and dump it into a temporary folder.
    3) Cancel MVMC.
    4) Go into the temporary folder, find the VHD file that MVMC created.
    5) Use 7zip to compress the disk image. I ended up with a 400MB compressed file, given a 20GB disk image.
    6) Provision a Windows 7 VM in Azure temporarily.
    7) RDP into the VM. Copy the 7z file over using RDP copy & paste. This took about 15 minutes rather than several hours.
    8) Install 7zip onto the Azure VM. Uncompress the disk image.
    9) Use Blob Transfer Utility (or similar) to upload the image into Azure storage. Doing this from an Azure VM you can get about 20MB/sec - so its super quick.

    It's a bit of a round-about way to achieve this, though it saved faffing about with PowerShell scripts, or waiting for the disk image to upload in full. Hopefully Microsoft will implement compression in the next version of MVMC!
  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2014
    MVMC 2 doesn't seem to allow you to convert a machine with a data disk attached larger than 2gb. Support confirmed its a bug. Any news on a fix?
  • Anonymous
    June 17, 2014
    Wanted to share that MVMC 2.1 has recently been released to address an issue some folks are seeing when attempting convert a virtual machine that has multiple disks.

    While the website still shows 2.0, when installing you'll see the file version is 2.1. To help verify, ensure you are pulling down the files published 6/5/2014 (or later if available).

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497
  • Anonymous
    July 13, 2014
    about document have some problem like below content:

    1. Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 no Enterprise edition. But the existence of the list in support.
    2. DHP -> should be DHCP
    3. ConvertTo-VirtualHardDisk -> should be ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk