Move-SCVirtualHardDisk

Moves a virtual hard disk file from one location to another on the same host or, when used with Move-SCVirtualMachine, to a location on a different host.

Syntax

Move-SCVirtualHardDisk
    [-VMMServer <ServerConnection>]
    -Bus <Byte>
    -LUN <Byte>
    [-SCSI]
    -JobGroup <Guid>
    -Path <String>
    [-RunAsynchronously]
    [-PROTipID <Guid>]
    [-JobVariable <String>]
    [<CommonParameters>]
Move-SCVirtualHardDisk
    [-VMMServer <ServerConnection>]
    -Bus <Byte>
    -LUN <Byte>
    [-IDE]
    -JobGroup <Guid>
    -Path <String>
    [-RunAsynchronously]
    [-PROTipID <Guid>]
    [-JobVariable <String>]
    [<CommonParameters>]
Move-SCVirtualHardDisk
    [-VirtualHardDisk] <StandaloneVirtualHardDisk>
    [-JobGroup <Guid>]
    -Path <String>
    [-RunAsynchronously]
    [-PROTipID <Guid>]
    [-JobVariable <String>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Move-SCVirtualHardDisk cmdlet moves a Windows-based virtual hard disk file (a .vhd file) or a VMware-based virtual hard disk file (a .vmdk file) from one location to another on the same host. You can also use Move-SCVirtualHardDisk with the Move-SCVirtualMachine cmdlet to move a virtual hard disk file to a location on a different host.

You can use this cmdlet to perform the following tasks:

  • Move a virtual hard disk on a running VMware virtual machine with no service interruption.

  • Move a virtual hard disk on a running Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2016 virtual machine with minimal service interruption. In this case, use Move-SCVirtualHardDisk with Move-SCVirtualMachine.

  • Move a virtual hard disk on a virtual machine on any type of host if the virtual machine is in a stopped state or in a saved state. In this case, use Move-SCVirtualHardDisk with Set-SCVirtualMachine. This option is supported if either of the following conditions are true:

-- The virtual machine is on a host that uses Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V technology or on a VMware ESX host, and the virtual machine is in a saved state or in a stopped state.

-- The virtual machine is on any other supported host, and it is in a stopped state.

Usage examples:

  • If a host has multiple physical disk drives and the virtual machine has two virtual hard disks (one disk might contain the operating system and the other disk might contain data), you can use this cmdlet to move one of the virtual hard disks to a different physical hard drive in order to improve performance for both virtual hard disks.

  • If the virtual machine has one dynamically expanding virtual hard disk and you discover that the virtual hard disk has expanded to a point where it uses most of the space on its current physical hard disk on the host, you can use this cmdlet to move the expanded virtual hard disk to a larger physical hard disk if one is available on the host.

Examples

Example 1: Move a virtual hard disk file from one location to another on the same host

PS C:\> $VM = Get-SCVirtualMachine -Name "VM01"
PS C:\> $VHD = $VM.VirtualHardDisks[0]
PS C:\> Move-SCVirtualHardDisk -VirtualHardDisk $VHD -Path "C:\VHDs"

The first command gets the virtual machine object named VM01 and stores the object in the $VM variable.

The second command stores the first virtual hard disk object on VM01 in the $VHD variable.

The last command moves the virtual hard disk stored in $VHD to the existing folder "C:\VHDs".

Parameters

-Bus

Specifies the IDE bus to which to attach a virtual disk drive or virtual DVD drive, or the SCSI bus to which to attach a virtual disk drive.

Type:Byte
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-IDE

Specifies IDE as the bus type to which to attach a virtual disk drive object or a virtual DVD drive object configured on a virtual machine or on a template.

Example format: -IDE -Bus 0 -LUN 1

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-JobGroup

Specifies an identifier for a series of commands that will run as a set just before the final command that includes the same job group identifier runs.

Type:Guid
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-JobVariable

Specifies that job progress is tracked and stored in the variable named by this parameter.

Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-LUN

Specifies the logical unit number (LUN) for a virtual disk drive object or for a virtual DVD drive object on an IDE bus, or for a virtual disk drive object on a SCSI bus.

  • Example format: -IDE -Bus 1 -LUN 0
  • Example format: -SCSI -Bus 0 -LUN 1
Type:Byte
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Path

Specifies the destination path for the operation.

Example formats:

  • Local path: -Path "F:\"
  • UNC path: -Path "\\Library\Templates"
  • Volume GUID path: -Path "\\?\Volume{4703c1ea-8ae7-11db-b473-00123f7603e3}\"
  • VMware ESX path: -Path "\[storage1\]\MyVMwareFolderForVMs\MyVM.vmx"
  • Citrix XenServer path: -Path "Local storage\[99b6212f-b63d-c676-25f9-d6c460992de7\]"
Type:String
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-PROTipID

Specifies the ID of the Performance and Resource Optimization tip (PRO tip) that triggered this action. This parameter lets you audit PRO tips.

Type:Guid
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-RunAsynchronously

Indicates that the job runs asynchronously so that control returns to the command shell immediately.

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-SCSI

Specifies SCSI as the bus type to which to attach a virtual disk drive object configured on a virtual machine or on a template.

Example format: -SCSI -Bus 0 -LUN 0

Type:SwitchParameter
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

-VirtualHardDisk

Specifies a virtual hard disk object.

Type:StandaloneVirtualHardDisk
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-VMMServer

Specifies a VMM server object.

Type:ServerConnection
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

Outputs

VirtualHardDisk

This cmdlet returns a VirtualHardDisk object.