Introducing the VM Conversion tool in Windows Admin Center – Public Preview
As organizations update their infrastructure, a growing number are seeking adaptable, Microsoft-supported solutions that address current requirements while laying the path for future cloud and AI adoption. Azure provides an agile, scalable, cost-effective platform for infrastructure and innovation. Whether by modernizing to cloud technologies like Windows or Linux VMs, containers, Azure VMware Solution or PaaS services, Azure offers a world-class cloud experience. However, we recognize that some organizations must retain workloads on-premises due to data compliance, governance, or other regulatory requirements. For customers wanting to adopt Windows Server and Hyper-V for this use case, we are excited to provide a new option within Windows Admin Center, the VM Conversion tool, in public preview now. This agentless, cost-free tool streamlines the conversion of virtual machines from VMware to Windows Server with Hyper-V, providing customers flexibility with their on-premises virtualization environments while enabling a seamless transition path to Azure when desired. With minimal infrastructure requirements, the tool is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized organizations. Additionally, with minimal setup time you can download the new VM Conversion tool extension in Windows Admin Center and begin converting virtual machines in under five minutes. Figure 1- VM Conversion tool in Windows Admin Center 🔑Key Features : Agentless, appliance-free discovery After establishing a connection to the virtualization environment, the tool conducts discovery of all virtual machines without requiring agents or appliances and does so in a non-intrusive manner. Minimal downtime The VM Conversion tool enables initial data replication while the source virtual machine remains operational, thereby preventing any interruptions to ongoing applications. After completing this initial replication, on user consent, the source VM is powered down so a subsequent replication pass can capture any data changes made during the first phase. This two-step process ensures that the cutover time from the source to the target VM is minimized. Group servers You can select and migrate up to 10 virtual machines at a time. This reduces manual effort and accelerates the transition to Windows Server. Boot configuration The tool automatically maps BIOS-based virtual machines to Generation 1 and UEFI-based machines to Generation 2, preserving boot configurations and ensuring compatibility. OS agnostic The tool supports conversion of both Linux and Windows guest OS VMs to Windows Server host. Multi-disk VM support Virtual machines that use several virtual hard disks—common in production environments—are fully supported. The operating system, data, and application disks all migrated together, so manual setup is not needed. ⚙️How It Works To ensure a smooth and reliable transition, the tool performs a comprehensive set of built-in prechecks. These checks validate critical VM attributes such as disk types, boot configuration (BIOS or UEFI), destination disk, memory requirements, and several more. By identifying potential issues early, administrators can proactively address them—minimizing the risk of migration failures and reducing downtime during the final cutover. The VM Conversion tool uses change block tracking (CBT) to efficiently replicate data from one virtual disk format to another. During the initial seeding phase, a full copy of the virtual machine is created while it remains online. This minimizes downtime and ensures data integrity. Before the final cutover, a delta replication captures all changes made since the initial copy, ensuring the destination VM is fully up-to-date post conversion to Hyper-V hosts. 🚀Ready to Take the Next Step? The VM Conversion tool is available now in the public feed of Windows Admin Center. You can install it directly from the Extensions settings in Windows Admin Center. To get started, ensure you're running the Windows Admin Center v2 GA release. 📘 For detailed setup instructions and prerequisites, refer to the Public Preview Documentation. 📍 Summary The VM Conversion tool offers a simple, supported path for organizations to streamline VM conversion to Hyper-V virtualization environments. With no added cost and minimal setup, it empowers customers to streamline VM migration and prepare for the cloud at their own pace. Support for Azure Arc-enabled servers is also planned for future releases, further enhancing hybrid management capabilities. We’re continuously evolving the VM Conversion tool based on user feedback. Please continue to share your feedback here and help us prioritize our efforts for future releases. Happy converting!
Windows Server Standard 2012 R2 virtualized on VMware vSphere Essential Plus Kit.
Hi There I have couple of doubts for which need your expert advice have approx 25 guest VMs of Windows 2012R2 virtualized on vSphere Essential Plus across 3 physical hosts. My servers are getting retired and quickly need replacement. From a licensing prespective can I move the same guest VMs and the licenses to the new server and if so how-please share the necessary steps and dependency if any. Also 2012 R2 will be supported till what time.
Issues with Remote Desktop on Terminal Server
Hi everyone, I'm having some issues with using a terminal server that I've setup inside of Server 2019. We currently have a company with about 30-40 employees that use a VPN and remote desktop into a server that is virtually hosted (VMware) on a local server. Almost every week employees start getting stuck on the logon screen or just have a black screen and can't get into the server. I can see that they are logged in and there are no resource issues. I can log on through the VMware remote console just fine when everyone else is having issues. When this issue arises it seems to affect everyone who logs in after that but not the ones who were already in. I've tried manually booting the ones having issues, but it never fixes it. I end up doing a reboot on the server, which sometimes fixes the issue but sometimes I have to do 2-3 reboots before everyone can get back in properly. Then the server will run normally for a week or so before the same issue comes back. There is no errors in the event log as far as I can tell. Please let me know at least a direction I can look into, or what information is needed for more troubleshooting. Thanks in advanced, Devon LaVoy Systems Administrator
Customers Reap Benefits from Comprehensive Cloud Approach
First published on TECHNET on Aug 29, 2011 Take a look at Brad Anderson’s, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, perspective on Microsoft’scloud computing strategy, our private cloud solutions and the economics of those solutions versus VMware.
