Hyper-V to VMware conversion

[Jonathan]

We're currently running our 100+ vms on a rented Hyper-V cluster, with a Veeam B&R server using local repository for backups. The only linking pin between our own production network and the hosting company's is the Veeam B&R server, which has interfaces in both the Hyper-V subnet and our own network.

At the moment, I'm planning to convert all of our virtual machines to VMware, to be hosted on a new VMware cluster. Normally I would point a conversion tool like VMware's Converter directly at the Hyper-V hosts as a source, but that impossible given the disjoint networks. So I'm looking at the Veeam B&R server as a stepping stone. I also have a local Veeam B&R server with ample disk space and processing power to do the conversion.

The idea is to convert the virtual machines piece by piece or in small batches, during maintenance windows, over the course of several weeks. Given our networking situation, what would be the ideal setup?

[PTide]

Hi,

Did I get it right - you have a rented Hyper-V farm in one network, local VBR and VMware in the other network (onsite), and the second VBR looking into both networks, is that correct?

Thanks!

[Jonathan]

Yes, that’s correct. The dual homed VBR server has backups for all vms. The second VBR (in my own datacenter) is just a temporary box to facilitate the conversion process. I also have a local VMware ESXi host to serve as a target.

[PTide]

Assuming that the two-headed-VBR runs backup jobs for Hyper-V and keeps the backups right there on the hosting company's site, I would suggest to setup your local VBR as a secondary repository, setup a backup copy job, and transfer those backups to the on-prem (if you have a slow link you might want to setup WAN accelerator so that you can benefit from deduplication since most of the VMs probably have similar OS data). Next, once all copies of the backups are in place, you need to import them at the other VBR and setup a PS scripts that will extract VM disks and trigger the conversion tool.

Thanks!

[Jonathan]

Thanks for the PS script. That could work. I'll have to test how long it takes from start to finish and how much manual input would be required.

[PTide]

Not at all. I just barely show you the direction of search. That sort of bulk conversion is quite an interesting problem, unfortunately we cannot provide a silver bullet for that kind of problems via this forum.
Looking forward to hear about the progress from you,

Thanks!