How to move a virtual machine that is running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V environment

To move a virtual machine that is running on Virtual Server 2005 to Hyper-V, follow these steps.

Prepare the virtual machine in Virtual Server 2005

1. In Virtual Server 2005, start the virtual machine that you want to move.
   
2. Record the network settings for each network adapter if they must be reset identically after you move the virtual machine.
   
3. On the virtual machine, open Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
   
4. Click Virtual Machine Additions, and then click Remove.
   
5. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box that appears.
   
6. After the Virtual Machine Additions are successfully removed, restart the virtual machine.
   
   
   Note Let the virtual machine completely restart so that the Virtual Machine Additions are completely removed.
   
7. Shut down the virtual machine.
   
8. If the Undo Disks feature is enabled, click Merge Undo Disks or Discard Undo Disks.
9. On the Virtual Server Administration Web site, point to the virtual machine name of the virtual machine that is being moved, and then click Edit Configuration.
   
10. Click General properties.
    
11. Note the path of the .vhd file that contains the operating system for the virtual machine.
    
    
    Note If you have multiple .vhd files attached to a virtual machine, also note those paths.
    
12. Copy the .vhd file from the location that you noted in step 11 to the Hyper-V server.
    

Set up the virtual machine on the Hyper-V server

To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Hyper-V server, click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.
   
2. In the Action pane, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.
   
3. In the New Virtual Machine Wizard, click Next.
   
4. Type a name for the virtual machine in the Name box, type the location of where you want to store the virtual machine configuration files in the Location box, and then click Next.
   
5. Enter the amount of memory that you want to use for the virtual machine in the Memory box, and then click Next.
   
6. In the Connection list, click the network connection that you want to use, and then click Next.
   
7. Click the Use an existing virtual hard disk option.
8. In the Location box, type the location of the .vhd file that you noted in step 12 in the "Prepare the virtual machine in Virtual Server" section, and then click Next.
   
9. Configure the installation options that you want to use, and then click Next.
   
10. Review the installation summary, and then click Finish.
11. In the Virtual Machines list, right-click the name of the virtual machine that you just created, and then click Settings.
    
12. If the virtual machine has additional hard disk drives, attach them to the existing IDE controllers, or add a SCSI controller, and then add the hard disk drives to that controller.
    
13. Add a network adapter for each network that the virtual machine must connect to, and then click OK to close the Settings for VirtualMachineName dialog box.
    
14. In the Virtual Machines list, right-click the virtual machine name, and then click Connect.
    
15. On the Action menu, click Start.
    
16. Log on to the virtual machine.
    
17. When the Found New Hardware Wizard starts, click Cancel.
    
18. On the Action menu, click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk.
    
19. The Setup for Integration Services dialog box should start automatically. If it does not, start Windows Explorer, and then run the Setup.exe file from the CD-ROM. You will receive the following message:
    
    Before Installing the Hyper-V Integration services, the HAL in this virtual machine must be upgraded
20. Click OK, and then restart the virtual machine when the installation is completed.
    
21. When you log back on, the Integration Services installation will begin. Restart the virtual machine when the installation is complete.
    
22. Log on to the virtual machine, and then configure the network settings for each adapter by using the settings that you saved in step 2 of the "Prepare the virtual machine in Virtual Server" section.
    

Note When you move a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista virtual machine from Virtual Server 2005 to Hyper-V, the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is not automatically updated. For more information about how to change the HAL, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

954282 The VMBus device does not load on a virtual machine that is running on a Windows Server 2008-based computer that has Hyper-V installed