How to Migrate a Server from Hyper-V to Jotelulu

Learn how to easily migrate a virtual machine from your on-premises Hyper-V infrastructure to a Jotelulu server.

With the growing demand for ever more computing power, greater flexibility and increasingly strict requirements with regard to security and regulations, you may find yourself needing to migrate your on-premises servers to a cloud service provider like Jotelulu.

And if you have never carried out a migration like this before, this can be a real headache, even for experienced IT technicians.

Here at Jotelulu, we are fully aware of this, so we have worked hard to make sure that your transition from a traditional model to a hybrid or 100% cloud model is as quick and pain-free as possible.

In this tutorial, we are going to look at how to migrate a virtual machine from an on-premises Hyper-V server to the Jotelulu cloud using the Jotelulu Migration tool.

How to migrate a server from Hyper-V to Jotelulu

Before your get started

To successfully complete this tutorial and migrate your virtual machine from your Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructure to Jotelulu, you will need:

To be registered on the Jotelulu platform and have logged in.
To have a virtual machine deployed on a Microsoft Hyper-V environment.

Part 1 – Start the migration process on the Jotelulu platform

To get started, load the Jotelulu platform and go to the Partner Area (1).

Part 1 - Go to the Partner Area on the Jotelulu platform

Part 1 – Go to the Partner Area on the Jotelulu platform

Then, click on Migration (2) in the left-hand menu.

Part 1 - Click on "Migration" in the Partner Area

Part 1 – Click on “Migration” in the Partner Area

Next, launch a new migration by clicking on “New Migration” (3).

NOTE: This page may look different if you have already performed previous migrations. In which case, they will be listed here.

Part 1 - Launch a new migration

Part 1 – Launch a new migration

You will now be guided through the process to prepare the system for the migration of your server to Jotelulu.

First, you need to select the type of service to migrate. Since we are migrating a server, you should select “Servers” (4) from the options shown.

Part 1 - Click on "Servers"

Part 1 – Click on “Servers”

Next, you need to specify whether your server is physical or virtual (5), which in this case will be physical.

Then, you will need to choose the format in which the server will be imported. Select “VHD – Disk Conversion” (6).

Similarly, you will need to select the way that the VHD will be uploaded to Jotelulu. Here, you should select FTP (7) and give a name to the disk that you are going to import (8). This will be the name that the migration system will expect to receive when we upload the image.

You will also have to provide a display name for the disk (9). This is how the server will be displayed on the platform once the migration is complete.

Once you have filled in these details, click on “Next” (10).

Part 1 - Enter the source and format of the data being migrated

Part 1 – Enter the source and format of the data being migrated

At this point, you will need to choose the organisation, subscription and availability zone (11) that you want to deploy the virtual machine on.

This will depend on how many organisations and subscriptions you have registered. If you do not have any subscriptions, you will be able to create a new one.

If you just have a single subscription, this will be your only choice. With respect to the availability zone, you can work in exactly the same way as with the other available services.

The last part of this process asks “Do you want to deploy a new server with the imported disks?”. If you do not wish to deploy the server, you can simply leave the uploaded image ready for future use. However, usually, the answer to this question will be “Yes” (12).

Part 1 - Select the organisation and subscription on which you want to deploy the VM

Part 1 – Select the organisation and subscription on which you want to deploy the VM

If you click on “Yes”, you will be then asked for a series of details to configure your new Jotelulu server.

First, you will have to give the server a name (13). This name can include spaces.

Next, you will have to select an operating system (14) and select a size for your new server (15), where you will specify the CPU and RAM that you need.

Lastly, you will need to select a network type (16), depending on whether you need a standard network or a VPC.

Once you have done all this, click on “Finish” (17).

Part 1 - Configure your new Jotelulu server

Part 1 – Configure your new Jotelulu server

At this point, you will see a summary of the status of your migration. This will initially show as “Preparing transfer” and then change to “Awaiting transfer”.

This summary information will also include the FTP connection details (18):

FTP Server
User
Password

Part 1 - Summary of the migration and next steps

Part 1 – Summary of the migration and next steps

Once you finish this step, you will have configured your migration and a series of internal processes will run to deploy your new Jotelulu server, which will be available in your Servers subscription area.

At this point, you will need to provide the image to migrate and you will be able to monitor progress on the Jotelulu platform. When this is complete, you will simply need to set a few final parameters and your VM will be fully up and running.

Part 2 – Exporting the virtual machine from your Hyper-V environment

NOTE: If you are using Windows Server 2012, we recommend performing a defragmentation before the migration. Unlike newer servers (Windows Server 2016 and onwards), the system does not automatically perform a defragmentation, and this can mean that the migrated image will be bigger than necessary and take longer to migrate.

Before you start exporting the virtual machine, check the following:

Check that the virtual machine is Generation 1 to avoid problems importing the image.
Check that there are no snapshots on the virtual machine. If there are, delete them.
Check that there are no CD/DVD drives mapped. If there are, you should unmap them to avoid any issues.

NOTE: Before you start the process, it is important to clarify something: The export process is recommended so that the virtual machine has to pass some tests before being uploaded. Alternatively, you can copy the VHD/VHDX directly from the directory that it is run from by Hyper-V. However, we recommend the normal export process.

First, you need to start the export process from the hypervisor. To do this, select the virtual machine to export, right-click and select “Export” (19).

Part 2 - Start the export process from the Hypervisor

Part 2 – Start the export process from the Hypervisor

A window will appear in which you will have to select the destination folder for the export file (20).

Part 2 - Enter the folder path where the exported virtual machine will be stored

Part 2 – Enter the folder path where the exported virtual machine will be stored

Now, you will have to wait while the virtual machine is exported. This can vary depending on the size of your virtual machine, your computing power and the IOPS of the destination disk.

Part 2 - You will be able to monitor the progress of the export process from the Hyper-V manager

Part 2 – You will be able to monitor the progress of the export process from the Hyper-V manager

The export process usually creates a folder structure within the folder specified at the beginning. This structure will have three different sections:

Snapshots: This is where snapshots of the virtual machine will be stored.
Virtual Hard Disks: This is where the machine’s virtual disks are stored. There may be more than one of these depending on the number of disks on the virtual machine.
Virtual Machines: This is where the virtual machine’s configuration files are stored.

Therefore, the VHDX could have the following folder path:

<EXPORT_FOLDER_PATH>\<NAME_OF_VIRTUAL_MACHINE>\Virtual Hard Disks

In our example, the path will be as follows:

C:\Data\Export\WS2022ADDS1\Virtual Hard Disks

Part 2 - Browse to the folder where the virtual machine has been exported to copy it

Part 2 – Browse to the folder where the virtual machine has been exported to copy it

Now that the virtual machine has been exported in VHDX format, you need to upload the file to the Jotelulu FTP server using the FTP details from Part 1.

Part 2 - Copy the VHDX to the Jotelulu SFTP with the details provided in Part 1

Part 2 – Copy the VHDX to the Jotelulu SFTP with the details provided in Part 1

Conclusions and next steps:

Migrating virtual machines from an on-premises environment to the cloud can be complicated. That is why, here at Jotelulu, we try to design our processes and tools to make everything as simple and comfortable as possible for our users.

As a result, migrating a virtual machine from a Hyper-V environment to Jotelulu is a very simple process, and the platform will guide you step by step. However, if you do have any problems, for whatever reason, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us so that we can help you.

If you found this tutorial useful and would like to learn more about the migration process in particular, the following tutorials may also be of interest to you:

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