How to Convert VMDK to VHD/VHDX to Migrate to Hyper-V?

VMDK and VHD/VHDX

Server virtualization technology is widely used in production environment. The popular hypervisors include ESXi, Hyper-V, KVM, Xen, etc. With hypervisor installed on physical server, the hardware resources can be fully virtualized and one physical server can be divided into multiple virtual machines.

Virtual machines can work independently and technically they have nearly the same hardware like physical machines. Physical machines save applications and other data in physical hard drive and virtual machines also have virtual hard disks to store data.

In VMware environment, virtual hard disk is the .vmdk file in the folder of the VM and the folder is often located in datastore. You can manually check the folder in datastore or browse the folder in vCenter. Just right-click the VM in vCenter, click Edit Settings, and then you can get the directory of the .vmdk file. There is also the option to directly copy VMDK file to another datastore.

The format of Hyper-V virtual disk is different from the format of VMware virtual disk. The old format is .vhd and the latest format is .vhdx. You can export Hyper-V virtual disk in Hyper-V Manager.

When deploying heterogeneous virtual environment or changing virtualization solution, IT administrators often need V2V converter to perform V2V migration. The following section will introduce the way to migrate VMware to Hyper-V.

How to convert VMDK to VHD/VHDX with Qemu-img?

If you want to just convert the virtual disk, you can try Qemu-img. Install this application on a local machine and then convert the virtual disk with command lines.

Convert vmdk to vhd:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O vpc virtua_machine.vmdk virtual_machine.vhd

Convert vmdk to vhdx:

qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O vhdx virtua_machine.vmdk virtual_machine.vhdx

If you want to skip virtual disk conversion to directly move to Hyper-V, you have another solution.

How to migrate to Hyper-V with Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter?

To let users quickly begin using Hyper-V virtual machine, Microsoft has released Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter to help users easily virtualize physical machine and move VM from other platforms like VMware to Hyper-V host. You don't have to extract VMDK, convert it to VHD, or import VDH to Hyper-V virtual machine.

Generally speaking, the process of Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter is selecting conversion type, selecting the source VM (VMware VM), and selecting the destination host (Hyper-V host). The whole virtual machine will be converted to let it directly work on Hyper-V host.

There is one important thing you should be aware that before you converting virtual machine. VMware Tools and other Vmware applications need to be uninstalled or you cannot open the virtual machine on Hyper-V host and will get many unknown errors.

You can download Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter from Microsoft's page and install it on the host. After that, follow the steps to use it.

1. Open Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter and then a wizard will pop up

2. Read Before You Begin > click Next

3. In Machine Type section, select Virtual Machine Conversion > click Next

4. In Migration Destination section, select Migrate to Hyper-V > click Next

5. Select a Hyper-V host for the virtual machine > type the address, username, and password of the host > click Next

6. Select the directory and format of virtual hard disk > select Fixed size or Dynamically expanding > click Next

7. In Source section, type the credentials of ESXi host of the source VM (VMware VM) > waiting for validating the credentials > click Next

8. Preview the virtual machines on the ESXi host and select one to convert > click Next

9. Type the credentials of the virtual machine > select the final state of the virtual machine > click Next

10. Select the folder for the virtual machine > click Next

11. Review the Summary of the job > click Finish

The process of conversion will be presented. After the job is completed, you can open Hyper-V Manager to check whether it appears on the host.

How to easily migrate VMware vSphere to Hyper-V with Vinchin Backup & Recovery?

Conventional methods of VM conversion can often lead to intricate migration issues, due to compatibility concerns. Leveraging professional-grade tools explicitly designed for handling virtual environments may present a more seamless solution.Vinchin Backup & Recovery is not only a backup solution for virtual machine, but also an advanced VM migration solution, supporting VMware vSphere, Hyper-V, Proxmox, XenServer, XCP-ng, oVirt, OLVM, RHV, OpenStack, etc. By adding both virtualized platforms into the backup system, you can perform easy agentless VM migration with a user-friendly web console.

There is the built-in conversion engine in the backup system, you just need to select the VM you need to move it to another virtualized platform.

For instance, if you would like to migrate VM from VMware to Hyper-V:

1. Just select the backup of the target VMware VM

2. Select a Hyper-V host as target host

3. Simply set up restore strategies or directly skip this step

4. Just submit the job and then the VMware VM will be quickly restored on the Hyper-V host

Vinchin Backup & Recovery has been selected by thousands of companies and you can also start a 60-day full-featured free trial here. Also, contact us, leave your requirements, and then you will receive your tailored solution. We have established partnerships with reputable companies all over the world so if you would like to do a local business, you can select a local partner here.

Sum Up

There are many kinds of virtualization solutions for virtual environment deployment. VMware and Hyper-V are two of the most popular ones. When managing heterogeneous virtual environment or changing virtualization solution, IT administrators need to know the way to migrate VM between different platforms. In this post, the way to convert VMDK to VHD/VHDX for data migration is introduced. IT administrators can easily move VM by converting the virtual disk or without extracting and importing virtual disk files.

To conveniently migrate VMware to Hyper-V, IT administrators can choose Vinchin Backup & Recovery for agenltess migration. Don't miss the free trial.