Fixing up a virtual machine while importing it on Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012

In the past – a problem that many users hit was that if they were trying to move a virtual machine (through live migration or through import / export) we would have problems if the virtual machine configuration wasn’t matched correctly to the destination server.  With live migration we would block the process if things didn’t match, with import we would remove any part of the virtual machine that would not work on the new Hyper-V server.

Neither of these approaches were really that great.

In Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 we have built in the ability to “fix up” virtual machines when moving them.  Here I have tried to import a virtual machine that is trying to connect to a virtual switch that does not exist on the destination computer:

FixUp

Rather than just disconnecting the virtual network adapter, like we would have in the past, we now ask you what you want to do with the network adapter.  This same logic is used for live migration, so you no longer need to make sure that your virtual switch names match (though it is still a good idea – as then you will not be prompted like this each time).  We provide similar fix-up options for most settings in the virtual machine.

This ensures that you are always able to import / move a virtual machine – and that you will always be in control of any configuration changes that are necessary to make it work.

Cheers,
Ben