You can move Virtual Machines (VMs) between Hyper-V servers by either exporting the virtual machine from a Hyper-V server and subsequently importing it on another Hyper-V server. Alternatively you can use the System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Note than you cannot move VMs by simply copying the VHD and XML files to a new Hyper-V Server and and attempting to use them there.
To use the first method above (ie exporting and importing the VM) follow the below steps :
On Hyper-V Source Server
- Open the Hyper-V Manager console then right-click the VM to export, and select Export.
- Specify the location to store the Export files (this can be a network share if you wish).
- Once the Export process has completed, copy the export files to the target Hyper-V server.
On the Hyper-V Target Server
- On the target Hyper-V server, open Hyper-V Manager console and then right-click the Hyper-V server node and click Import Virtual Machine.
- Browse to the root folder which contains the Export files and hit Select.
Thats it! You have now migrated a virtual machine from one Hyper-V server to another.
Note that which the Importing process has completed, all snapshots and VHD files will be stored at the location where you place the Export files which can be an issue if you wish to keep all snapshots and VHD files in a different location.
For more info on Virtual Machine import/export, please see http://blogs.technet.com/tonyso/archive/2009/08/04/hyper-v-r2-how-to-move-a-vm-storage-snapshots.aspx
