Microsoft has released a new VM Conversion extension for Windows Admin Center, designed to streamline the migration of VMware virtual machines from vCenter to Hyper-V environments.
The preview tool, announced on August 20, 2025, provides enterprises with a cost-free solution for bulk VM migrations while maintaining minimal downtime and preserving critical configurations.
Key Takeaways
1. Migrate 10 VMs to Hyper-V with minimal downtime.
2. Preserves IP, Secure Boot/UEFI; supports clusters.
3. Requires WAC V2, PowerCLI, VDDK; no vSAN/Azure Local.
Enhanced Migration Capabilities
The VM Conversion extension introduces bulk migration support for up to 10 virtual machines simultaneously, enabling administrators to orchestrate migrations based on application dependencies, cluster requirements, and business boundaries.
The tool supports migration from ESXi hosts to Windows Server Failover clusters, providing enterprise-grade scalability for complex virtualization environments.
Key technical features include static IP configuration persistence, ensuring network continuity by maintaining IP settings from source VMware environments to destination Hyper-V hosts.
The extension automatically handles Secure Boot and UEFI template configurations with integrated osType detection, dynamically configuring security settings based on Windows or Linux operating systems while implementing robust error handling for unsupported OS types.
The migration workflow utilizes Change Block Tracking (CBT) technology for efficient data synchronization and supports multi-disk configurations for virtual machines running complex workloads.
The tool requires VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) version 8.0.3 and PowerCLI module installation via PowerShell command: Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI.
System Requirements
The extension supports vCenter versions 6.x and 7.x and requires Windows Admin Center Gateway V2 version 2410 build 2.4.12.10.
Supported guest operating systems include Windows Server 2025, 2022, 2019, 2016, and 2012 R2, plus various Linux distributions, including Ubuntu 20.04/24.04, Debian 11/12, and Red Hat Linux 9.0.
For Linux virtual machines, Hyper-V drivers must be pre-installed before migration initiation, specifically requiring Linux Integration Services v4.3 to ensure successful post-migration boot operations.
The VDDK package must be extracted to C:Program FilesWindowsAdminCenterServiceVDDK on the Windows Admin Center Gateway machine.
The migration process implements comprehensive prechecks to validate environment readiness, including verifying no active snapshots exist, confirming sufficient memory and disk space on destination hosts, and validating target disk paths, Microsoft said.
Post-migration, administrators can convert dynamic VHDX files to fixed-size using PowerShell: Convert-VHD -Path “C:VMsMyDisk.vhdx” -DestinationPath “C:VMsMyDisk_Fixed.vhdx” -VHDType Fixed.
Current limitations include manual VMware Tools removal post-migration and the requirement for active browser sessions during migration processes.
The tool currently does not support vSAN environments or migration to Azure Local, positioning it specifically for on-premises Hyper-V deployments.
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