Hyper-V to MaaS.io, is it possible?

[swakop_toe]

Is it at all possible to convert/migrate an existing/production Microsoft Hyper-V VM(s) with Windows Server as the OS to Canonical's https://maas.io?

It is possible to create a new VM with Windows Server as the VM OS on MaaS, but I am unable to clearly identify whether there is a migration path.

So far it appears the only way is the convert the VHD(X) to VMWare (VMDK) and then to Maas.io.

I am not necessarily looking for a free tool or service, but a proven and workable one.

Any of you done this before?

Edit: I suppose it should have been under "Storage, Hosting and Cloud" sub-forum

 

[JohnStarr]

There doesn't seem to be any direct conversion at all except for that multi-step approach. Make sure your backups are 100% before doing anything.

 

[Telasera]

What you can try is to reproduce the VM on the destination MaaS server with the same disk size, specs etc and then use an imaging tool like Macrium to create a backup image on the source VM which can be imaged onto the destination server. The UEFI (Secure Boot) can cause trouble so best to test the process with a non production vm. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[swakop_toe]

Spent an hour on Zoom with the Canonical EMEA manager and their tech. socialist in London, but the conclusion was that it is not possible.

Really disappointed.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Is it not possible to use MaaS to provision your bare metal as a Hyper-V host and then perform a shared nothing live migration of VM's from your existing Hyper-V or export/import the VM's offline? I stand to be corrected but I think MaaS can provision Windows servers on bare metal.

When I first read your post, I thought you were after a virtual to physical conversion (not so sure reading it again) in which case a backup program with a good bare metal restore functionality would work. Arcserve, Paragon, Macrium and Veeam would be worth looking at. This would also work if you were converting to a different hypervisor.

 

[swakop_toe]

MaaS Is a BareMetal provision service software.
It allows you to manage different servers with various CPU architectures and OS 's.
It does not have virtualisation capabilities.
I would still need to install KVM or similar to host virtual machines.
In a single site, multi-node stack, MaaS would be unnecessary. All I would need to use is Ubuntu and KVM, clustering for HA and whatever to see the JBOD shared storage.

Their marketing on the website gives one the impression it is the LinUX equivalent of Hyper-V or VMWare. It is not.

I have several VM's on on-prem, geographically dispersed Hyper-V servers.
The push is to consolidate to colocated, HA cluster of servers, etc. Nothing new.

I was hoping to use the Canonical/MaaS software instead of Windows Server and Hyper-V.
Interestingly, in my scenario, over a R50k/month licensing and support costs only, Windows DataCente with Hyper-V was but a grand more than the Ubuntu/MaaS solution.

The saving with LinUX is the fact that is 10-15% less hardware resource hungry than Windows.

But to run Ubuntu with KVM, spin up a Hyper-V VM and then insert x numbers of VM's on top of Hyper-V would be negate any performance gains LinUX would have provided, I am advised.

So, it seems I staying with a pure Microsoft implementation.

Virtualising the bunch of individual Windows servers is doable, albeit quite intensive.
Most of these servers have 2TB or more storage, on average only 50% used.
Most P2V applications have to virtualise the total raw strorage to a VHD.
I suppose I can shrink the VHD disk post conversion, right?

Or not?

 

[Telasera]

Have you considered a platform like Proxmox or XCP-ng?

They both can be setup in HA on bare metal providing VM hosting for both your windows VM's and Linux.

You would still need to pay for the windows licences per VM vs the entire host with DC edition however there is a breakeven point where it becomes cheaper depending on the hardware and density you are running.

Do you have existing hardware that you wish to colocate?
I'd be happy to discuss in further detail via PM if there is anyway we can assist you.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Their marketing on the website gives one the impression it is the LinUX equivalent of Hyper-V or VMWare. It is not.

I disagree with you. MaaS is not a hypervisor and I don't think they claim otherwise. In many use cases, I think it could be used to configure bare metal as a hypervisor running kvm, hyper-v, VMWare or even LXD, Docker, Kubernetes etc. on bare metal.

I was hoping to use the Canonical/MaaS software instead of Windows Server and Hyper-V.
Interestingly, in my scenario, over a R50k/month licensing and support costs only, Windows DataCente with Hyper-V was but a grand more than the Ubuntu/MaaS solution.

If you are running Windows VM's, you will be in for the licensing costs regardless of which hypervisor you run on.

I think the use case for MaaS is if you need to automate provisioning of a lot of bare metal infrastructure in a somewhat elastic manner. Say if you were running your on Openstack private cloud, you can provision the hardware for your compute and storage as cattle rather than pets.

If you are moving existing VM's to a new, fairly static, modestly sized underlying infrastructure, I don't see that MaaS is going to help you that much. I do think it's one of several pretty cool projects from Canonical though.

 

[swakop_toe]

Have you considered a platform like Proxmox or XCP-ng?

They both can be setup in HA on bare metal providing VM hosting for both your windows VM's and Linux.

You would still need to pay for the windows licences per VM vs the entire host with DC edition however there is a breakeven point where it becomes cheaper depending on the hardware and density you are running.

Do you have existing hardware that you wish to colocate?
I'd be happy to discuss in further detail via PM if there is anyway we can assist you.

Thanks, I might just take you up on your offer.