Configure Hyper-V VM powershell

Question

How can i reconfigure Hyper-V VM's

I want to be able to change the VM configuration file, check points, and virtual hard drive locations with Powershell.

My Google-FU is only pointing me at moving, I have about ~100 VM's to Change, I can move the files, I do not mind a little downtime, When walking throught the wizard for each VM it takes about 5 to 15 minutes per VM and those are the smaller ones, I need to be able to do all 100 in 2 hours.

If i need to clarify please let me know.

==Where I am getting stuck==

Yes i have seen that link and looked at most of the commands however none do what I am looking for.

The files all together are about 14 TB

The ~100 VM's are clustered between 7 Hosts. The shared storage is EMC spinning disk and I want to move them to 3Par ssd.

Now, what I have been able to do successfully was shut the VM's down, move the files, delete all the VM's and recreate them VIA powershell, which when I told my CTO that may be the only way he about shit kittens.

What i want to be able to is not MOVE the VM's just RECONFIGURE them,

In other works be able to change:

TO:

I want to be able to do this using powershell, Also i need to be able to do the same thing for the checkpoints, and configuration files, and all other Hyper-V VM components.

I can tolerate about 2 hours of downtime, to do the MOVE through the wizard for all the VM's will not only wear out my mouse but take about 6 hours.

I have also been researching this and testing out different strategies for a couple weeks now.

====One More Shot====

I am not looking to "Move" all i want to be able to do is change the settings from within hyper-V moving will take way to long, it is much quicker for me to copy the files over the network and just update the paths in Hyper-V, I can shut the machines down.

Im thinking it cannot be done?

What kind of research have you done so far? The documentation in the [hyper-v module](https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/powershell/windows/hyper-v/hyper-v) seems pretty good to me. Where are you getting stuck? — Zoredache, Sep 05 '17 at 21:44
If they are clustered you just need to move the storage, using the move storage option. It is in the GUI and should result in no downtime. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/clustering/2012/04/26/windows-server-2012-storage-migration-for-cluster-managed-virtual-machines/ — Drifter104, Sep 05 '17 at 22:09
`Im thinking it cannot be done?` I think it **can be** done, but it would be a long and complicated script. Pretty much everything about a VM can be fully manipulated via powershell. I suspect you are making your life far more difficult by not letting the tools manage the move of the files for you. — Zoredache, Sep 06 '17 at 17:35
@Zoredache in a perfect world where I had 6 hours yes it would be fine to use the tools, however I have 2 — Anthony Fornito, Sep 06 '17 at 18:08

Zoredache · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-06T18:14:45.783

8

Not really sure this does what you need but there is an example powershell fragment I have used in the past to migrate VMs including the all the storage to a new destination

Get-VM -Name ('ansible-test-acs',
              'ansible-test-web',
              'ansible-test-db') |
ForEach-Object {
    # move everything to d:\hyper-v\vm_name on hv-srv-01
    $MoveOptions = @{
        'Name'                   = $_.Name
        'DestinationHost'        = 'hv-srv-01'
        'IncludeStorage'         = $true
        'DestinationStoragePath' = 'D:\Hyper-V\{0}' -f $_.Name
    }
    $MoveOptions
    Move-VM @MoveOptions -WhatIf
    # Move-VM @MoveOptions
}

Move VM storage to a new path

('ansible-test-web', 'ansible-test-db') |
ForEach-Object {
    Move-VMStorage $_ `
            –DestinationStoragePath "E:\Hyper-V\$_"
}

If you have copied a VM and all its files to a new location and you want Hyper-V to start using the new location, then you should be able to do something like.

Remove-VM oldvmname
Import-VM -Register -Path 'path to VM config file'

edited Sep 06 '17 at 18:14

answered Sep 05 '17 at 22:12

Zoredache

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Thanks for the code but it still moves the VM's see update – Anthony Fornito Sep 06 '17 at 15:34
You saw the option to move just the storage right? – Zoredache Sep 06 '17 at 17:45
Yes, but I am not looking to 'MOVE' the storage, I have copied over the vhdx file to the new location, also I can use the Set-VMHardDiskDrive command which does work for changing the directory of storage when the VM is off, which is also fine, but I cannot find out how to 'CHANGE' the pointer for the VM configuration file. – Anthony Fornito Sep 06 '17 at 18:07
If you have actually copied all the files and you are certain, Then remove the remove, and re-import the VM. Answer updated with an example. – Zoredache Sep 06 '17 at 18:15

Configure Hyper-V VM powershell

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