Running HyperV 2012 R2 fully patched.

I have HyperV clusters set up at two different locations, Cluster A and Cluster B.

I can live migrate VMs from node to node withing a cluster, but I would like to migrate a VM from a node on one cluster to a node on the other.   In other words, I would like to live migrate a VM from Cluster A to Cluster B.

When I go into Failover Cluster Manager and select the VM I want to move, it only gives me target nodes on the same cluster.

How do I get nodes from the other cluster to show up as targets?

I have found surprisingly little information on the Google.  Most of it is about live migration within a cluster (or VMWare).  Not as much on migration between HyperV clusters. 

Any pointers are appreciated.

Thank you.

What you are describing is a Storage migration.

Since each cluster is an entity unto itself you must cross this cluster boundary.  All of the Nodes within a cluster share is cluster level resources, that is what makes Live Migration so easy between nodes within a cluster.

But as soon as you cross clusters, nothing is shared.  So this is actually a physical move of a VM to different storage, different network environment, different nodes.

It is technically not a "live" migration.  You move the storage, the then runtime process.

What we have today is essentially the same as the 'cross version migration' that Aidan describes very well here: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=14914

But again, you are moving the storage location of the VM - so it is not something that you would be doing very often at all.

We are doing this by removing the VM from the Failover Cluster and then doing a shared nothing migration to a host in the new cluster. After the shared nothing live migration is completed we add it to the failover cluster in the destination cluster.

1. Created a folder on Cluster storage on the destination cluster for the VM.
2. From the source cluster open Failover Cluster Manager, right-click VM and click Remove.
3. Open Hyper-V Manager from the host that is running the VM.
4. Right-click the VM, click Move. Click Move the Virtual Machine.
5. Type in the host name of one of the hyper-v hosts in the destination cluster.
6. Choose Move the virtual machine's data to a single location.
7. Finish the wizard out. If you have a switch with a different name you'll be prompted to choose a virtual switch.
8. After the migration is completed, open Failover Cluster Manager on the destination cluster, right-click Roles, Click Configure Role. Select Virtual Machine, click Next.
9. Check the box by your VM. Next, Next, Finish.

• Proposed as answer by Michael Coutanche 8 hours 25 minutes ago
• Unproposed as answer by Michael Coutanche 8 hours 20 minutes ago

Hi Bfatwow,

As outlined by wasserja the shared nothing live migration is the technique you have mentioned. This does require either the VM removing from Failover Cluster Manager and then moving through Hyper-V manger, or the use of SCVMM to do it without the need to remove from Failover Cluster Manager, both will keep the VM live whilst the process is run.

As well as the steps outlined above you will need to check some firewall rules and also configure host delegation to for the shared nothing live migration to work correctly.

Check out the guide here:

http://windowsitpro.com/windows-server-2012/shared-nothing-vm-live-migration-windows-server-2012-hyper-v

Essentially, a new VM is created at the new location, storage copied over, then once storage matches, machine writes are set to both machines until they are at a match before the writes are redirected to the new VM only and the old removed.

Another option open to you is to setup Hyper-V replica between the two clusters. This can be done without the need to drop the VM out of FOCM but there will be a short period of down time for the VM whilst you failover as the machine is powered off, the final sync made and booted up in the new cluster. You can then revers the replica if you wish to continue to use the old cluster as a passive DR copy should you need to do a planned or unplanned failback. It is also possible during this process to inject a new IP address should the target cluster/standalone host be in a different sub

We are doing this by removing the VM from the Failover Cluster and then doing a shared nothing migration to a host in the new cluster. After the shared nothing live migration is completed we add it to the failover cluster in the destination cluster.

1. Created a folder on Cluster storage on the destination cluster for the VM.
2. From the source cluster open Failover Cluster Manager, right-click VM and click Remove.
3. Open Hyper-V Manager from the host that is running the VM.
4. Right-click the VM, click Move. Click Move the Virtual Machine.
5. Type in the host name of one of the hyper-v hosts in the destination cluster.
6. Choose Move the virtual machine's data to a single location.
7. Finish the wizard out. If you have a switch with a different name you'll be prompted to choose a virtual switch.
8. After the migration is completed, open Failover Cluster Manager on the destination cluster, right-click Roles, Click Configure Role. Select Virtual Machine, click Next.
9. Check the box by your VM. Next, Next, Finish.

• Proposed as answer by Michael Coutanche Friday, March 13, 2015 10:36 PM
• Unproposed as answer by Michael Coutanche Friday, March 13, 2015 10:42 PM
• Marked as answer by bfatwow 10 hours 30 minutes ago

Thanks for the tips!

One more question ...

In VMM, the hosts on the local cluster all have 3-4 stars as available targets.

When I select "All Hosts", hosts on the remote cluster only have stars that are grayed out. Rating Explanation says "No connection to network with sufficient resources could be found."

We are trying to do this over a dedicated 100 Mb WAN circuit.  I keep seeing shared-nothing requirements of 1 Gb links.  Is this a hard and fast requirement, or just a suggestion?

Its a recommendation but can be done over WAN of lower speeds.

Check out this link to make sure the networking on the target cluster has the required configuration set.

http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2011/10/12/system-center-virtual-machine-manager-2012-scvmm-challenges-moving-a-vm.aspx