Preserving Hyper-V setup

My system drive needs reformatting and clean install of w8.1.

Currently this a Hyper-V with some VM's and common settings like virtual switches etc.

How to "park" the Hyper-V on another HDD during W8.1 reinstall ?
(And, of course, take it back to the correct position in the system drive when finished)

I know I can export VM's etc, but can I export virtual switches and other common setting ? 

(later this year, I will have a similar need with Server 2012 R2 as Hyper-V host machine)

March 12th, 2015 4:33pm

VMs can easily be saved by copying out the folder or exporting them.

Virtual Switches and other Hyper-V level settings cannot be saved, they must be documented and re-applied.

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March 12th, 2015 5:32pm

Thanks

So re-applying using the same names/values and importing (or copying back) VM's is effectively recreating the whole thing after a clean setup ? (No missing guids which breaks the associations ?)

March 13th, 2015 3:19pm

Because you are wiping the base OS, new GUIDs will be created.  And there is no security GUIDs being pulled forward, so they have to be recreated as well.

The Import process takes care of the virtual device GUID issues.  There is a stage that lets you choose the virtual switch and the storage if you change the location, etc.

You just have to Export to make sure that VM is in one neat and tidy folder, so you don't miss anything.

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March 13th, 2015 3:52pm

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