Microsoft Launches VM Conversion Tool: Free Solution to Convert VMware Virtual Machines to Hyper-V

Microsoft Azure offers a managed cloud computing environment with a variety of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) services. However, many organizations still prefer to keep data on-premises for compliance or data governance reasons. To address this need, Microsoft has just released a public preview of its VM Conversion tool.

This tool works as an extension in Windows Admin Center, specifically for converting VMware virtual machines to Windows Server with Hyper-V. The notable point is that this process is agentless – no additional middleware is required – and data is copied from source to destination without any system disruption. After the user confirms, the original virtual machine is shut down and the data is permanently transferred to the destination server.

According to Microsoft, the tool can migrate up to 10 virtual machines at once in just a few minutes. BIOS virtual machines will be automatically mapped to Generation 1, and UEFI virtual machines will be mapped to Generation 2, while retaining the same boot configuration. VM Conversion also supports multiple hard drives and can migrate both Windows and Linux virtual machines.

Before execution, the utility runs a precheck to validate the source VM's critical components and configuration. If there are any errors, the administrator needs to fix them himself. VM Conversion then uses change block tracking (CBT) to create a copy of the original VM while it is still running. When the source VM is shut down, the tool performs a second copy to record all remaining changes, ensuring complete data synchronization.

Another plus is that this utility is completely free and can be installed directly in Windows Admin Center.