Upgrading Guest VM from Server 2008 to Server 2012

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drgaddy

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Sep 8, 2015
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Can you perform an in-place operating system upgrade of an actual Virtual Machine (that is living on a host Hyper-V 2012 R2 Datacenter box) from Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to Server 2012 Datacenter? Everything I find online is how to upgrade the actual Physical Hyper-V host server from 2008 to 2012, but I already have a 2012 Host server that I've migrated the VMs to (they originally lived on a 2008 R2 Enterprise Host server) and just want the VMs now upgraded from 2008 to 2012.

Any help you can provide with how to perform this task (or if it's even supported) would be most appreciated! If supported, it should be as simple as mounting the .ISO into the VM and performing the upgrade, but I didn't know if the new .VHDX format of Server 2012 VMs would be an issue given these 2008 VMs currently run via .VHD files. I also didn't know if any of the Gen 1/Gen 2 settings could become a mess (clearly these are Gen 1 now).

Thanks in advance!
 

markpower28

Active Member
Apr 9, 2013
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1. In place upgrade. There is no issues.
2. Gen 1 upgrade to gen2 vm. You can't do that.
 

drgaddy

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Sep 8, 2015
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1. In place upgrade. There is no issues.
2. Gen 1 upgrade to gen2 vm. You can't do that.
So to confirm, the process of upgrading a Virtual Machine (not the host, but the guest system - the actual VM) from Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to Server 2012 Datacenter is a straight-forward project where the .ISO just needs to be mounted to the VM and then the upgrade needs to be completed like any other server upgrade (same way you would do it for a physical machine), correct?

So no issues with the fact that the native format for virtual hard disks for 2012 is .VHDX and this one is currently a .VHD (and will likely remain one even though it will be running 2012 when done with the upgrade)?

Let me know please.

Thanks!
 

cesmith9999

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2013
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2012 (r2) supports both VHD and VHDX files. there are no issues there.

Chris
 

markpower28

Active Member
Apr 9, 2013
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Chris is correct. both Gen1 and Gen2 VM support 2012R2. For some advanced function such as remoteFX it may require to run under Gen1.

So to confirm, the process of upgrading a Virtual Machine (not the host, but the guest system - the actual VM) from Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to Server 2012 Datacenter is a straight-forward project where the .ISO just needs to be mounted to the VM and then the upgrade needs to be completed like any other server upgrade (same way you would do it for a physical machine), correct?

So no issues with the fact that the native format for virtual hard disks for 2012 is .VHDX and this one is currently a .VHD (and will likely remain one even though it will be running 2012 when done with the upgrade)?

Let me know please.

Thanks!
 

drgaddy

New Member
Sep 8, 2015
3
0
1
42
1. In place upgrade. There is no issues.
2. Gen 1 upgrade to gen2 vm. You can't do that.
I'm sorry if I'm coming off redundant, but I just want to try to get a direct answer to the following:

So to confirm, the process of upgrading a Virtual Machine (not the host, but the guest system - the actual VM) from Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to Server 2012 Datacenter is a straight-forward project where the .ISO just needs to be mounted to the VM and then the upgrade needs to be completed like any other server upgrade (same way you would do it for a physical machine), correct?
 

markarr

Active Member
Oct 31, 2013
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Thats the beauty of vm's though, snapshots, something goes wrong then roll back. With a DC though I would agree install new and migrate, but I believe that he is just talking about a guest vm not the hosts themselves as he said they are already running 2012.
 

markpower28

Active Member
Apr 9, 2013
413
104
43
Correct. I have done this for different customers without any issues. The only thing you need to watch is application compatibility. (If you install Exchange 2013 on a 2008R2 server. You will not able to upgrade from 2008R2 to 2012R2)
I'm sorry if I'm coming off redundant, but I just want to try to get a direct answer to the following:

So to confirm, the process of upgrading a Virtual Machine (not the host, but the guest system - the actual VM) from Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to Server 2012 Datacenter is a straight-forward project where the .ISO just needs to be mounted to the VM and then the upgrade needs to be completed like any other server upgrade (same way you would do it for a physical machine), correct?