Hyper-V migration from version 5

Question

We're running Hyper-V on 2012R2 and the VMs are all version 5.0.

We are planning to setup a new Hyper-V server on either Windows 2019 or Windows 2022.

Can the VMs from Hyper-V 2012R2 that are version 5.0 be migrated directly to Hyper-V Windows 2019 or 2022 and what would be the best way to migrate them?

Live migration seems to require both Hyper-V to be 2016 or later.

Move-VM in powershell seems to be the most seamless.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Can the VMs be moved to the 2022 Hyper-V host then be upgraded there or should they be upgraded before the move?

If the VM's configuration version is not listed as supported for your Hyper-V host OS in the table below, you either have to upgrade the VM configuration version to a newer version or create a new VM of the same generation using the existing virtual hard disks before you can start the VM.
So if using Server 2022 you could easily create a new VM using the existing VHD (copied over)

The command to run the upgrade is "Update-VMVersion <vmname>". If run on version 5 VM, does it upgrade to the latest?

It will upgrade to the current version.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/hyper-v/update-vmversion?view=windowsserver2022-ps

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Answer 2

You can run them as is on Server 2019 or in either case you can always upgrade them.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/deploy/upgrade-virtual-machine-version-in-hyper-v-on-windows-or-windows-server#supported-vm-configuration-versions-for-long-term-servicing-hosts

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--