Is it possible to change the UUID of a Hyper-v Host server

Question

We currently use Acronis Cyber backup for DR. I am trying to restore a VM to a Hypervisor from cloud backup. The first step was to do a test restore of the hypervisor to another physical server which was preformed successfully. Unfortunately when restoring the Hypervisor upon completion the test machine became the device registered in the backup management console and the production HV was unregistered. We re-registered the production HV but now I am stuck. The support tech advised to complete this procedure I will need to change the UUID on the Test HV.

I can find info how to change a VM UUID but not a hypervisor UUID. Is this possible? If it is possible how do I go about changing the UUID on the Test HV?

Answer 1

Super short answer: system UUIDs are a hardware thing, not an OS thing.

The only reason that you can change a Hyper-V VM's UUID is because you have access to its "hardware" via a file. For a physical system, the UUID is set by the motherboard manufacturer. If you have two physical machines with the same UUID and it's something other than all Fs, it's highly improbable that a restore caused that. The most logical reason is that your computer manufacturer used duplicates for some reason and you didn't find out until it mattered. It would not be possible for software to change the UUID unless the BIOS manufacturer added some technique to do that. Even if they did, it would be exceedingly unlikely for a restore operation to trigger it.
You can view the UUID of a system in PowerShell with Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ComputerSystemProduct | select UUID.
The operating system does not expose a way to change it:

If you're searching the Internet for something, look for your motherboard manufacturer and "SMBIOS UUID", possibly "SMBIOS GUID".