Mastering Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V

Windows Server

2012

4

Windows Server

2012    R2

5   (and    4   to  enable  Live    Migration   from    2012,   but once    migrated,   it

is  automatically   upgraded    to  version 5)

Windows Server

2016

8   and 5

Note that Windows Server 2016 supports both 8 and 5, as 5 may be required for pre-
2016 compatibility. New VMs created on 2016 will use the new VM configuration
version 8, while VMs created on 2012 R2 will maintain version 5 unless they are
manually converted. When a VM is converted to the new VM configuration version, its
XML-based configuration is converted to the binary VMCX format and a VMRS file is
created for the runtime state.

This conversion can be done using Hyper-V Manager or PowerShell. Figure 2.7 shows
the configuration version update context menu option for a configuration version 5
VM that was imported from Windows Server 2012 R2.

Figure 2.7 VM configuration upgrade using Hyper-V Manager

To perform the conversion using PowerShell, use the following:

Update-VMVersion -Name "" -Confirm:$false

Note that after a VM configuration version is upgraded to 8, the conversion cannot be
reversed back to a 5. Therefore, before upgrading a VM to version 8, make sure that
there is no need for backward compatibility.