New Import and Export Features in Hyper-V R2

Good news from the virtualization team. Over on their blog is a new post about the import/export functionality in Hyper-V. There are major enhancements that address several scenarios that were either not easy or not possible with Hyper-V RTM. Scenarios such as exporting a VM and importing it to a different location or importing the same exported VM multiple times, etc. R2 introduces multiple enhancements described well on the team blog.

This is the one area where I was disappointed with Hyper-V RTM as it felt like a step back from Virtual Service instead of a step forward since in VS moving VMs was a simple matter of copying the VHD and VMC to a new location. While in this area Hyper-V felt like a small step backwards, the purpose was to put much more programmability into the entire import/export process. Basically setting the foundation for the much more advanced approach being delivered now. These new features will be significant enablers for all of the backup, storage, and lab management suites being developed by Microsoft and others.