Your company has a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 environment. You need to manually
back up a child partition while it is turned off. Which two elements should you back up?
(Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose two.)
A.
the system state
B.
the InitialStore.xml file
C.
the child .vhd files
D.
the child .xml configuration file
Explanation:
One of the big questions that I had about the export process before I began was whether or
not it left the original virtual machine instance intact, and in its original location. I’m happy to
report that the files making up the virtual machine are untouched during the export process.
This does however, mean that you will have to manually remove those files once you have
moved the virtual server to its new location.
The other thing that you need to know is that depending on the size of the virtual machine,
the export process can take a really long time to complete. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you
exactly how long, because the amount of time depends on the size of the .VHD files that are
being used, and on your machine’s hardware capabilities.
As you can see, exporting a virtual machine is really simple. Now let’s take a look at the
anatomy of the exported information, and how the import process works.
The Anatomy of a Virtual Machine When you export a virtual machine, one of the things that
Hyper-V asks you for is the export path. Whatever path you enter, Hyper-V will create a
folder in that path that bears the name of the virtual machine that you are exporting. For
instance, when I exported my virtual machine, I used C:\R2 as the path, and Hyper-V
created a new folder named R2. Now my virtual machine resides in a folder named
C:\R2\R2, as shown in Figure C.
Figure C
Hyper-V creates a folder in the destination path that bears the name of the virtual server that
you are exporting.
If you look at the figure, you will notice that within the folder that Hyper-V creates are three
sub folders. There is also an XML file named Config.xml.The Snapshots Folder
The Snapshots folder is used as a repository for snapshots of the virtual machine. This
folder contains three elements. First, there is a subfolder that bears the virtual machine’s
GUID. If no snapshots exist, the folder will still be present, but it will be empty. If snapshots
do exist, then this folder will contain the diffing data for the virtual hard disks. The snapshots
folder may also contain a subfolder for each snapshot. This folder bears the name of the
individual snapshot ID. In addition, there will be an export file (a .EXP file) for each individual
snapshot.
The Virtual Hard Disks Folder
As the name implies, the Virtual Hard Disks folder stores the .VHD files (virtual hard drive
files) used by the virtual machine. You can see an example of this in Figure D.
Figure D
The Virtual Hard Disks folder contains the .VHD files for the virtual server. The Virtual
Machines Folder At a minimum, the Virtual Machines folder will contain a file named after the
virtual machine’s GUID, but with an .EXP extension. This file is the virtual machine export
file. It retains the virtual machine’s settings during the export process.
If the virtual machine was in a saved state during the export process, then the Virtual
Machines folder will contain a sub folder, which will store two saved state files. If the
machine was not in a saved state at the time of the export, then the sub folder may exist, but
it will be empty. Importing a Virtual Machine The import and export process is used primarily
as a means for moving virtual machines from one host server to another. Therefore, the first
step in the import process is to copy the export folder and all of its sub folders to the desired
host server. After doing so, open the Hyper-V Manager and click the Import Virtual Machine
link.
You should now be prompted to enter the virtual machine’s path.
Although this seems simple enough, there are two very important
There are two important things that you need to know about the import process. First, it is up
to you to copy the virtual machine files to the location from which you want to use them.When you import the virtual machine, it’s physical location on the host server becomes
permanent, and moving the virtual machine is no longer an option. It is therefore important to
place the virtual machine files on the desired volume before you import it.
The other thing that you need to know is that when you import the virtual machine, the .EXP
file and the CONFIG.XML files will be deleted. These files are replaced with a new
CONFIG.XML file.
What this means to you is that because the .EXP file is gone, the virtual machine cannot be
imported again (unless you export it again). If you want to use the virtual machine as a
template or as an image that you can quickly restore, then it is important to work only from a
copy of your exported files so that the original remains untouched.
Conclusion
The process of importing and exporting virtual machines isn’t all that difficult, but by following
these tips, hopefully you’ll save yourself from a few of the most common pitfalls related to
duplicate virtual machines or the imported machine’s location.
