Hyper-V Live migration without shared storage?

Hypothetical scenario:

  • 2 machines running Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
  • configured as a cluster
  • VHD files stored on each machine

Is it possible to do a live migration without using shared storage? I imagine that it could take a very long time to copy the VHD files, but I want to know if Hyper-V has the intelligence to keep plugging along with a live migration that might last hours or days.


Solution 1:

No, live migration requires shared storage (on both Hyper-V or VMware ESX) for Hyper V versions below 2012.

It is possible to do a live migration without shared storage on Hyper V with Server 2012's Shared Nothing functionality.

Solution 2:

Windows 8 Server Hyper-V 3 has provided the "live migration without shared storage" feature. http://www.jamesbannanit.com/2012/03/windows-8-server-hyper-v-live-migration-without-shared-storage/

Solution 3:

KVM live migration has an option to enable block migration, which doesn't require the shared storage. Available starting from qemu-kvm-0.12