Unlock new virtualization potential with Microsoft Hyper-V 2025 on FlexPod

As organizations look to modernize their virtualization strategies, Microsoft Hyper-V 2025 is gaining attention as a powerful, cost-effective alternative hypervisor to traditional platforms. With deep integration into the Windows ecosystem and flexible licensing, Hyper-V 2025 is quickly becoming a smart choice for IT teams that need to optimize performance and budget.  

But transitioning from VMware can be complex, especially when it comes to the need for high availability, seamless workload migration, and consistent infrastructure performance. That’s where the FlexPod^® Datacenter solution comes in. Powered by Cisco UCS compute, Cisco Nexus networking, and NetApp^® AFF storage, FlexPod with Microsoft Hyper-V 2025 delivers a validated, enterprise-grade foundation for scalable virtualization. And with the built-in NetApp Shift Toolkit, migrating virtual machines from VMware to Hyper-V is fast, secure, and low risk. Whether you want to reduce costs, consolidate infrastructure, or gain greater control of your virtualization roadmap, FlexPod with Hyper-V 2025 offers a smarter path forward, with minimal disruption and maximum value. 

Figure 1 shows a generic FlexPod with Microsoft Hyper-V architecture featuring two hosts in a failover cluster for virtual machine high availability. One host acts as the management node with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) deployed. A virtual switch on this node supports multiple logical networks for VM communication and services. This configuration can be expanded with additional nodes for increased scalability and resilience.

Figure 1) FlexPod with Microsoft Hyper-V generic architecture.

Key benefits at a glance 

The solution enables seamless virtual machine migration using the NetApp Shift Toolkit, simplifying cross-platform transitions. It offers tight integration with SCVMM for streamlined management and orchestration. Leveraging NetApp ONTAP® as the unified storage platform, the architecture supports SMB Continuous Availability, ensuring uninterrupted access to data. Overall, the design provides a validated architecture that delivers high availability, strong performance, and scalable infrastructure for enterprise workloads. 

SCVMM 2025 plays a crucial role in simplifying management of this Hyper-V environment. SCVMM offers a unified control plane to manage Hyper-V hosts, clusters, virtual networks, and virtual machines. Integrated with the NetApp SMI-S Provider, SCVMM can also discover and manage NetApp storage arrays, enabling administrators to provision SMB file shares or iSCSI LUNs directly from the VMM console. This standards-based approach means seamless orchestration of compute and storage resources, helping to streamline operations and reduce administrative overhead in large-scale deployments.

One of the most critical challenges in virtualization transformation is migrating existing workloads without disrupting business operations. The NetApp Shift Toolkit offers a powerful, GUI-based solution that simplifies VM migration across hypervisors, most notably from VMware ESXi to Microsoft Hyper-V. 

The Shift Toolkit uses NetApp FlexClone® technology to convert virtual disks quickly and efficiently, no matter the size of the VM. For example, a 1TB VMDK file—which would typically take hours to convert using traditional tools—can be processed in just seconds with Shift.  

Importantly, the toolkit is designed to support multihypervisor environments, offering bidirectional migration capabilities: 

• VMware ESXi → Microsoft Hyper-V 

• VMware ESXi → KVM-compatible hypervisors 

• Microsoft Hyper-V → VMware ESXi (upcoming release) 

Figure 2) VMware to Hyper-V migration via Shift Toolkit 

The following scenarios were tested and validated in this integrated FlexPod with Hyper-V 2025 stack: 

• VM migration using NetApp Shift Toolkit. A VMware VM was successfully migrated to Hyper-V using the Shift Toolkit, demonstrating seamless VMDK to VHDX conversion, VM registration, and minimal downtime. 

• VM creation and SQL workload simulation. A test VM was created on Hyper-V where SQL server 2022 is installed. Using HammerDB with TPC-C benchmarking, a transactional database workload was simulated, confirming the ability of the solution to support intensive database operations. 

• Live VM migration. VMs were live migrated across hosts with minimum disruption, validating the high availability and agility of the Hyper-V cluster. 

• Maintenance mode validation. Verified VM migration during planned host maintenance means continuous application availability. 

Learn more at FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft Hyper-V 2025 and NetApp Shift toolkit.