Step by step I create a new HomeLab environment to be up to date with the new cool technical staff and can play around without any issues in a business environment. Most time I use cloud services in my environment but in some cases, I need a local virtual machine like a small domain controller or an Azure AD Connect service.
In the last years, I used VirtualBox from Oracle. Since Windows 10 and the possibility of Hyper-V I make the decision to change my virtualization software.
Install Hyper-V
Installing the hyper-v is very easy. You only need to activate it in program & features at your windows client:
Control Panel -> programs & features -> Activate or Disable Windows Feature
After a reboot, you can use the Hyper-V environment
Move VirtualBox to Hyper-V
The challenge is there are no directs ways to export the Virtual Box image and import it in Hyper-V. The reason is, VirtualBox use another disk format like Hyper-V:
Convert virtual disks (VDI)
To convert the Virtual Box disk from VDO to VHDX we use the VBoxManage.exe and the Convert-VDH CMDlet
Run the following commands in PowerShell:
#change into VirtualBox directory
cd ‘C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\’
#change into VirtualBox directory
cd ‘C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\’
#convert to VHD
.\VBoxManage.exe clonemedium “<path to vdi>\WindowsDomainColtroller.vdi” “<path to store vdh>\WindowsDomainColtroller.vhd” –format VHD
#convert to VHDX
cd <path to store vdh>
Convert-VHD -Path .\WindowsDomainColtroller.vhd -DestinationPath .\WindowsDomainColtroller.vhdx
Import the new Virtual Disk
After we have converted the disk we can import the disk in Hyper-V and use all data in virtual machine:
Aso you can use PowerShell to create a new machine
New-VM -Name DomainController -path <path you store VW> –MemoryStartupBytes 2048MB
Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName DomainController -path “<path to store vdh>\WindowsDomainColtroller.vhdx”
Start-VM -Name DomainController
I hope you like this short overview and I had the chance to help 🙂
Martin Alter 
One thought on “Move VirtualBox VM to Hyper-V”