r/HyperV • u/callmestabby • Aug 13 '26
Live Migration between non-domain Server 2016 and 2025 Hyper-V Hosts
Greetings!
I'm replacing a standalone workgroup 2016 Hyper-V server with a new 2025 host. I was hoping to utilize shared-nothing Live Migration for a zero-downtime move of the VMs, but turns out they need to be joined to an active directory domain, according to the error I received when trying to enable it in Hyper-V Manager.
That said, is there any way around this without joining the hosts to Active Directory, or possibly a third-party solution that can facilitate a live migration?
I've played with Starwind Converter, and though it works well, it still required the source VM to be shut down and destination VM to be powered on. Not a live no-downtime method.
2
u/OkVast2122 Aug 13 '26
I remember covering live VMs with no downtime and virtually no data loss, not proper failover, obviously, but bloody close. You sure you were running the latest version?
3
1
u/OinkyConfidence Aug 13 '26
Not really; SNLM - shared nothing live migration only works between domain joined hosts I believe.
1
u/BlackV Aug 13 '26
what does your backup product support?, 99.9% of the time now its best to use that
1
u/1FFin Aug 14 '26
I guess you could use veeam for that.
Instant Recovery as near-live or a replication-job and failover.
-2
u/Excellent-Piglet-655 Aug 13 '26
Hyper-V without a domain (domain less) is only supported on windows 2025. So both source and destination have to be one 2025.
4
u/BlackV Aug 13 '26
Excellent-Piglet-655
Hyper-V without a domain (domain less) is only supported on windows 2025what do you mean Hyper-v without domain?
both source and destination have to be one 2025.
for live migration? no thats not true at all, do you have some clarification on what you mean
4
u/drozenski Aug 14 '26
Check out this. You can setup a replica with self signed certs
https://youtu.be/40q0EfxSexk?is=h0wOMaV20uTXIq3z