Hyper-V Replica Running on a Different CPU Type?

Q: Can the target Hyper-V server for my Hyper-V Replica be running a different CPU type from the source server?

A: There are essentially two types of processors used for virtualization today: those by Intel and those by AMD.

It's not possible to perform Live Migrations or move snapshots of running virtual machines (VMs) between Intel and AMD systems (even if processor compatibility is enabled within the VM configuration) because the processor instructions are so different between Intel and AMD, and the VM is moved while still running.

However, Hyper-V Replica works differently.With Hyper-V Replica, the changes to storage of a VM are replicated from the source to the target every five minutes and replayed into the replica virtual hard disk (VHD) on the target side, but the VM isn't running on the target.

In the event of a failover, the VM is stopped and restarted on the target, which means there's no problem associated with moving a running OS between processor architectures since the OS is stopped and restarted.

This means with Hyper-V Replica, the source and target Hyper-V servers can be running different processors such as Intel on the source and AMD on the target.

To learn more about Hyper-V Replica, see more of my FAQs and also "Configuring Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012." You might also take a look at Sean Deuby's "Hyper-V Replica for Disaster Recovery."