DPM cannot backup Hyper-v --> 5.0/8.0 version

Hyper-V protection improvements

The following information touches on the improvements to protecting VMs with DPM 2016.+

Resilient Change Tracking (RCT)

In Windows Server 2016, Hyper-V virtual hard disks have built-in change tracking. As a result, in the case of a Host outage, or VM migration, change-tracking is automatically preserved. With RCT, backups:+

·         are more reliable: consistency checks aren't required after VM migration,

·         are scalable: more parallel backups and less storage overhead,

·         have improved performance: lower impact on the production fabric and faster backup.

Enabling RCT VM backup

Hyper-V VMs deployed on Windows Server 2016 and protected using DPM 2016 have RCT by default. VMs deployed on Windows Server 2012 R2 or earlier do not support RCT. However, you can upgrade older VMs. To upgrade older VMs to enable RCT:+

1.    In Hyper-V Manager, shut down the virtual machine.

2.    In Hyper-V Manager, select Action > Upgrade Configuration Version.

If this option isn't available for the virtual machine, then it's already at the highest configuration version supported by the Hyper-V host. For additional information about checking or upgrading the virtual machine configuration version, see the article, upgrading virtual machine version to Windows Server 2016.

If you want to use Windows PowerShell to upgrade the virtual machine configuration, run the following command where vmname is the name of the virtual machine.

Update-VMVersion <vmname>

3.    On the DPM 2016 server:

o    Stop protection of the VM and select Retain Data.

o    In the DPM 2016 Administrator Console, click Protection > on the tool ribbon, click New to start the Create Protection Wizard. Go through the wizard and select Refresh to update the data sources.

o    Select your VM and create a new protection group.

o    Delete the old VM's retained data once the retention range has expired.

Make the latest Hyper-V features available on your virtual machines by upgrading the configuration version. Don't do this until: +

·         You upgrade your Hyper-V hosts to the latest version of Windows or Windows Server.

·         You upgrade the cluster functional level.

·         You're sure that you won't need to move the virtual machine back to a Hyper-V host that runs a previous version of Windows or Windows Server.

Step 1: Check the virtual machine configuration versions

1.    On the Windows desktop, click the Start button and type any part of the name Windows PowerShell.

2.    Right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator.

3.    Use the Get-VM cmdlet. Run the following command to get the versions of your virtual machines.
Get-VM * | Format-Table Name, Version
You can also see the configuration version in Hyper-V Manager by selecting the virtual machine and looking at the Summary tab.

Step 2: Upgrade the virtual machine configuration version

1.    Shut down the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager.

2.    Select Action > Upgrade Configuration Version. If this option isn't available for the virtual machine, then it's already at the highest configuration version supported by the Hyper-V host.

To upgrade the virtual machine configuration version by using Windows PowerShell, use the Update-VMVersion cmdlet. Run the following command where vmname is the name of the virtual machine. +

Update-VMVersion <vmname>  

Supported virtual machine configuration versions

The following table shows which virtual machine configuration versions are supported by Hyper-V hosts that run on specific versions of Windows operating systems. +

Hyper-V host Windows version	Supported virtual machine configuration versions
Windows Server 2016	8.0, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2, 5.0
Windows 10 Anniversary Update	8.0, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2, 5.0
Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview	7.1, 7.0, 6.2, 5.0
Windows 10 build 10565 or later	7.0, 6.2, 5.0
Windows 10 builds earlier than 10565	6.2, 5.0
Windows Server 2012 R2	5.0
Windows 8.1	5.0

Run the PowerShell cmdlet Get-VMHostSupportedVersion to see what virtual machine configuration versions your Hyper-V Host supports. When you create a virtual machine, it's created with the default configuration version. To see what the default is, run the following command. +

Get-VMHostSupportedVersion -Default  

If you need to create a virtual machine that you can move to a Hyper-V Host that runs an older version of Windows, use the New-VM cmdlet with the -version parameter. For example, to create a virtual machine that you can move to a Hyper-V host that runs Windows Server 2012 R2 , run the following command. This command will create a virtual machine named "WindowsCV5" with a configuration version 5.0. +

New-VM -Name "WindowsCV5" -Version 5.0  

Why should I upgrade the virtual machine configuration version?

When you move or import a virtual machine to a computer that runs Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10, the virtual machine"s configuration isn't automatically updated. This means that you can move the virtual machine back to a Hyper-V host that runs a previous version of Windows or Windows Server. But, this also means that you can't use some of the new virtual machine features until you manually update the configuration version. You can't downgrade the virtual machine configuration version after you've upgraded it. +

The virtual machine configuration version represents the compatibility of the virtual machine's configuration, saved state, and snapshot files with the version of Hyper-V. When you update the configuration version, you change the file structure that is used to store the virtual machines configuration and the checkpoint files. You also update the configuration version to the latest version supported by that Hyper-V host. Upgraded virtual machines use a new configuration file format, which is designed to increase the efficiency of reading and writing virtual machine configuration data. The upgrade also reduces the potential for data corruption in the event of a storage failure.