Importing VMs Utilizing The Hyper-V WMI v2 Namespace

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I have had a few folks ask me about importing VM’s though our WMI namespace.  The Hyper-V WMI v2 interfaces introduce a new concept of planned virtual machines, this  allows you to create/import virtual machines and make configuration changes prior to realizing them or converting them to real virtual machines that can be started or are even visible in the UI.

I have two samples below, the first one simply imports a VM and the second renames the VM as part of the import.  You can get more information about the ImportSystemDefinition API at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh850082(v=vs.85).aspx.  We also have some additional samples utilizing planned virtual machines in our common sample code at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh850032(v=vs.85).aspx.

Importing a VM

#Retrieve the management service
$VmMgmtSvc = Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization\v2 `
      -Class Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService

#Import the VM, referencing the VM configuration, snapshot folder
$ImportedSystem_ret = $VmMgmtSvc.ImportSystemDefinition(
    "D:\Demo\Virtual Machines\1B3CDA1D-6FB6-4AAE-8E8D-8BE6BB587BD3.XML",
    "D:\Demo\Snapshots",
    $false) #Retaining the VM id

#Retrieve the object referencing the planned VM
$PlannedVM = [WMI]$ImportedSystem_ret.ImportedSystem

#Realize the planned VM
$VmMgmtSvc.RealizePlannedSystem($PlannedVM)

Modifying a VM as part of import

#Retrieve the management service
$VmMgmtSvc = Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\virtualization\v2 `
      -Class Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService

#Import the VM, referencing the VM configuration, snapshot folder
$ImportedSystem_ret = $VmMgmtSvc.ImportSystemDefinition(
    "D:\Demo\Virtual Machines\1B3CDA1D-6FB6-4AAE-8E8D-8BE6BB587BD3.XML",
    "D:\Demo\Snapshots",
    $false) #Retaining the VM id

#Retrieve the object referencing the planned VM
$PlannedVM = [WMi]$ImportedSystem_ret.ImportedSystem

#Retrieve the setting data for the planned VM
$VmSetData = ($PlannedVM.GetRelated("Msvm_VirtualSystemSettingData", `
      "Msvm_SettingsDefineState", `
      $null, `
      $null, `
      "SettingData", `
      "ManagedElement", `
      $false, $null) | % {$_})

#Modify the name of the VM
$VmSetData.ElementName = "NewVMName"
$VmMgmtSvc.ModifySystemSettings($VmSetData.GetText(2))

#Realize the planned VM
$VmMgmtSvc.RealizePlannedSystem($PlannedVM)

-Taylorb