Windows Server blog by Kurt Roggen [BE]

There are two new default folders that Hyper-V R2 creates during installation to store virtual machine– related files:

• %SystemDdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Snapshots Cache
• %SystemDdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines Cache

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V uses these folders to store (cached) XML files that contain the globally unique identifier (GUID) and the common name associated with a specific virtual machine. This allows Hyper-V R2 to resolve and display the common name of a virtual machine/snapshots, rather than just the GUID, even if the virtual machine storage location is offline (for example: when the LUN is down), or the virtual machine/snapshots configuration file is not readily accessible.

Default snapshots folder containing symbolic link pointers (0 Kb)	Symbolic link pointing to exact snapshot
Exact snapshot (17 Kb)	Full snapshot metadata
Default “Snapshots Cache” folder containing subset of snapshot metadata stored in xml (2-3 Kb)	Subset of snapshot metadata for caching purposes

An identical behavior can be found for the “Virtual Machines Cache” folder.

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