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Configuring VM Storage in Hyper-V

The Default location for storing Hyper-V Virtual Machine files is:

 

.vhd: C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\Hyper-V\virtual hard disks

 

Configuration files: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V

 

It is OK to leave them there in a test environment, but in practice, you will want to move them to different physical drives simply for the sake of better performance. Here are a few considerations.

 

  • Move them off the partition that holds the host’s operating system
  • Move them off the disk that is used by the parent for paging.
  • If using multiple VMs on the same server, distribute the VM files across as many disks as possible.
  • If stored on a SAN, ensure reliability and performance will meet expectations.
  • Make sure the location will not only have enough space for data, but also snapshots.
  • Restrict access to the storage locations to only those who need to copy and paste files in that location.
  • If on a failover cluster, store the files on the shared disk.

 

To change the default location of the stored files, open Hyper-V Manager:

 

Click Hyper-V Settings in the Actions pane.

 

The first two columns on the left are the default storage locations. Changing these will change the storage location of all future VM files.

 

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You can also specify the location of the data files when you create a new VM.

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