Finding a Hyper-V Virtual Machine GUID

When you create a Virtual Machine in Hyper-V there is an XML configuration file that is created and stored as part of that process, these files are created per Virtual Machine and are named in the form of a GUID String.

The XML files contain various properties of the registered Virtual Machine such as Virtual Switch configuration, VHD paths, Generation type and other unique information specific to that machine.

By default these files are stored in C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsHyper-V under Virtual Machines, and this can be changed in the Hyper-V settings.

From Hyper-V Manager we get a list of our created Virtual Machines but no information regarding the machines unique GUIDs is displayed.

Hyper-V Manager

If we look into the location where the XML GUIDs are stored you should see something that looks similar to below:

VM GUIDs

Opening one of these files in Notepad you will be presented with some of the configuration information that I mentioned above.

If you scroll nearer the bottom of the XML code you will then see the name of Virtual Machine that matches the GUID.

LAB-DC01 GUID

As you can see from above, the GUID string 1B45D37E-2BBB-4B66-BD1C-1BBAE9EEFDD8 matches the Virtual Machine named LAB-DC01

Of course, this is more of a manual way of finding out this information, if you are into PowerShell which supports Hyper-V then this can be done using the PowerShell management Library for Hyper-V available HERE

Enjoy! wlEmoticon-smile.png

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