Managing VM checkpoints

With Hyper-V in Server 2022, a checkpoint captures the state of a VM as a restore point. Hyper-V then enables you to roll back a VM to a checkpoint. Windows Server 2008’s version of Hyper-V provided this feature, although these restore points were called snapshots at that time.

In Server 2012, Microsoft changed the name to “checkpoint.” This terminology change was consistent with System Center and avoided any confusion with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots used by many backup systems. While the Hyper-V team changed the terminology, some of the cmdlet names remain unchanged. For instance, to restore a VM to a checkpoint, you use the Restore-VMSnapshot cmdlet.

You can create a variety of checkpoints for a VM. When you create a checkpoint, Hyper-V temporarily pauses the VM. Hyper-V creates a new differencing disk (AVHD). Hyper-V then resumes the VM, which writes all data to the differencing disk.

Checkpoints are excellent...