A virtual machine cache provides for maintaining a working set of the cache during a transfer between virtual machine hosts. In response to a virtual machine transfer, the previous host of the virtual machine is configured to retain cache data of the virtual machine, which may include both cache metadata and data that has been admitted into the cache. The cache data may be transferred to the destination host via a network (or other communication mechanism). The destination host populates a virtual machine cache with the transferred cache data to thereby reconstruct the working state of the cache.