Manage VM Snapshots

A snapshot preserves the state of a VM so that you can return to that state any time you want without creating multiple VMs. Use a snapshot as a restoration point during a linear or iterative process (for example, installing update packages) or during a branching process (for example, installing different versions of a program). You can also use a snapshot as a baseline for a VM.

The Snapshot Summary Report provides information about the number of snapshots in your cloud accounts, their location, and their size.

  • Snapshots are supported only for vCenter VMs.
  • A snapshot is created and retrieved on a best-effort basis. Certain situations may cause the snapshot to be removed, for example, when an ESX host is removed or added.
  • If the cloud account version is VMware VirtualCenter 2.5, the size of a snapshot isn't available for display in Commander.

Create VM snapshots

Access:

Views > Inventory > Infrastructure or Applications

Available to:

Administrator, All Operator Levels of Access Rights

  1. Right-click a VM in the tree and choose Configuration Management > Create Snapshot.
  2. In the Take Snapshot dialog, complete the fields as required:
    • An identifying name (required).
    • A description that differentiates between similarly named snapshots (optional).
    • Enable Capture Memory if you want to capture the memory of the VM (optional).
    • Enable Quiesced if you want to pause running processes on the guest operating system so that file system contents are in a known consistent state when the snapshot is taken (applies only to VMs that are powered on).
  3. Click OK.

    The number of snapshots and the oldest snapshot date appears on the Details pane for the VM if you have selected those properties for display.

Revert VM snapshots

Access:

Views > Inventory > Infrastructure or Applications

Available to:

Administrator, All Operator Levels of Access Rights

  1. Right-click a VM in the Inventory tree and choose Configuration Management > Manage Snapshots.
  2. In the Manage Snapshots dialog, select an older snapshot in the tree.
  3. Click Go To.
  4. In the Confirm Go To Snapshot dialog, click OK.

    The details of the selected snapshot are available in the right-hand pane.

Delete VM snapshots

Deleting one or all snapshots may affect shared VM services. For more information, see VM Sharing.

Access:

Views > Inventory > Infrastructure or Applications

Available to:

Administrator, All Operator Levels of Access Rights

  1. Right-click a VM in the tree and choose Configuration Management > Manage Snapshots.
  2. In the Manage Snapshots dialog, do one of the following:
    • To delete one snapshot:
      1. Select a snapshot in the directory tree.
      2. Click Delete to remove the snapshot from inventory.
      3. In the Confirm Delete Snapshot dialog, click OK to confirm the deletion.
    • To delete all snapshots:
      1. Click Delete All.
      2. In the Confirm Delete All Snapshots dialog, click OK to confirm the deletion.