Disabling snapshots on a virtual disk

[Arkady]

Hello,

I need to disable snapshot creation on certain virtual disks on one VM.

Changed disk to "Independent" but still was able to create a snapshot.

Appreciate any advice.

Thank you,

Arkady

[a_p_]

Are you saying that even though the virtual disk has been set to independent-persistent a snapshot/delta disk was create for this specific virtual disk? Which files do you see in the VM's datastore after creating a snapshot?

André

[Arkady]

Andre,

Actually you are correct. VM is not running on snapshots files. The only snapshot file is  .vmsn file.

And snapshot manager indicates one snapshot

I excpected that snapshot will not be allowed at all.

Am I correct?

[rcporto]

Another way to disable snapshot to a specific VM is through the configuration parameters snapshot.maxSnapshots, take a look VMware KB: Creating a virtual machine snapshot fails with the error: A general system error occurred: Exceeded the m…

[jamesarmstrong1]

This is the correct response to the question asked,

note this will impact the use of any 3rd party backup solution from being able to back up the and also prevent the vm from being able to use snapshot technology from the vcenter. 

[a_p_]

I excpected that snapshot will not be allowed at all.

Setting one of the VMs virtual disks to independent-persistent doesn't deactivate snapshots for good. It may still be necessarily that snapshots for other virtual disks are still required/expected.

André

[Arkady]

The VM I am testing with has only one disk.

[a_p_]

The way snapshots are handled is the same, regardless of whether your VM has one or many virtual disks. It's not only the disks, but also the VM's configuration and its active memory (in case of a powered on VM) which is included in a snapshot.

André

[balarajugopinat]

In the virtual machine settings editor, you can disable snapshots and set the virtual machine to revert to a snapshot when you power off. The following sections describe these options.

Disabling Snapshots

VMware Workstation speed and response times are improved when snapshots are disabled. However, all changes made to a virtual machine are permanent and you cannot restore an earlier state.

To disable snapshots, go to VM > Settings > Options > Snapshots.

• If no snapshots exist for the selected virtual machine, you can disable snapshot functionality by selecting Disable snapshots.

• If one or more snapshots exist for the selected virtual machine, the Disable snapshots option is disabled. If you want to disable snapshot functionality, you must first delete all snapshots for the current virtual machine. Refer to Deleting a Snapshot.

Revert to a Snapshot When Powering Off

To set the virtual machine to revert to a snapshot when you power off, go to VM > Settings >Options > Snapshots. You have the following options when you power off a virtual machine that has a snapshot:

• Just power off — powers off the virtual machine without any change to its snapshots. This is the default setting.

• Revert to snapshot — reverts to the virtual machine's parent snapshot, that is, the parent snapshot of the current You Are Here position. With this setting, a virtual machine always starts in the same state. Reverting to the snapshot discards changes. For example, an instructor may need to discard student answers for a computer lesson when a virtual machine is powered off at the end of class.

• Take a new snapshot — takes a new snapshot of the virtual machine state after it is powered off. This is useful to preserve milestones automatically. The snapshot is displayed in the snapshot manager. The name of this snapshot is the date and time the virtual machine was powered off. The description is "Automatic snapshot created when powering off."

• Ask me — asks what you want to do with a snapshot each time you power off.