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  • 1.  snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 07:16 AM

    Hi guys just want some info on snapshots.

    during my test setup of my first VM.

    i have created snapshots and now have 5 in total for one VM.

    My question is this.

    Now i guess this is a great idea, but how many can you have?

    Now this must take up space. where and how much.

    Just wanting to know to see if thier is a limit to how many depending on size, if so where do i look out for this.

    many thanks neo



  • 2.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 07:22 AM

    Hi,

    I guess your snapshot will be limited by block size, ie 1MB = 256G

    Why do you have 5 snapshots? Please bear in mind that snapshots are not backups. It's intended use is for the user to test a feature/update and then delete the snapshot if things went ok, or rollback if it failed.



    VCP3/VCP4/VTSP/VSP/MCTS: Virtualization



  • 3.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 07:59 AM

    thanks

    well the 5 snapshots are of different states of software.

    so where do the snapshots live?

    And if they are not backup then whats the point.

    lets say i do some thing drastic on the 5th snapshot for testing and delete a registry file on purpose.

    the restart pc and get the blue screen of death. Great thats what IVE done.

    But in reality if that were to happen. if i went back to snapshot before are you saying that would not put it back working.

    is not there for a backup of system state. or am i missing the whole point here.



  • 4.  RE: snapshots
    Best Answer

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 08:09 AM

    Hi,

    The snapshots reside in the VMs directory.

    Please bear in mind that snapshots cause performance issues. A snapshots grows every 16MB, when it grows it creates a scsi reservation on the LUN, "pausing" every other VM operation to that LUN.

    Yes, you're using it for the right reason. It's intended use is to test a new feature/version etc, but after the feature/version is validated as successful or non-successful the snapshot should be removed or go-back and do it again.



    VCP3/VCP4/VTSP/VSP/MCTS: Virtualization



  • 5.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 08:36 AM

    so backups.

    are we talking about the data thats stores in my documents.

    my pictures etc.

    does the snapshot keep this?

    What have people implemented for their backups of VMs.

    can we use say one of these external backup sites like LIVEDRIVE to back up VMs on a host?



  • 6.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 08:52 AM

    Well, you can take a snapshot and backup the VM meanwhile and then delete the snapshot. But the snapshot itself is not a backup.

    The snapshot contains all changes from the point of where you created it. All blocks, files etc.

    Not sure what LIVEDRIVE is, but alot of backup engines creates a snapshot, takes a backup of the VM and deletes the snapshot after a successful backup.



    VCP3/VCP4/VTSP/VSP/MCTS: Virtualization



  • 7.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 01:26 PM

    can the snap shot manager take an automatic snapshot on a routine basis.

    say once a week.

    or is it only a manual thing.

    Oh and can we tell snap shot to live in a different drive location than the root.



  • 8.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 01:29 PM

    Yes, you can schedule snapshots. (If you have vCenter what I know).

    Yes, you can change it. But it is not recommended at all.

    See this link for how: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002929



    VCP3/VCP4/VTSP/VSP/MCTS: Virtualization



  • 9.  RE: snapshots

    Posted Jul 28, 2010 02:08 PM

    thanks nice one.