According VSS best practices (based on VMware best practices), the maximum life for a VM snapshot should be 72 hours.
Side effects of running with snapshots
- Decreased performance if there are too many delta files in a chain (caused by having too many snapshots).
- Decreased performance if delta files become too large.
- Cannot increase Virtual Disk size while snapshots are active.
- Delta files can grow to the same size as the original base disk file: a virtual machine's provisioned storage size can grow to ( its original size ) multiplied by ( the number of snapshots ).
Requesting a Snapshot
To request a snapshot for your VM, please use one of the following methods:
- Use the VSS Portal - Request Virtual Machine Snapshot
- Use the VSS Command Line Interface
- Use the ITS Private Cloud RESTful API
Reverting to a Snapshot
To revert a VM to (or from) a specific snapshot, please use one of the following options:
- Use the VSS Command Line Interface
- Use the ITS Private Cloud RESTful API
- Send an email to vss(at)eis.utoronto.ca
Deleting a Snapshot
To delete a snapshot for your VM, please use one of the following methods:
- Use the VSS Command Line Interface
- Use the ITS Private Cloud RESTful API
- Send an email to vss(at)eis.utoronto.ca
Consolidate Disks
To consolidate VM disks, please use one of the following options:
- Use the VSS Command Line Interface
- Use the ITS Private Cloud RESTful API
- Send an email to vss(at)eis.utoronto.ca
Recommended Reading
- Understanding virtual machine snapshots in VMware ESXi and ESX (VMware KB Article 1015180)
- Best practices for virtual machine snapshots in the VMware environment (VMware KB Article 1025279)
- How to consolidate disk snapshots (VMware KB article 2003638)
vSphere client: right click on the VM name, go to "Snapshots", choose "Consolidate".
vSphere Web client: click "Actions" tab, go to "All vCenter Actions", go to "Snapshots", choose "Consolidate".