topic Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ? in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

lse123 — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:32:58 GMT

I have the VMware Workstation Pro 17.x in 3 PCs,

But also, in another PC Windows Pro 11, i am having the VMware Free Player 17.x, how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

RDPetruska — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:58:20 GMT

Manually backup. Personally, I simply zip up each VM's folder and append the date to the name of the zip file. That way I keep several known good working copies of a VM.

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

lse123 — Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:06:08 GMT

So, only VMware Workstation Pro has snapshot capability, the Vmware Player free hasn't, correct?

BTW snapshots where saved? In the same drive as the VM itself?

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

RDPetruska — Mon, 01 May 2023 11:59:33 GMT

@lse123 wrote:

So, only VMware Workstation Pro has snapshot capability, the Vmware Player free hasn't, correct?

BTW snapshots where saved? In the same drive as the VM itself?

Correct, the free Player does not have the functionality to create or manage snapshots. It *can* run a virtual machine which has a snapshot(s) taken.

Snapshots are created in the defined "working directory" which by default is the same folder as the rest of the virtual machine's files.

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

wila — Tue, 02 May 2023 22:13:11 GMT

Hi,

There's nothing wrong with @RDPetruska 's suggestion to manually create a backup of a VM.
It works fine.

An alternative is my backup software Vimalin (see my footer). It can be used either free or paid.
The main missing feature in the free version is that it doesn't allow you to schedule the backup to run automatically.
But you can still use it fine to either backup or restore a backup.

One of the things that Vimalin offers over a manual process is the ability to make a backup while the VM is running. This also works for VMware Player and is also available in the free version.
Only limitation at the moment is that that doesn't work for encrypted VM's.

--
Wil

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

lse123 — Thu, 04 May 2023 02:20:26 GMT

About Snapshots taken,

If having VMWARE WORKSTATION PRO 17.x, installed on system SSD C:/... And...

in a VM located in internal D:/ Data HDD and a VM located in external USB STICK

Snapshot taken where by default are get saved?

Can change this directory?

Can I setup saved in the location of VM itself?

Re: how backup or snapshot a VM in Free Player 17.x ?

wila — Thu, 04 May 2023 08:35:04 GMT

Hi,

Snapshots are by default taken in the same folder as the VM.
I'm not sure if you can change that folder, you probably can by setting the workingDir.
However it is not something I have experimented with recently, nor do I recommend it.
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/snapshots-in-a-different-location/td-p/1224397

Also not sure what kind of memory stick you are using to run your VM from. I've tried that in the past and it was pretty abysmal in both performance and reliability.
Perhaps it will work OK if the stick isn't a traditional one, but a SSD type of stick.

--
Wil